The role of the shop steward at the Malta Drydocks

Abstract

The gradual transformation of industrial societies has been characterized by a phenomenon of great importance: the rise of associations of labour to a position of considerable prominence in the institutional. structures of these societies. Their impact upon national policy and the day-to-day management of the enterprise is recognised by all. Accompanying this ongoing adoption in social institutions there has been a noticeable interest in academic circles in the formulation of systematic models of trade union growth, structure and policy. Trade unions as such have ceased to be viewed as the sole actors but are now construed as only one major party amongst the general assembly of actors in the industrial relations system. Undoubtedly, this fundamental change in analytical focus accompanied the publication of John T. Dunlop's Industrial Relations System. Dunlop extended Flanders' analysis beyond the regulations per se to include actors, "an ideology which binds the industrial relations system together" , and a body of rules created to govern the actors in the workplace and work community. He identified three sets of actors: management "and their representatives", workers (non-managerial) "and any spokesman" and "specialized governmental agencies". Dunlop's analysis is not satisfactory in many aspects but it provides a framework through which the industrial relations system maybe viewed.