‘An opportunity to realign management-trade union ties’

Entreprenuership lecturer's take on the ongoing plantation sector strike in Kerala.

The ongoing strike in the plantation sector in Kerala is an opportunity for managements and trade unions to re-work their relationship and learn to work together, says Simon Stockley, senior lecturer in entrepreneurship, Judge Business School, Cambridge University.

It is an opportunity for managements to change over from adversarial role and for trade unions to deliberate over the long-term viability of plantation operations, he says. He is in Kochi to lead a workshop on entrepreneurship, organised by the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC).

The worst position is to think that situations cannot change, he says, emphasising the need to contemplate all possibilities and citing the example of the Irish armed movement that at one point of time was considered impossible to end.

Trade unions in countries like Denmark worked closely with their managements but still represented workers’ interests. The unions focussed on issues such as skill upgrading and education while also taking care of workers’ interests.

Union militancy

Trade union “militancy” is a problem in economies in transition. It was so in the United Kingdom for a decade starting 1960. With a rising middleclass and income disparities, workers feel marginalised or excluded from sharing the fruits of development. It is a challenge Kerala can overcome given its high literacy rate.

As an outside observer, he says, political expediency and vote-winning has as much to do with India’s and Kerala’s economic policies as other factors. High import duties and artificially high prices of inputs made Kerala uncompetitive in the global market.

However, it is not all that bad because the adversities had made the industry here efficient, says Mr. Simon, who describes some of the factories he visited in Kerala as “world class”, deploying world class production processes.