Conflict at work Stephen Bach

Examine definitions and forms of conflict at work Analyse patterns of industrial action and strikes Discuss the causes and consequences of strikes Consider the future of strikes: - the end of strikes or different forms?

Open ended/indeterminate nature of the employment relationship Sociology: labour process structured antagonism Law: employment contract= management authority/employee obligation Psychology: Breach of psychological contract

In the minds of many industrial conflict has come to mean strikes ..But a true understanding of industrial strife.demands consideration of related less spectacular manifestations as well. It may even be suggested that the general object of study is not the labour dispute, the strike or the lock out, but the total range of behaviour and attitudes that express opposition and divergent orientations between industrial owners and managers on the one hand and working people and their organisations on the other.
Kornhauser, 1954: 12-13

Overt V. Covert Individual (e.g. Absenteeism) V. Collective action taken in support of a common grievance Proactive to improve working conditions, pay Defensive to protest against decisions that have been made Organised V. Unorganised

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Effort Pay Insecurity Working environment Management authority

Conflict of rights v. conflict of interests

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Police: Blue Flu; vehicles untrustworthy Airlines: refusing to smile at customers Hospital: refusal to fill in billing forms Call centres: redirect calls; hang up on customers University: - working to contract; no cover - refusal to hand in student marks Bossnapping

Any temporary suspension of normal working arrangements which is initiated unilaterally by either employees or management with the objective of exerting pressure in the determination of the employment relationship.
Salamon, 1998

Types of Industrial Action

Employees Sabotage Withdrawal of cooperation Work to rule Overtime ban Go Slow Strike Work-in/sit Resignation Lock-out Closure (threat) Dismissal Employers Provocation Withdrawal of cooperation Work to rule Withdrawal of overtime

Forms of Industrial Action

Turnover Absence-deviant Sabotage- spontaneous Pilferage- donkeys

Making out Absence- calculative Sabotage- utilitarian Pilferage- vultures

Strike Work to rule Sabotage-militant Pilferage-wolves

Unorganised Informal Individual

Organised Formal Collective

Source: Blyton and Turnbull, 2004

Misbehaviour consists of non complaint or counter productive practice that takes a wider variety of forms and have more varied motives (Ackroyd and Thompson, 2003) All those things that workers do at work but are not supposed to active practices to regain a level of control/autonomy at work

Appropriation of time Commitment Engagement Co-Operation Time Wasting Absence Compliance Time Perks

Appropriation of Work

Appropriation Appropriation of Identity of Product Perks Goal Identification

Work Activity Joking rituals Pilferage Sub cultures Fiddling Sex games Withdrawal Destructive & Sabotage

Effort Bargaining Soldiering

Denial Hostility

Turnover

Theft

Class/group solidarity

a temporary stoppage of work by a group of employees in order to express a grievance or enforce a demand (Hyman 1984)

Requirements for effective strikes Types of strike: - normal part of collective bargaining - breakdown in employment relations - challenging managerial authority Difference between countries and sectors

Includes:

number of stoppages number of workers involved number of working days lost

http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/studies/tn1004049s/ tn1004049s.htm

Working days lost through industrial action per 1,000 employees, annual average 20052009

Average UK Denmark France Germany Italy Portugal Spain Sweden EU (14) Average Australia Canada Japan USA OECD Average

Production 9 70 26 11 12 17 103 9 43 123 191 0 13 33

Service 32 5 4 4 31 13 43 41 18 19 178 0 15 22

Year 1979 1981 1984 1985 1987 1989 1991 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009

Working days lost (000) 29 474 4 266 27 135 6 402 3 546 4 128 761 415 235 242 525 499 157 755 455

Workers involved (000) 4 608 1 513 1 464 791 887 722 176 174 130 141 180 151 93 713 209

Stoppages 2 125 1 344 1 221 903 1 016 701 369 235 216 205 194 133 116 158 98

Source: Hale 2010; Labour Market Trends

1980
Manufacturing Strike action Non-strike action Either strike or non-strike action Private Services Strike action Non-strike action Either strike or non-strike action Public Sector Strike action Non-strike action Either strike or non strike action

1984 9 12 17

1990 4 7 10

1998 0 1 1

2004 * 2 2

19 16 26

3 3 6

5 3 7

2 3 3

2 * 1

1 2 2

15 19 26

31 24 38

31 8 34

3 2 5

9 7 14

Cause Pay rates Benefits Working Hours

1991 306 3 16

1998 147 18 2 55 2 14

2001 141 3 13 88 6 173

2006 77 475 4 167 2 16

2009 150 0 3 275 2 1

Redundancy 248 Union matters Working conditions Work allocation Disciplinary 4 66

62 56

16 28

79 23

5 9

20 3

Economic -Business cycle

Institutional -Bargaining structures (Clegg) -Legislative frameworks -Factors conducive to Industrial peace (Ross and Harman)

Industrial Action

Technological - Alienation (Blauner)

Social - Community integration (Kerr/Siegel) - Mobilisation theory power resources of trade unions) - Labour force composition

Level of unemployment: -lower levels =more bargaining power? Real wages/Inflation GDP growth/decline

Source: Kelly and Hamann, 2009 http://www.psa.ac.uk/2009/pps/kelly.pdf

No positive right to strike (legislation or constitution) immunities from common law removed immunity from some types of action redefinition of industrial disputes: - relate wholly or mainly to industrial matters Unions could be sued for unlawful activities Balloting provisions majority support in secret ballot Widening range of potential litigants

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Nov 2009 ballot -93% majority (80% turnout) - BA granted injunction - cabin crew taking redundancy were balloted Jan/Feb 10 81% supported industrial action - BA granted injunction May 2010 (overturned) - Issue: texts/emails sent by Unite to members Handing unions back to their members? Law increases or decrease the risks of strikes
Source: Prassl, 2011 Industrial Law Journal

Compositional effects Institutionalisation: - collective bargaining arrangements - mobilization theory Employer practice -increase in trust - growth of HRM voice mechanisms Globalisation/product market competition

Source: Ministry of Justice (2011) Employment Tribunals and EAT Statistics, 2010-11

Growth in Employment Tribunal claims -alternative form of conflict? Different issues involved? - underpayment of wages - unfair dismissal (n.b. tube dispute 2011) Different actors involved? - ET claims can be collective equal pay - reflect altered union strategies Remedies modest

Protests against (mainly Conservative) government policy

Source: http://www.psa.ac.uk/2009/pps/Kelly.pdf

Paul Mason (BBC) Greece: a new level of social crisis - June 2011

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13787199

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The graduate with disappointed expectations With access to social media e.g. linked in Yfrog Truth moves faster than lies Technology increases power of individual Information is networked/horizontal Organised labour is weak...but has a role Loss of fear among radicals No cold war to maintain the status quo Conventional political parties support austerity But....protest is shallow, fleeting....

See:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/paulmason/2011/02/twenty_reasons_why_its_kicking.html

Conflict an invariable part of the employment relationship...but strikes are rare Decline in strikes shifting balance of power Shift to cut-price/smarter industrial action Shift to general strikes: - economic conditions, political volatility and union exclusion