IRELAND is uniquely placed to carry out "a grand social experiment" in business partnerships between unions and management, according to Prof Robert B. McKersie, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Prof McKersie, who has served on several US presidential commissions and is former head of the National Industrial Research Association, was speaking at the John Lovett Memorial Lecture at the University of Limerick last night. He said Ireland is in a position to conduct a grand social experiment to test the premise that strategic partnerships, coupled with modern human resource systems, can be an unbeatable combination.
"This country is just the right size to embark upon such a social experiment and to move actively forward to solidify a new model of industrial relations. It is just possible that strategic partnerships might be a bridge to an economic system that would be more durable than free market capitalism."
Prof McKersie, who has been an employee representative on the board of major US companies, said US managements were reviewing their attitudes towards unions.
For example, a number of regional telephone companies, especially those associated with AT&T, had began common interest forums with unions and had arranged for elections to forums in non union plants. The Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers had signed a pioneering agreement with Levi Strauss which committed the union to help install team operations in non union plants in return for union recognition.
He said United Airlines, Xerox and Conrail were other examples of the growth of partnership strategies in the US. He predicted they would continue to increase despite fears between managements and trade unions.
He said in Ireland, "where the preference is not so anti union, there is the possibility of transforming existing work places into modern, high performance systems".
He added that experiences in Germany and Japan had shown the validity of partnerships. "We are in a phase of industrial history in the US and Ireland where the proposition is being tested that unions can add value, compared to the performance of a non union operation."