Grow The Workforce What About ‘Growing Their Rights’?

News from Mannin Branch Celtic League

The Chamber of Commerce were recently waxing lyrical about the need for the Island to grow its workforce with as many as 15000 extra workers needed according to them. However you can bet your bottom dollar the Chamber will not be insisting appropriate rights be afforded for those workers to organise themselves in Trade Unions.

In the Isle of Man employers always intimidated workers and discouraged them from joining Unions worst offenders were in retail, the hospitality trade and the construction industry. Some of the bitterest disputes were over recognition. In my experience some employers would contend their employees did not want Unions they were happy. Some joke! In reality however they were cowed

The governments meanwhile always seemed to focus on the need for Unions to be realistic and yet they seldom seem to ask professions to be realistic over their charges, fancy restaurants to ameliorate their prices or constructions firms to be realistic over the prices they charge for houses.

Government also assisted the Employers ‘Union-bashing’ agenda by refusing to introduce statutory rights to recognition even though most of the rest of Western Europe had it on the statute book. This is an Island where you may get the impression that Unions are a tiny troublesome minority but that’s not the case and therefore the questions must be posed, why has it gained currency and who sustains the myth?

SOME FACTS: The economically active population of the IOM is about 44,000
Workers in Trade Unions (TU) or Staff Associations (SAs) probably comprise just short of 10,000 (two of the largest Unions, Prospect and Unite contain over half that number – almost 6000 between them) The ratio then of people in Trade Unions and Staff Associations is about 22%.

Now what is interesting about this is that in most other countries including the United Kingdom the figure is much lower and in some continental countries like France the Unions do not even achieve single figure percentages.

You would think that given so many workers opt to join Unions here the Unions would;

a) have a stronger voice in dialogue with government
b) be more adequately reflected in the media
c) have a greater voice in shaping Civil Society

However the opposite is the case.

The government have steadily diminished the role of Trade Unions in the consultative processes that they undertake. Paradoxically the Unions probably had a stronger voice in relative terms during the Walker administration twenty five years ago than they have with the Bell government.

Unions constantly have to ‘explain’ themselves in the media and they are often the subject of unbalanced reporting. In addition the media on occasions try to turn sections of workers into pariahs. Two years ago it was busmen with their (according to the media) excessive salaries. Latterly it’s been Civil Servants, Airport workers etc and their pay and pensions. What is interesting about this is not that the media/press behave in this way i.e., sensationalise a story – after all that’s their game selling papers or attracting listeners. It is just that they think Unions are fair game but other groups do not attract the same opprobrium. For example when is the last time you heard excessive profits being targeted or the fees of professions brought under the spotlight?

Unions both at a public and private sector level keep the Nation ‘ticking’ (they must do – remember they are one in five of the population) and yet they seem shut out of the decision making process of Civil Society. Again the pendulum has swung against them seats once guaranteed on a plethora of public bodies were taken away some years ago. The reason given was fairness and human rights but it was a convenient mechanism to further isolate Unions from decision making.

Two things are apparent.

1) Isle of Man workers are more likely to join Unions than colleagues in other countries.
2) The Business Community and the Isle of Man Government actively work against Unions by reducing or eliminating their influence. The media quietly acquiesce

I will leave you with a sobering thought. Lay Officials in the bigger Trade Unions like Unite or Prospect probably have a larger democratic mandate than quite a few members in the Keys – oh and they are accountable!

BERNARD MOFFATT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdOCWUgwiWs

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