Shop Stewards Research Articles

Governing the factory: microhistories of the present

ABSTRACT Microhistory is an established form of cultural history but marginal to management and organization history. Methodologically, microhistory searches out moments and practices that are meaningful to participants but deeply strange to us. Such peculiar moments are subjected to intense scrutiny to understand how they were meaningful to participants. Understanding the extraordinary becomes the portal to the cultural commonplace. Michel Foucault’s genealogies of modern disciplinary power deployed microhistorical methods to render their meaning and their strangeness visible. Microhistory’s innovative method often remains implicit in narratives. This paper demonstrates the analytical value of microhistory to management and history by considering two events separated by four decades in an aerospace factory. In the first event, the factory halted production to celebrate New Year’s Eve in 1953. In this world turned upside down the factory was under the temporary authority of the workers. The second event, some forty years later, involved the dismissal of a shop steward for flouting managerial authority and his refusal to identify as an enterprising individual responsible for his work cell’s competitiveness. Management history and organization theory can be enriched by deploying microhistory’s techniques of intense interrogation of moments that confound our assumptions. Microhistory’s ascending analysis dislodges any temptation to read organizational practices and cultures from the boardroom down.

Barriers and Challenges Faced by Women Shop Stewards in Two Major South African Trade Unions

There are fewer women shop stewards than men shop stewards in South Africa, which can be attributed to existing barriers and challenges. A need arose to investigate these obstacles. The study was qualitative and exploratory. Two themes emerged from the interviews we conducted, each with various sub-themes. The findings revealed barriers such as existing relationships, lack of nomination and not being elected if nominated as well as challenges such as the negative perception of women’s emotionality and a desire to become mothers, a general lack of support and victimisation. These barriers and challenges make it difficult for women to become shop stewards and, if they do, to be effective. According to South African labour legislation, equality should be encouraged in all roles. Women should be motivated to become shop stewards and offered support, not only by the trade unions through policies such as reserved seats for women in union leadership, women-only conferences and workshops and the funding of women’s initiatives, but also by employers, fellow women members and society. This study provides valuable information for industrial relations in South Africa and worldwide.

Types of shop stewards in a South African higher education institution and their varying challenges

ABSTRACT The main role of shop stewards, whether part-time or full-time, is to act as workplace representatives for trade unions. However, they face several challenges while fulfilling their roles, more specifically shop stewards in the higher education sector due to marginalisation and politicisation in the sector. This study employs qualitative research methods to explore these challenges and proposes effective solutions for shop stewards. The study involved interviews with 15 shop stewards from a higher education organisation. After analysing the data, the findings revealed that part-time shop stewards get challenged by role overload and face the risk of career suicide. On the other hand, full-time shop stewards are challenged by the prolonged working hours. Similarly, both types of shop stewards experience work-family and interpersonal conflicts. South African labour legislation needs to be relooked at to accommodate the dual roles of part-time shop stewards and reduce the hostility they encounter from line managers or employers. Moreover, shop stewards need to develop on self-and others’ awareness skills, and create own awareness with workplace policies so that they carefully navigate between their two roles without any major ramifications like disciplinary hearings. These findings provide new information on shop stewards challenges by type in the higher education sector.

Once more on the rank and file – union bureaucracy interplay: Mining unionism in Australia’s Pilbara region

The trade union bureaucracy debate has significant implications for both analysis and union strategy. Recently receiving renewed academic attention, this debate centres around whether there is a dichotomy between rank-and-file workers and full-time union officials, and whether these officials – the trade union bureaucracy – tend towards industrial conservatism. The case study of labour relations in the Pilbara iron ore industry in the north of Western Australia 1965–1986 enriches our analysis of the trade union bureaucracy by viewing its role in the class struggle over a number of decades, in varying contexts of union development, union power and union decline. Throughout this entire period, there was significant conflict between the bureaucracy and rank and file. The remoteness of the Pilbara region, and workers’ industrial militancy makes it an extreme case suited to unveiling insights on the nature of the trade union bureaucracy. The Australian focus broadens a largely British debate. This article also offers a greater consideration of the role of full-time shop stewards’ convenors than has occurred previously. Finally, the trade union bureaucracy theory illuminates our understanding of this period in Pilbara labour history.

Protection of shop stewards in transfers of undertakings: Danish supreme court ruling of 30 january 2024: Transfer of undertakings directive article 6; Danish transfer of undertakings act section 4

A new ruling from the Danish Supreme Court gives perspective to Article 6 of Directive 2001/23/EC (ToU Directive). The ruling concerns the criteria for the continued function and protection of employee representatives under section 4(1) and (2) of the Danish ToU Act and Article 6(1) and (2) of the ToU Directive. At EU level, there is very little case law concerning Article 6 of the ToU Directive. One CJEU ruling was handed down in case C-151/09, in which the Court interpreted the concept of ‘autonomy’ in Article 6(1). The comment on the Danish Supreme Court ruling discusses the interpretation of the criteria for the continued function of shop stewards in a situation where the transferee is not covered by a collective agreement. The Eastern High Court assessment revolved around the lack of collective agreement as the basis for the function of the shop steward. The Supreme Court changed this, and instead reiterated that the criteria for the continued function of the shop steward is the preservation of the ‘autonomy’ or ‘independence’ of the transferred entity. The Danish ruling aligns with the wording of the EU Directive, but the Court did not interpret how to assess whether ‘the independence’ is preserved. In this regard, the CJEU ruling in C-151/09 is still the main source of interpretation. The Danish ruling continues to interpret the scope of the continued employment protection of the shop steward, in the situation where the function is not continued, as protected under Article 6(2) of the ToU Directive. The Supreme Court arrived at a solution whereby the employment protection continues for a period after the cessation of the functions as shop steward, which ceased at the date of transfer, until the end of the individual and extended notice period of the shop steward. Still, quite a number of questions on Article 6(1) and (2) concerning the function and protection of shop stewards in transfers of undertakings remain unanswered.

Different but Synergistic Effects of Union and Manager Leadership on Member Job Satisfaction.

Existing research has tended to overlook the diverse roles of union leadership in contributing to member attitudes. Drawing on the social information processing theory, this study examines how union leaders' (shop stewards) service-oriented leadership relates to member job satisfaction. To clarify the mechanism underlying this relationship, this study focuses on union instrumentality as a mediator. The research also examines managers' ethical leadership as a conditional factor in the relationship between union leaders' service-oriented leadership and member job satisfaction through union instrumentality. To test our hypothesis, this study analyzed the results of a survey of 603 respondents from two branches of the Korean Metal Workers' Union. The findings of this study indicate that union instrumentality is the link between service-oriented union leadership and member job satisfaction. Additionally, the strength of the mediated relationship between the aforementioned factors through union instrumentality is contingent on managerial ethical leadership. This study contributes to an integrated understanding of the way in which service-oriented union stewards and ethical managers influence member job satisfaction through their leadership.

Managing under austerity: a qualitative study of management–union relations during attempts to cut labour costs in three South African public hospitals

PurposeIn this paper, the authors examine the strategies used to reduce labour costs in three public hospitals in South Africa, which were effective and why. In the democratic era, after the revelations of large-scale corruption, the authors ask whether their case studies provide lessons for how public service institutions might re-make themselves, under circumstances of austerity.Design/methodology/approachA comparative qualitative case study approach, collecting data using a combination of interviews with managers, focus group discussions and interviews with shop stewards and staff was used.FindingsManagement in two hospitals relied on their financial power, divisions between unions and employees' loyalty. They lacked the insight to manage different actors, and their efforts to outsource services and draw on the Extended Public Works Program failed. They failed to support staff when working beyond their scope of practice, reducing employees' willingness to take on extra responsibilities. In the remaining hospital, while previous management had been removed due to protests by the unions, the new CEO provided stability and union–management relations were collaborative. Her legitimate power enabled unions and management to agree on appropriate cost cutting strategies.Originality/valueFinding an appropriate balance between the new reality of reduced financial resources and the needs of staff and patients, requires competent unions and management, transparency and trust to develop legitimate power; managing in an authoritarian manner, without legitimate power, reduces organisational capacity. Ensuring a fair and orderly process to replace ineffective management is key, while South Africa grows cohorts of competent managers and builds managerial experience.

Shop Steward–Management Relationships: A Predictor of Employee–Organisation Relationships

In this South African study, I aimed to identify the respective influence of human resources practices, procedural fairness, the shop steward–management relationship, and the employee–supervisor relationship on the state of the employee’s relationship with the organisation. The method was quantitative and cross-sectional. A total of 660 production employees from 14 organisations in the value chain of the automotive industry in the Nelson Mandela Bay area of South Africa supplied responses. The relationships between variables were determined through structural equation modelling. Although the study was a cross-sectional study, the use of structural equation modelling points to cause and effect relationships. The best-fit model revealed that the dominant predictor of the employees’ perception of their relationship with the organisation was their perception of the quality of the relationship between shop stewards and management. Trade unions as trusted leaders may fulfil a very important role in mediating workplace relationships, especially in highly unequal societies with deep social divisions. The pivotal importance of the employees’ perception of the shop steward–management relationship creates an onus on both management and trade unions to work to move this relationship from adversarial to constructive and effective. The results may be generalised to highlight the importance of employee representation, whether unionised or non-unionised, at the workplace level. As leaders in the workplace, employee representatives provide the mechanism to mediate relationships, build trust and create strong employee–supervisor and employee–organisation bonds which may have a positive impact on individual and organisational performance.

La solidarité et ses limites: La CFDT et les travailleurs dans “les années 68”

La solidarité et ses limites: La CFDT et les travailleurs dans “les années 68”

Cross-Movement Strike Actions: Works Council and Communist Groups at the Bremer Vulkan Shipyard in the 1970s

Abstract Beginning in the early 1970s, various communist groups decided to become active at the Bremer Vulkan shipyard. The article shows that they did not immediately go for confrontation to older trade union structures but were willing to change the movement from within. With the support of a wildcat strike at the shipyard in 1973, the New Left raised the question of alternatives. As a result, the Social Democratic works council chairman resigned because of a lack of support from his colleagues, and in 1974 some communists were elected to the works council. I argue that there was no division into old and new but rather a diverse field of actors: a disparate group of workers with different occupational status, and political approaches; works councils and shop stewards with close ties to Bremen’s Social Democracy; and various communist groups that pursued very different policies and goals, sometimes joined forces, but basically fought each other—especially in conflicts—rather than taking joint action.

"The Fly in the Ointment" or Simply a "Born-Again Shop Steward" Defending Workers’ Rights to Fair Representation? – The Case of Msunduzi Municipality v Hoskins 2017 38 ILJ 582 (LAC) in Retrospect

At a distance, the decision by the Labour Appeal Court in Msunduzi Municipality v Hoskins 2017 38 ILJ 582 (LAC) appears to be a typical case of dismissal for gross insubordination. However, upon closer examination Msunduzi brings to the forefront the conflict of interest between a senior employee's responsibilities as a HR manager and his controversial role in representing fellow employees who faced disciplinary charges at the municipality. Compared to the senior managers in the antecedent cases of Keshwar v SANCA 1991 12 ILJ 816 (IC) and IMATU v Rustenburg TLC 1999 20 ILJ 377 (LC), in the case at hand the managerial employee was no longer a member of a trade union. The hybrid role performed by Hoskins created tensions within management ranks and turned into a migraine for the newly appointed acting municipal manager. To cut to the chase, as an HR manager Hoskins was figuratively and literally "the fly in the ointment". His "forward approach" as a "born-again shop steward" went beyond chutzpah. Therefore, the Labour Appeal Court cannot be faulted for upholding Hoskins' dismissal. Msunduzi compels intense engagement with the all-encompassing duty of mutual trust and confidence, the breakdown of the trust relationship, the intolerability of a continued employment relationship, "non-reinstatable conditions" as embodied in section 193(2)(a)-(d) of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 and the effect of post-dismissal misconduct on the availability of reinstatement. Also arising are discrete questions concerning insubordination and insolence, conflict of interest and incompatibility.

THE MANTLE OF THE SHOP STEWARD IS NOT AN EASY ONE TO WEAR NUMSA obo Motloba v Johnson Control Automotive SA (Pty) Ltd (2017) 38 ILJ 1626 (LAC) Revisited

NUMSA obo Motloba v Johnson Controls Automotive SA (Pty) Ltd (2017) 38 ILJ 1626 (LAC) (Motloba) raises four discrete, yet interrelated issues that require close examination. The first relates to the constitutional and statutory protection accorded to trade union membership and activities. The second engages the exercise of organisational rights in the workplace. With the demise of the duty to bargain, created to breathe life into collective bargaining and provide the lifeblood to recognised trade unions in the workplace. The third brings to the surface the recurrent headache for management concerning the dual and contradictory role of the shop stewards on the shop floor. The point of immediate relevance is that, while conducting union activities, a shop steward in theory, at least, operates on equal footing with management. It merits emphasising that the theory becomes murky when the union official is also an employee. (Re Workers’ Compensation Board and Workers’ Compensation Board Employees Union (1990) 15 LAC (4th) 332, 335). Put simply, “the ordinary rules applicable to the normal employer-employee relationship are then somewhat relaxed” (FAWU v Haverstime Corporation (Pty) Ltd [2007] BLLR 638 (LC) par 42 (Haverstime)). Be that as it may, a shop steward is still an employee of a company with the usual obligation to conform to all workplace rules.Fourth, and possibly most important, shop stewards’ propensity for an “anything goes approach” in their dealing with management. The contentious issue encountered here concerns the tendency of shop stewards to exceed the bounds of acceptable conduct in fulfilling their representational responsibilities. As a result, trade union representatives have been disciplined and in extreme cases dismissed for misconduct. Accordingly, the marginal line separating insubordination and insolence, the interconnected acts of intimidation and assault, disruptive conduct in the course of collective bargaining process, misconduct at disciplinary or arbitration proceedings as well as the breakdown of the trust relationship and intolerability occasioned by dishonesty deserve critical scrutiny.

Un syndicalisme bridé. Expériences ordinaires de délégué·es dans des mondes du travail précaires

Alors que les travaux concernant les effets de la précarisation du salariat sur le syndicalisme s’intéressent surtout aux conditions d’émergence de mobilisations collectives, cet article s’intéresse plutôt aux dimensions ordinaires de l’activité de délégué·es issu·es de trois secteurs précarisés du marché de l’emploi (grande distribution, maisons de retraite, sous-traitance industrielle), rencontré·es au cours d’une enquête ethnographique menée dans deux unions locales de la Confédération générale du travail (CGT). Grâce au décentrement que nous proposons en nous focalisant sur les formes routinières de l’action syndicale, nous mettons tout d’abord en évidence l’importance des tâches à caractère scolaire qui constituent le travail militant, ce qui nous amène à souligner les difficultés que rencontrent ces délégué·es en raison de leur manque de capital culturel. Dans un second temps, nous expliquons que ces engagements s’avèrent relativement coûteux et faiblement rétribués, si bien qu’il est difficile pour les délégué·es de tenir leurs responsabilités. À travers ces différents axes d’analyse, nous montrons que des mondes du travail précaires sont synonymes de formes précaires d’engagement syndical, si bien que l’on assiste moins à un véritable renouveau syndical qu’à la constitution d’un syndicalisme bridé, en marge des lieux historiques d’implantation militante où évoluent d’abord les fractions stables des classes populaires.

Goin’ to the Chapel and we’re …..

….going to a Union meeting. When Trade Unionism was still illegal in this country, non-conformist chapels were often used as places to gather where the Father of the Chapel (shop steward) could meet with the compositors. This title persists in ‘The Print’ even today although there are also now Mothers of the Chapel. I was reminded of this when I visited Christ Church, Southwark in London just around the corner from Tate Modern originally the Bankside Power Station and which the church’s shape resembles. One of the stained-glass windows portrays printing presses old and new. Printing and publishing had been a dominant industry in the area for over 200 years until printing moved on both geographically and technologically. Having been destroyed in the Blitz, Christ Church was rebuilt in 1958. But its most striking feature to an Occupational Physician has to be its stained-glass windows. There are two groups of windows. One from 1959 by Kenneth Bunton and one from 1984 by John Lawson commemorating the Church’s 25th Anniversary. Both highlight the life and times of its local people and trades.

Secrets, trust, and transparency: Navigating between influence and accountability as trusted intermediary

Secrecy is usually considered destructive to trust. However, people are often involved in conflicting social commitments in which transparency to one trustor may violate the trust of others. Georg Simmel suggests that secrecy can serve important social purposes; consequently, strategically balancing transparency and secrecy can be conducive to social cooperation and building intersubjective trust. This is particularly the case for trusted intermediaries tasked with building trust in multiple conflicting relations. In this study, we investigate how shop stewards actively navigate the transparency–secrecy nexus as trusted intermediaries to build trust and gain maximal influence over management decisions. The study is based on qualitative interviews with 29 shop stewards within the Danish care sector. Shop stewards depend on co-worker trust and transparency, whereas their influence on management requires secrecy and trust, which makes shop stewards vulnerable to criticism and mistrust from their co-workers. This study shows that transparency and secrecy are important trust work tools for creating and maintaining trust, processes that require efficient compartmentalisation of issues, roles, and contextual meaning in separate formal and informal spaces of collaboration with management to avoid co-worker suspicion or conflict with management.

Varieties of organised decentralisation across sectors in Denmark: A company perspective

The decentralisation of European collective bargaining has been subject to much research and IR modelling. However, these studies mainly focus on the implications for national and sectoral bargaining institutions and rarely include a company perspective. Based on cross-sectional representative survey data among managers and shop stewards in Denmark, this paper offers a fresh perspective on the recent decentralisation process. We explore if company-based bargaining structures are in place and whether local social partners have utilised these bargaining opportunities across distinct sectors after decades of decentralisation. Analytically, we seek inspiration from Visser's (2016) distinct forms of organised decentralisation and combine these with insights from the broader literature on IR and institutional change. We find that bargaining practices and institutions at company level depend on a combination of provisions for company-based wage bargaining within individual sector agreements and strong union-affiliated workplace representation.

Supply Chain Organizing as a Worker-led Strategy for Trade: A Case Study of Unite the Union

Abstract Global trade is often understood by trade union officials to be an abstract policy-level issue without a direct role for workers or shop floor influence. As the UK establishes an independent trade policy in the wake of Brexit, this article explores the concept of strategic supply chain organizing as the basis for a shop steward-led strategy to counter the industrial impact of trade. Based on interviews with Unite shop stewards and work with the union’s Research Department, this article explores efforts within Unite the Union, the largest private and public sector trade union in the UK and Ireland, to advance such a strategy through the union’s activist shop stewards and democratic structures. While considering the limitations of existing union approaches to trade issues as well as the challenges of developing such a strategy within the context of a large multisector trade union, the article puts forward a methodology of applied industrial research rooted in the principles of workers’ inquiry and supply chain solidarity. Taken together, the article considers the potential for new collaboration between the union’s shop stewards within supply chains to more fully realize their latent collective industrial power.

Privileged Precariat: White Workers and South Africa’s Long Transition to Majority Rule by Danelle van Zyl-Hermann

<i>Privileged Precariat: White Workers and South Africa’s Long Transition to Majority Rule</i> by Danelle van Zyl-Hermann

‘Not my task’: Role perceptions in a green transition among shop stewards in the Norwegian petroleum industry

In the petroleum-dependent Norwegian economy, climate change politics challenge the powerful petroleum industry, and Norwegian shop stewards in that industry find themselves in cross-pressures of representation and responsibility. In this article, we investigate what role trade unionists in the oil sector play and can play, in a green and just transition. We analyse data from six focus group interviews with shop stewards in the petroleum industry. By engaging with theories of roles and role perceptions in light of labour agency, we fill a theoretical gap in the conceptualization of workers’ collective agency. Respondents describe themselves as active part of a green transition in their capacity as workers, but the role of shop stewards neither seem to offer tools nor a mandate for representing environmental concerns: Climate change is not their task. Shop stewards respond to externally ascribed role expectations by insisting that primary agency resides with politicians, companies and consumers–and union leaders. Their reactive and ambiguous role interpretation can prove risky, as the employment outlook in the industry is changing radically and rapidly. Last, we find that there are both a need and potential for re-scripting shop stewards’ role that is active and relevant in the green transition.

Performance Management Development System Challenges in the Public Hospitals in the Mpumalanga Province

Performance Management Development System (PMDS) is presumably a standout amongst the most challenged framework actualized in public service. It a vital for organization to develop a timeously grievance resolution matrix in order to enhance labor peace in the public service. This article highlights PMDS challenges in public hospitals in Mpumalanga Province. Again, the noteworthy foundation to performance management development framework in South African public sector. The problem statement, aims and objectives of the study, frame of reference, data collection method and data analyze thereof. The collected primary data was analyzed, interpreted and finally, the conclusions were drawn. The qualitative research configuration was embraced for this article. The purposive sampling was utilized and thirty-two respondents took an interest in the project. The participants were sampled from poll of government employees which includes hospital executives, employees and trade union shop stewards in Mpumalanga Province. It emerged from the findings that PMDS challenges were still as problem which remain unresolved. Recommendations advocate for sustainable permanent solution to the PMDS.