Management & Union Partnership
HR
MANAGEMENT AND UNION RELATIONSHIP.
Management & Union Partnership:
Management and Unions in the past have
always looked at each other as competitors (Dhal, 2015). In the context of the
modern-day it has been identified by many researches, that management and the
unions can gain more advantage working together than working against each other
(Rau, 2012). Most of the new
generation investors have opted to work with the unions to achieve a common
goal and it has proven to be productive (Meardi, 2007).
At the same time trade unions have begun
to shed their past robes and be practical and moved from distributive
bargaining to productivity bargaining. In some firms trade unions came to the
forefront of firm turnaround and even that union acquired quality recognition (Sundar, 2017). New union bodies
choose to co-operate with management by tapping its membership for
hard-to-access information about the work process and their preferences, as
well as to co-ordinate their work efforts and contributions in
pro-organisational ways (Addison & Belfield, 2004).
Partnership:
Margaret Prosser,
(2000) states that the changed industrial relations climate had opened the
possibility of ‘partnership’ and suggests that in the context of trade
unionism, partnership should be defined as a genuine relationship between
employers and unions, based upon mutual respect, mutual rights, and mutual
obligations.
R. Hyman, (2002)
suggesting that the pursuit of ‘partnership’ has recently become very popular, the
important focus has been the companies’ mutual gains. Here the emphasis is on a
joint interest of employer and employees in workplace competitiveness and
survival with unions agreement to changes in the production regime in return
for management commitment to guarantees of continued operation (Ramasamy, 2004).
Zainal Rampak, (2001)
stresses that issues such as workers’ rights, job security, social protection,
career development, education, training, safety and health must be addressed by
employers with trade unions, and these cannot be dealt with either in isolation
or an ad hoc basis.
Good practice and
benefits of partnership:
To maintain a good partnership between the
management and the unions, Kelly
Creighton (2018) explains that effective communication, joint training and
establishment of clear policies / regulations will help. This will benefit the
organisation with positive relationship with direct access to feedback of
employees and reputation of organisation as fair and honest (PEPSO,
2017). In Video 1, it is further
explained that working together improves job satisfaction and generates new
ideas.
Video 1: Benefits of Labour – Management collaboration.
(Source: Nyscseapartnership, 2011)
Also supporting the argument, Clyde
Riggins & Bernadette Braddy, (2021) explains the benefits of a partnership.
With reference to figure 1 it can be seen that both the organisation and unions
equally gains from the relationship.
Figure
1: Why Partner.
(Source:
Labour management initiatives, 2021)
The stronger the union presence and
solidarity in the organisation, the greater the union’s ability to rally the
employees to respond collectively with either a competitive or co-operative
focus (Pohler & Luchak, 2015).
Management should
understand and accept that “We are all in this together”, as strategic
partners. Management must address the legitimate grievances of unions and if
there are sacrifices to be made, they should be shared just as the fruits of
productivity should also be shared (Ramasamy, 2004).
References:
Addison,
J. & Belfield, C. (2004). ‘Union voice’. Journal of Labor Research,
25 (4). pp. 563-96.
Creighton, K. (2018)
The Benefits of working with labour unions as an HR professional, HR Management & Compliance.
Dhal,
M. (2015) HR Practices & Union Management Relationship on JSTOR.
Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24547011?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_
contents.
Hyman,
R. (2002) “The Future of Unions”, Just Labour, Vol. 1, 7-15.
Meardi,
G. (2007), “Multinationals in the New EU Member States and the Revitalization
of Trade Unions,” Debatte: Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern
Europe,15(2): 177-93.
PEPSO (2017) The Union Advantage : Unions and the
Response to Precarious Work Series.
Pohler,
D. & Luchak, A. (2015) ‘Are Unions Good or Bad for Organizations? The
Moderating Role of Management’s Response’, British Journal of Industrial
Relations, 53(3), pp. 423–459. doi: 10.1111/bjir.12042.
Prosser, M. (2001) “The Future of Trade
Unions and Industrial Relations in Great Britain and Germany”, University of
Birmingham, Hanover.
Ramasamy,
N. (2004) ‘Shaping the future of trade unions in a rapidly changing working
environment’, New Approaches to Wage Fixing in the Light of Globalization –
Competitiveness and Labour Flexibility, Selangor.
Rampak,
Z. (2001) “Employment concerns of the future”, Business Times. p.21
Rau,
L. (2012) ‘The diffusion of HR practices in unions’, Human Resource
Management Review, 22(1), pp. 27–42. doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2011.06.001.
Riggins, C. &
Braddy, B. (2021) Why Partner. Labour management initiatives [online].
Available at http://www.labormanagementinitiatives.org/why-partner/.
Accessed on 05th September 2021.
Sundar,
K. (2017) ‘HR and Trade Unions are they Incompatible? No!’, NHRD Network
Journal, 10(1), pp. 48–52. doi: 10.1177/0974173920170110.
The positive association between managerial support for union membership and employee trust in management can be interpreted in various ways. Management can influence employee perceptions of them for better or for worse through their engagement with unions.(Bryson, 2001)
ReplyDeleteKavan, yes it is a possibility that management can misuse this relationship. That is why the union leadership must be mind full when partnering up and keep in mind that unions is there to ensure betterment of the employee (Brown et al, 2015).
DeleteAgreed. Further, ,mutual cooperation, rather than oppositional activity, between unions and management is often taken as given, with debate focusing on the relative benefits for either party. Critics express concern that unions may become complicit with management prerogatives (Danford, 2014), thus reducing their ability to return benefits to members and in the longer term harming their ability to recruit new members, threatening their very existence.
ReplyDeleteNuwan even it has few down sides, many more advantages of the partnership between the union and management can be highlighted. They are, Employee satisfaction, Fewer turnovers, Easier change making, and Job security. Also through this partnership the Trade union can increase the wages and the benefits of its members through negotiation and can reduce the exploitation of the workers (Ostrowsky, 2005 ).
DeleteAgreed. Consumer courts have also affirmed the supremacy of consumer rights over the labour rights. Trade unions resorting to industrial
ReplyDeleteaction, such as strikes, and bands, which disrupt public services, are asked to compensate for the loss (Venkat Ratnam, 1998)
That is why this partnership between HR and Unions are important Khalid. Rather than resorting to industrial actions such as strikes, unions or the management can make use of the understanding they have about each other to resolve matters (Dhal, 2015).
DeleteI agree with your points, but I would add that, while union officials and management work together to run the firm, they compete for the workers' loyalty. However, in order for the organization to work properly, both management and the union must take the initiative to preserve a friendly relationship(Dhal, 2015).
ReplyDeleteThe friendly relationship is the new way forward. Specially with the younger generation of workers traditional union action will not quantify (Stanberry, 2011).
DeleteAgreed, Labor unions and human resources work together during negotiations and when executing the terms of a final agreement. Labor unions generally represent for the employees and HR represents the company, but this does not mean that they are necessarily at odds any more than employees and employers are. Instead, both are working to attain the best output possible for the employees and employer (Cook, 2020).
ReplyDeleteThank you for you incite Hemachandra. Yes working together to achieve the best out put is the new normal for management and unions in the future. Without the positive partnership going forward will be difficult for both parties (Hirsch & Seiner, 2018).
DeleteAgreed, successful business should able to build strong & productive relationship. Good working relationship can effortlessly in operation. If not, organization should need much resources & time resolve the problems( Leigh ,2019).
ReplyDeleteSamuddhi, good relationship will minimise the time for problem resolving due to the understanding nature of both parties. This will give productive returns to organisation as well as employees (Sharma, 2019).
Delete