unionism
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fTwo worlds for trade unionism
Strangely enough, trade unions are criticised as being the epitome of an omnipotent bureaucracy while they still look puny as compared to their French or foreign counter parts. To further discredit them, they are rejected en bloc as if sncf cgt cftc and cgc were various representations of the same institutional reality. However, according to polls, this negative judgement has been fading away since March 1986 but this temporary rehabilitation due to the general elections does not cure what lies beneath.
Trade unions did not probably deserve the excessive honour they had fifteen ears ago thanks to the cult of the Swede model and of the German consensus. But they do not deserve this excess of indignity. However sad this observation is, there are some common sense truths that need to be spoken out.
First of all, the heterogeneity of the social world is such that it is clearly impossible to have a global approach on trade unionism. What do the Banque de France's or the airliners pilots' in house unions have in common with the SME's. On the one hand the first ones treasure their privileges and do not hesitate to take as hostages their customers or the metallurgy federations who have to make do, willy nilly, with massive drops in labour force. On the other hand SMEs trade unions departments are still suspiciously frowned at besides the millions of temporary or accidental or occasional workers who are doing without any collective representation...