EDITORIAL - Labour climate needs reality check
published: Sunday | August 13, 2006

We share with the Jamaica Employers' Federation (JEF) its concern about the deteriorating labour climate in Jamaica and the re-emerging bulldozing tactics of trade unions.

Like the JEF, we believe that these and other issues ought to be placed on the table for full and frank dialogue among the stakeholders.

The JEF outlined its concern last week in the face of a series of disruptive strikes, including by employees of the National Water Commission and nurses in breach of the law that prohibits strikes by workers in prescribed essential services.

The recent situation, which is likely to worsen given the demands by public sector professionals for pay hikes beyond what the government says it can afford, is not an entirely new development.

Indeed, the 227 strikes, sick-outs and other industrial actions reported by the labour ministry for the fiscal year to the end of last March, represented a 17 per cent increase on the previous year, reversing the trend of 2004/2005 when there was a 20 per cent decline.

The crux of the JEF's complaint is that trade unionists, perhaps because they lack the skills, are eschewing serious and delicate negotiation in favour of threats and ultimatums. In other words, they are reverting to the bad old days of industrial relations.

Part of the reason for this, we suspect, is that trade union leaders misinterpret the current relative stability in the Jamaican economy.

Earlier in the decade, during a period of rapid market liberalisation, firms were down-sizing or closing altogether in the face of competition from imports and more efficient operators. Some companies were leaving Jamaica for more competitive environments.

The upshot was that trade union leaders, faced with declining membership in their organisations, were forced into rationality. Jamaica's bauxite/alumina sector, for instance, could not expect to attract investment, or even survive, if it could not compete with the industries of other countries.

This fall-out has slowed and there has been some recovery in employment, but not at wage levels to match expectations. There has also been some increase in inflationary pressures.

A fact being missed by trade unions, though, is that there there has been no broad growth in productivity in the Jamaican economy; the gains have been in narrow pockets. Skill levels remain low and in global growth areas such as information and communication technology, the jobs have been rushing to Asia, as is evidenced by the boom in India, rather than Jamaica.

At the same time, the government continues to face serious fiscal constraints. These factors are not entirely the fault of trade unions, but they in fact exist and constrain growth in wages, unless Jamaicans want to remain uncompetitive and underemployed.

Jamaica, in this context, needs a consensus on the way forward. We believe that the social partnership talks, between the private sector and the government, provide an appropriate forum for this discourse. These discussions need to be restarted as a matter of urgency, with trade unions invited to be full partners.

With well under 40 per cent of the Jamaican workforce now unionised, the trade unions need to approach these talks with a full dose of reality if they want to ensure their long-term future.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.