Publications

Godio, J.
Work organization and collective bargaining

Montevideo: Cinterfor/ILO, 2002
43 p. (Trade Unions and Training, 2)

 

(Full text only available in Spanish in pdf format)

 

The nineties, last decade of last century, was one of changes in macroeconomic policies in Latin American countries, and their enterprises reacted by applying defensive adjustment programmes. At present, many "lead" enterprises are developing new productive practices, tending to trim production, reduce the time of circulation of products in productive and commercial processes, etc. These enterprises find support in governments that have decided to promote insertion in the global economy, either through the neo-liberal conception of the export economy or by seeking ways to open up the economy and encourage exports with greater concern for the integrated development of national economies.

A substantial part of wage earners, classified from middle to upper, are located in this sector of "lead enterprises". Without these wage earners the trade union movement would have no strength because those wage earners are located in the strategic sectors of the economy. In this sector of lead enterprises the trade union movement is obliged to submit proposals when faced with the changes that occur in the labour relations system due to entrepreneurial strategies regarding productivity, competitiveness, quality and flexibility.

We are at present at a juncture characterised by commercial openness and competition in the context of formation of large economic systems. Therefore, industrial policy involves integrating competitive cores that may or may not develop within a single production line.

At an earlier time, labour relations stemmed from great concentrations of workers by branch of activity and their insertion in the local market. Because of this, agreements between employers and trade unions had a direct effect on whole branches of the national economy and on the expansion of consumption. At present, the new definition of competitive enterprises atomises the work force, weakening the homogeneous paths followed by workers both in the different branches and at the national level. At the same time, the organisation of labour changes in work centres and brings into play ever increasingly differentiated specific union claims in the enterprise. Therefore, the predominance of wage earners who are organised by branch of activity is replaced by representations of groups of wage earners of a lesser number but whose claims lie specifically within the enterprises. For this reason, the collective bargaining agreement at a "lead" level is diluted when faced with the problems of the enterprise and gives way, in practice as well as in theory, to articulated collective bargaining modes of behaviour.

In the present circumstances, trade unions must consider the set of basic instruments (training, participation, payment system and ergonomics) as a whole and must understand that the four instruments can serve to increase productivity at the cost of a greater exploitation of workers, or increase productivity by improving pay and working conditions. The concept of productivity is the scenario that is common to both the capitalist option, based on obtaining profits and the subjection of the workers to capital and on the other hand according to the standards of industrial democracy and the democratisation of labour. For the trade union, therefore, what must firstly be clear is that the objective of productivity is not automatically the same as the trade union objective which is to improve living and working conditions. This is where the bargaining space between enterprises and trade unions is located.

The purpose of this study is to highlight the central position that collective bargaining must assume under present circumstances as a transforming and democratic methodology for the administration of disputes. It endeavours to contribute, on the basis of concrete experience, to strengthening union players and the Social Dialogue, incorporating some concepts and tools that may be useful for analysing, designing and evaluating bargaining processes.

 

SUMMARY

Introduction: On the relationship between collective bargaining, transformed enterprises and new trade union policies

Chapter I The new world of enterprises

1. Changes in enterprises and in ways of working
2. Cooperation between enterprises and trade union restructuring
3. Changes in wage and labour policies
4. Transformations in enterprises and the new behaviour of units of wage earners
5. Changes in qualification and occupational structures
6. Challenges for trade unions in transformed enterprises

Chapter II Collective bargaining in Latin America

Chapter III A proposal for articulated collective bargaining

By way of conclusion: the meaning of socio-political trade unionism

 

 

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