Introduction
The following is the continuation of a series that illustrates the common power of management over workers in unionized settings (and of course in non-unionized settings).
The power or employers to dictate to workers is hardly confined to Canada, of course. Various countries dominated by the class of employers have the right to dictate to workers except as limited by the collective agreement (and, of course, certain legislative acts). Illustrations from Canada are only examples of the world-wide dictatorship characteristic of a modern society dominated by a class of employers and their associated economic, political and social structures.
Collective Agreement Between the University of Manitoba and the Association of Employees Supporting Education Services (AESES)
I used to belong to this union. See the posts Critique of the Grievance and Arbitration Procedure: Letter to the Editor, Inside The Association of Employees Supporting Educational Services (AESES), Vol. 17, No. 4, May 1994 and Comments from John Urkevich, AESES-UM Business Agent, to my Critique of the Grievance and Arbitration Procedure: Letter to the Editor, Inside The Association of Employees Supporting Educational Services (AESES), Vol. 17, No. 4, May 1994 .
From Collective Agreement, Effective April 6, 2019 to March 27, 2026, page 10 (the following refers to “employer’s rights”–it is the same as management rights):
ARTICLE 4 EMPLOYER’S RIGHTS
4.1 Nothing in this Collective Agreement is intended nor shall it be construed as denying or in any manner limiting the right of the Employer to control and supervise all operations and direct all working forces, including the right to determine the employee’s ability, skill, competence, and qualifications for the job, and to hire, discharge, lay-off, suspend, discipline, promote, demote or transfer an employee, and to control and regulate the use of all equipment and property and promote efficiency in all operations, provided, however, that in the exercise of the foregoing Employer’s rights the Employer shall not contravene
the provisions of this Collective Agreement.4.2 The Parties also agree that the foregoing enumeration of Employer’s rights shall not be deemed to exclude other functions not specifically set forth, therefore, the Employer retains all of its other inherent rights.
Since this clause forms part of the collective agreement, does the collective agreement express a fair contract? Does it express the freedom of workers? Does it express a democratic way of life or its opposite? Does it express economic democracy? Economic dictatorship? Economic justice?
There is nothing fair about collective agreements which concentrate most decision-making power over our work lives in the hands of the representatives of employers called managers. Collective agreements limit such power–but they do not by any means challenge such power. Indeed, they do not challenge the dicatorship of employers (see for example Employers as Dictators, Part One). Nor do they challenge the use of human beings as things that are treated as means for other people’s ends.
The law certainly does not prevent the exploitation and oppression of workers; workers may be able to use the law to limit their exploitation and oppression–but not abolish them.
What do you think? Do collective bargaining and collective agreements express something fair? Do they enable workers to be treated as human beings and not as things? Do union members really discuss such issues to any great extent? Do so-called leftists or “progressives?” Why or why not?
The Abolitionary 