Trade Unions and LO LO3977

Bruce Wilson (zbruce@minyos.xx.rmit.EDU.AU)
Fri, 1 Dec 1995 21:33:48 +1100 (EDT)

[Bruce is following up his own intro post LO3640 --Your host]

Thanks to those who replied both publicly and privately to my message a
few weeks ago regarding both the lack of discussion about the role of
unions in relation to LO matters and to issues of training and
productivity.

With respect to the link between trade unions and LOs, I was interested in
the diversity of responses and of people's experience. A number of
messages told of positive stories but there seemed to be an underlying
sense that unions were more likely to be blockers rather than
facilitators, although this was by no means necessarily the case. In many
cases this is understandable because unions are attempting to protect
people's jobs and livelihoods in an environment where rapid change makes
them rather vulnerable.

Most of work at URCOT is framed in the space between management and union
interests and I have become convinced that once the issue of fear is
addressed and allayed (whether through a formal agreement or not), unions
have a great capacity to be very positive forces for learning within an
organisation. I could give a number of examples of how this can occur, but
I think that the major point is that unions are often closer to the people
who are responsible for doing much of the work and can provide a very
effective vehicle for articulating workers' perspectives on difficulties
with current production processes. Secondly, they can provide an
organisational structure within an organisation for harnessing diverse
points of view and bringing together a reasonably coherent (albeit
sometimes a majority) point of view. This can in fact greatly simplify the
task of management in getting clear messages about how they handling
change processes and their likely effectiveness. Where it works
effectively, this democratic aspect of unions activities in itself can
provide extremely illuminating insights into the different perspectives
which management and workers have on their work and on change, and what
will be needed for them to become aligned more closely.

I hope that Andy Rowe is right that more people are beginning to explore
the possibilities in the trade union's role, and to explore how the
democratic organisation 'within' the enterprise can assist learning to
flourish, and to be shared.

--
Bruce Wilson
URCOT
Level 1, 171 Latrobe Street
Melbourne. Australia.
PH. 613 9663 4555 Fax 613 9663 4443
Bruce Wilson <zbruce@minyos.xx.rmit.EDU.AU>