An Attitudinal Revolution in Irish Industrial Relations: The End of ‘Them and Us’?
| Published date | 01 March 1999 |
| Author | Thomas Turner,Daryl D’Art |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8543.00120 |
| Date | 01 March 1999 |
An Attitudinal Revolution in Irish
Industrial Relations: The End of `Them
and Us'?
Daryl D'Art and Thomas Turner
Abstract
Intensi®ed international competition and high unemployment have charac-
terized many Western economies since 1980. A ®rm's survival in such an
environment demands a ¯exible and co-operative work-force, a requirement
incompatible with traditional adversarial industrial relations. Drawing on a
survey of employees in nine unionized companies in the Irish manufacturing
sector, this paper examines the effect of these changes in the economy and
workplace in facilitating a signi®cant reduction in `them and us' attitudes and
an associated weakening of union structure and in¯uence in the workplace.
We found no evidence of a reduction in `them and us' attitudes, but a
cohesive and in¯uential union was associated with less intense `them and us'
attitudes.
1. Introduction
Since 1980 Western economies have undergone a period of turbulence and
change characterized by the extension of free markets, intensi®ed interna-
tional competition and the re-emergence of mass unemployment.
According to Piore and Sabel (1984), the development of new technologies
and the fragmentation of mass markets heralds a new industrial revolution
and a major restructuring of capitalism. A ®rm's survival in such an
environment demands the development of new structures and policies
centring on product quality, productivity and labour ¯exibility. These
imperatives pose a fundamental challenge to the continuance of traditional
industrial relations conduct and practice. Apparently the response of
workers and their unions has been co-operative and conciliatory, presaging
a new departure in employer±employee relations.
Daryl D'Art and Thomas Turner lecture in the Department of Personnel Management and
Employment Relations at the University of Limerick.
British Journal of Industrial Relations
37:1 March 1999 0007±1080 pp. 101±116
#Blackwell Publishers Ltd/London School of Economics 1999. Published by Blackwell Publishers Ltd,
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The decline of adversarialism?
Since 1987 the negotiation of continuous social pacts between the trade
unions, employers and government in Ireland has indicated a high degree
of social consensus in industrial relations at national level. At ®rm level, the
Irish Congress of Trade Unions has advised members to co-operate with
new managerial initiatives designed to improve competitiveness (ICTU
1993). Furthermore, there has been a general decline in all of the indices
measuring strike activity (Brannick et al. 1997). One interpretation of these
trends would be to view them as heralding the decline of adversarialism in
Irish industrial relations. Technological developments and increased inter-
national competition are perceived to have forced the abandonment of
Fordist mass production systems and supporting institutions (Piore and
Sabel 1984). This apparent break with Fordism has facilitated managerial
adoption of responsible autonomy strategies involving increased employee
discretion. A new identity of interest is created, and managers are no longer
identi®ed by workers as `opponents' but rather as allies in the competitive
struggle for markets (Basset 1986). This new identity of interest has the
potential to create both an institutional and an ideological crisis for
workplace trade unionism (Terry 1989). With worker acceptance and
commitment to the logic of the enterprise and a management agenda, the
old con¯icts traditionally associated with the employment relationship are
less evident, while union membership and collective bargaining appear
increasingly irrelevant.
Alternatively, a less sanguine interpretation would suggest that high
levels of unemployment and the fear of job loss increase worker attachment
to ®rms threatened by intensifying international competition. This creates a
`new realism' among workers and brings an `acceptance or even the active
pursuit of production organisation which sustains the ®rm's market
position' (Hyman 1989: 196). These dif®cult circumstances for trade
unions are compounded by a reassertion of managerial prerogative. A
number of studies in Britain based on the Workplace Industrial Relations
Survey (WIRS) have emphasized increased management control and the
exclusion or marginalization of trade unions in the workplace (Kessler and
Bayliss 1992; Smith and Morton 1994). Although there is no direct research
evidence similar to the workplace survey available in Ireland, anecdotal
evidence from union of®cials, activists and members suggests that unions
have become weaker and the capacity of organized labour to shape
working practices on the shop-¯oor has declined sharply in the 1980s and
1990s. Furthermore, research on the establishment of companies setting up
in the commercial and trading sectors since the mid-1980s indicates that
many of these companies are remaining non-union (Gunnigle 1995;
Hourihan 1996). Thus, the crisis for trade unions arises not from members'
internalization of managerial values, but rather from declining union
effectiveness. As a consequence of trade union weakness, members may
#Blackwell Publishers Ltd/London School of Economics 1999.
102 British Journal of Industrial Relations
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