Trade union now dominant hindrance to development
Ronald Mason
In 1938, a major good came forth in Jamaica; however, it was to lead to detriment by the time 2013 came around. Trade unions, necessary to protect workers from exploitative management, was born in 1938. The unions were born in the sugar plantations and on the port of Kingston. Persons like Sir Alexander Bustamante, Thossy Kelly, Ken Hill and others preached the dignity of labour. This was necessary for the emergence of self-confidence in a primarily illiterate workforce. By the time 2013 arrived, trade unions, though only 17 per cent of the labour force in numerical strength, are seeking to manage businesses. Trade unions, because of the political party affiliations, are seeking to further cripple the prospects for Jamaican development.
Land, labour, capital and entrepreneurial abilities are combined to create a successful enterprise. They are not all equal in their value to the successful enterprise. Yet, Jamaican trade unions are so obsessed with wielding power, they have forgotten this. They constantly bleat, no labour, no enterprise. They do not put the same emphasis on the productivity, fidelity or trainability of the labour. Our weak education system is churning out weak, marginal workers. Companies spend billions training the supposed competent union members and yet our productivity has been stagnant for over 40 years. A union leader once spoke to workers owning their jobs and that questionable sentiment has done nothing but fuel idiocy since.
LABOUR LOSING SIGNIFICANCE
As a direct consequence, we are losing the significance of the role of labour. Labour provides a necessary component, but not the most critical. Labour should be adequately and comparably compensated. In return, management has a right to expect a return on the investment in labour - NOT a constant struggle to retain control. There was a time for strong resistance to exploitative management. That era has passed. Managerial responsibilities in the 21st century includes sensibility to labour, but it cannot include ceding authority to unions.
Labour should work in cooperation for the benefit of the enterprise. Note that today, in Jamaica, we rarely get information that the grouse between management and labour is wage related. It is for workers' rights. Workers' ill-perceived right to own their jobs despite abysmal failings. Steal from the company. A nuh nothing dat! Just ask any construction company. Don't get paid for the day away from the job attending to union business. Shut the place down. Get injured on the job because of failure to follow procedure through ignorance or taking the 'short cut' and it is management's fault. Sleep on the job, get caught and is fired, demand reinstatement, with back pay. All of these illustrations have been recorded in the Jamaica labour union environment.
UNIONS VS GROWTH
Which foreign-direct investor, or even the local investor, would feel that this was welcoming environment for their capital? As a country, the trade unions are counter to the stated aim of job creation and growth. Let us examine this current Pan Caribbean sugar enterprise. Jamaica has successfully lost the ability to produce sugar in the quantity and quality that we once did. We produced over 500,000 tons in a crop year during the 1960s. Today, we struggle to produce 150,000 tons in a crop year. The sugar industry when owned and operated by the Government with the aid and abetting of the affiliated unions, failed miserably. Sometimes this failure is in the period of high prices for the commodity, the factor properly aligned to make the industry viable. Divestment becomes necessary. Equipment must be refurbished to maximise capacity. In comes new owners. They acquire new equipment and hire over 100 security workers, spread over three locations. Some J$28m worth of equipment is missing and their unionised security personnel does not know whether worker and/or management may be responsible for the theft. The company in an attempt to control the stealing moves to replace the inept security staff. The staff did not take action regarding the claimed inadequate lighting before the theft.
UTTER RUBBISH
Our unions get hung up on asinine concepts like defining 'discretionary leave'. So what? Management does not have the 'discretion' to send unsatisfactory labour on leave with pay, while they deliberate on final course of action? This is utter rubbish.
Oftentimes, the country will be put on notice that tanker drivers "cannot guarantee normalcy" if their demands are not met. Tanker drivers deliver an essential commodity, fuel, for the efficient operation of every sector of the country. Now we must make alternative arrangements for the acquisition of fuel at an attendant cost, to life and limb, because some trade union so dictates.
This country has a major problem of unemployment and productivity. It borders on large numbers of persons being unemployable. The local unions, in the quest to secure their share of the dues, will always find the workers rights' have been infringed. They holler about the International Labour Organisation's pontification, yet say nothing about low productivity. Let us run off to the Ministry of Labour. Where is the Ministry of Management Rights? The pendulum has gone too far in one direction.
What a country and what a climate in which to do business! Is this the 2030 vision? Oh for major automation in the foreseeable future. What economists call growth without labour. Trade unions almost brought England to her knees. They had to be stopped by Margaret Thatcher. Singapore, now developed, never allowed the unions to pursue this rubbish.
Ronald Mason is a US immigration attorney/mediator/talk show host.