Industrial Democracy in Zimbabwe

Unions could hinder these principles by disagreeing with the changes management wants to implements. Things like learning multiple jobs may incite the union to ask for more wages. Companies may want to bring in machines to replace humans and the union may not like it. The unions could communicate negativity to the workers to make them dissatisfied with change.

This essay will look at various methods that have been used in the historical and modern context to give employees ‘voice’ which include Voluntarism, Trade Unions (TU’s) and

Workers rights is not a usual topic in this day and age. Many people say that we have crossed that hump and it is not worry because of all of the progress that we have made. This is not true, many are denied these rights. A factory in Juarez fired 90 workers who were trying to form a union to get better rights(Document F). It is not a privilege to be able to form a union, it is a right of any worker to be able to form one. The are on the forefront of achieving change in the lives of people who don’t have a voice. It is crucial for them to have one to combat factories, a factory worker described her factory as, “the factory culture oppressive and demoralizing” (Document D). This is not far for the workers who work day in and day out on a wage

The idea of industrial democracy is not new. Before the industrial era under feudalism, enterprises were small and every enterprise had a family spirit between the owner and the worker who worked together and there was a direct and paternalistic consultation between the two. However with time the industrial revolution started and the sizes of the enterprises and the numerical strength of the workers also grew larger and larger and it was not possible for the owners to have direct and informal consultation with the workers. The employers also started feeling less responsible for those who worked for them and the workers were regarded as one of the factor of production. The old paternalistic attitude towards their workers gave away to the mechanization

As I got older, the knowledge that my father negotiated with his very own employers in order to ensure that his coworkers would also reap the benefits the entire union fought for affected me on personal a level; to know that the man who drove me to school and bought for me school supplies each year also carried a responsibility to his co-workers made me rather proud. However, despite the fact that I grew up the daughter of a Union Steward, I also grew up as a teenager in today’s society: one that no longer suffers from such rampant corruption that induced misfortunes such as illegal instances of child labor: a calamity also solved by a committee aiming to better working standards. My view of labor has always been through rose-tinted glasses thanks to modern times; I really only knew of the exploits that my father had experienced from what he told me, forms recounting various union related news lying in heaps on the dinner table, and snippets on the news or the lightly-touched upon topics in my Consumer’s Education

The history of trade and industrial union has in the past year been very powerful and proficient when influencing members, employers and politicians. Recently, they have evolved to become less powerful and influential. This is because of the major relapse of the membership of unions and also the government disparaging trade unions in the area of workplace relations. Some governments marginalized those unions in order to significantly reduce the role played by unions by reorienting the relations among and between the employers and the employees.

In this essay, Richard Wolff discusses the importance of changing the “who and why of key economic decision making” (3). In our current system, large corporations’ major shareholders and the boards of directors they elect typically make key decisions in a business. These decision makers make up a few small portion of the population, which often leads to the marginalization of certain groups of people. Instead of this top-down approach that has created inequality, this system proposes worker self-directed enterprises (WSDEs). WSDEs reorganize enterprises and allow “workers to become their own bosses” (3). In this system, employees of enterprises would be responsible to divide all the labors to be performed, determine what is to be produced, and decide on the use and

If workers persist in voting for union representation, all they have earned is the right to bargain. Firms can then stall, evade, drag out the negotiations, and make sure things go nowhere. (Sinyai, 2009). This can lead to bigger problems for the workers because the longer they are out of work the longer they go without pay. However I think that it is important to have labor unions to represent workers that have no political say in the work place, in the private as well as the public work force, workers should have the choice to be a part of a union if they choose to

Employers initially resisted unions as they were seen as a ‘tool of worker power’, and some countries even banned the groups all together (Baoill 2011). Although these restraints have been lifted, restrictions and guidelines have been put in place by government bodies to govern union activity; and employees internationally have the right to form unions (Baoill 2011).

"Labor market" can be defined as the mechanism in which workers compete for jobs and employers compete for workers. In a labor market, wages, benefits and responsibilities of workers are bought and sold. Unlike traditional markets however, labor is not a good that can be differentiated by conventional rules of supply and demand. While workers are the suppliers and employers are the buyers, overall supply cannot be manufactured as people only have a limited amount of time in a day. Additionally, companies are strong and can often directly manipulate the market by setting strict labor rules, triggering potential reductions in any supply side

The mandate of ILO includes the abolishment of forced labour and child labour, establishing the right to organize collect bargaining, and the recognized right to equality (Howard, 2002). The ILO oversees the implementation of established human rights by subscripted governing bodies. Furthermore, the ILO promotes the participation of workers in trade unions to encourage the equal division of decision-making power amongst workers and employers. Unions aid to combat oppressive powers in terms of downsizing and wages. Unions are responsible for increased wages, improved working conditions, and a reduction in job related insecurity (Law Commission of Canada, 2004). The use of unions is primarily concentrated in well develop countries such as Canada. Undeveloped countries suffers from an overall lack of adherence to recognized human rights and minimal union involvement. The globalization of unions would help to prevent the exploitation of labour markers in undeveloped countries. In the Canadian labour market, the re-distribution of power at the workplace has allowed the worker to oppose unjust policies and improve work

Baird, W. C (2012): Government-Sector Unionism and Human Rights: Springer Science Business Media: http://dx.doi.org/ DOI 10.1007/s12142-012-0237-z

Labour law in the Caribbean and Jamaica in particularly has traditionally been shaped by social, economic and political influences Goolsaran (2005). Over the past 100 years, its major challenge has been its response to social and political demands

The labor movement began during the industrial revolution and exists because of worker-employer relationships and working conditions, thus providing the landscape for labor power (Mahutga). Labor power can be broken down into associational power and structural bargaining power. Mahutga’s Lecture on Globalization and Labor builds on Beverly Sliver 's argument on the Forces of Labor and Tamara Kay 's argument on Labor Transnationalism and Global Governance about what Labor market power and Labor Transnationalism mean as regards labor on a global scale (Mahutga, Kay). Is it creating better standards for the working and living conditions of workers? Associational power results in collective workers ' ability to unionize and organize to present one opposing voice. Structural bargaining power results from the workers ' place in the economic system,

Besides, power imbalance between employer and employee in the workplace seems to be unavoidable. As noted by Wilkinson et al. (2014), employees are citizens who have the right to be informed and consulted; therefore, the aim of employee voice is to communicate with management and express employees’ concerns about their work situation. Nevertheless, in recent years, decreasing union density has gradually shifted the form of voice in most organisations and countries from collective and unionized channels to direct and individualized mechanisms (Wilkinson et al., 2014).