Role of unions examined at BIGWU programme

Speaking on the topic Collective Bargaining for a Collective Agreement, first vice-president of the Banking, Insurance and General Workers Union (BIGWU), Mario Als, yesterday said the role of any union was to consistently improve the conditions of work and standards of living for its members. At BIGWU’s 2004 Education Programme at the Cascadia Hotel on Thursday, Als said the Industrial Relations Act (IRA) was the major piece of legislation regulating relations between employers and trade unions.  According to Als, collective bargaining has been defined in the IRA as “treating and negotiating with a view to the conclusion of a collective agreement or the revision or renewal thereof or the resolution of disputes.”

Explaining the processes involved in the creation of a union, which included the right to form and join; registration; and recognition, Als said when this process was completed, the union was then free to go ahead and bargain on behalf of the membership of the respective business or State enterprise. However, in the preparation of proposals, Als argued that the union required the input of the employees. This, he said, served a two-fold purpose — providing the worker with a sense of belonging and a responsibility for decision-making; and re-inforcing the idea of the union being a collective of workers and not workers on one side and the union’s executive on the other. This process also serves to assist the union negotiator in understanding what the important and major issues are to the workers, Als claimed.