Hill Harper,
the American actor is reported to have said, “We all have different
timetables in reaching and realizing that being in healthy partnership is
better than being on our own.”
Surely
he said it in a different context, but I feel that it is very apt for the
industrial relations as well.
Think
of how the relationship between management of an organisation and the union of
employees undergoes changes. All industrial relations managers would have
experienced the ‘Form, Storm, Norm, Perform’ stages of building relations.
[Read more about these stages here].
[pic shows Dilip Pawar]
The
latest organisation to experience this is Bajaj Auto. In a recent seminar Dilip
Pawar, the articulate leader of Bajaj Auto Ltd. Company’s workers’ union called
“Vishwa Kalyan Kamgar Sanghatana” [VKKS] spoke cheerfully and with enthusiasm
about the settlement which the Company and its fallout. One may say that the
parties are in their ‘honeymoon’ period, but there were several interesting
points to note, and those were not surely lost on the keen observers. Here are
some of those points:
Dilip
Pawar said that the Union felt that they must change the way their company’s
management thought of them; and in order to do it they realised that they had
to change themselves first.
While
recognising that some conflicts were inevitable, he said that the first step
was that nobody ‘cursed’ the management in the gate meetings in the 65 day strike
in 2006.
The
union leadership realised that with establishments closing down like they
experienced in Akurdi factory of Bajaj [you will recall that it was abruptly
closed down] or downsizing substantially, it was necessary to ensure that the workers’
families had a second source of income. This led to VKKS actively training
women family members to be self-employed. Beginning was made with training a
batch of 25 women and it was followed by more batches. Reportedly many women so
trained are earning a decent income today.
In
2010 the Chakan employees joined VKKS. By this time the VKKS had realised that
they need to gain skills of negotiation and persuasion so they approached
Arvind Shrouti of Option Positive for guiding them. They learned a positive
approach to industrial relations from Arvind Shrouti. They underwent training
in various subjects such as work measurement. VKKS used TPM, RCA [Root Cause Analysis] and ‘Why-Why
analysis’ to gain deeper understanding of some of employees’ concerns and to find
solutions.
The
union committee realised that their member-employees felt the need to own an
apartment. VKKS has recently launched an ambitious project which will provide
housing to a few hundred workers in a multi-storey building. The plans are
ready [and were shown to us].
The union also proposes to construct a small Mall
which can provide a place for business undertaken by the women family members
of an employee!
Their
vision included among other things:
Improve
Union’s image in the minds of people in general
Empower
women
VKKS
also defined their policy towards the Company [Wow!] which included among other
things:
The
Brand will not be attacked even during conflicts.
Observe
self-discipline [leaders must be role models]
Workers
on high absenteeism will not be chosen as VKKS representatives.
The
union will adhere to quality standards, no short cuts.
Respect
for all.
Practice
transparency in dealings.
Champion
multi-skilling. Many representatives are themselves ‘multi-skilled.’
Data
based management of VKKS. The union has data pertaining to all employees, and
they often talk with facts and figures. [They were able to negotiate lower loan
rates and terms for employees who desired to own an apartment in the proposed
housing project because VKKS had all data of employees.]
[HR
Managers of Bajaj Auto confirmed during informal discussions that the IR climate within Bajaj Auto had
substantially improved and was very positive.]
Bajaj Auto
and VKKS fought bitter battles. [See blog links given below]. They had “different
timetables in reaching and realizing that being in healthy partnership is
better than being on [their] own.” The new stance [see vision statements] of
the VKKS is not just positive; it almost re-positions VKKS as Business Partner.
A
lesson for many unions. Any takers?
Vivek Patwardhan
"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others."
Note: One more blog post in this series 'Trade Unions as Business Partners – The
Emerging Trend will be published on Oct 6, 2014.
See also: