As a professional, your employer
depends on you to take on important responsibilities. You have unique skills
and training to take on complex and sensitive roles. Your work is usually
self-directed and often requires that you direct others and advise the employer
on appropriate courses of action. Often your decisions and actions affect the
security and well being of others. You follow your professional code, and do
what it takes to get the job done right.
Which makes it hard to
understand why you don’t always get the respect you deserve in the workplace.
Senior management has to run the place, that’s true. But shouldn’t they also
listen to the professionals who have the expertise to get the work done?
Professionals face many
employment problems every day:
·
Lack of job
security
·
Lack of salary
protection
·
Inconsistent
treatment
·
Lack of say in
scheduling
·
Lack of
recognition for overtime
·
No say in hiring
or promotion
·
No coherent
voice in dealing with the employer
·
No impartial
process for resolving complaints
·
No protection
against unfair treatment
The workplace has become
increasingly more demanding and tenuous a place for professionals. How did this
come about, particularly at a time when "intellectual workers" are
supposed to be gaining importance in our economy?
Professional employees have
faced unique problems during the restructuring of work over the last decade.
Many professional positions have disappeared either through lay-off or
attrition as management ranks have been flattened. Those professionals who
remain in the workplace have seen their workloads skyrocket. They’re not only
doing the work of departed colleagues in addition to their own work, but the
demand for professional services is also increasing as the economy becomes more
information-based and large corporations and institutions encourage their
departments to become more "entrepreneurial". Meanwhile, new
professionals entering the workforce can’t find secure employment. Term
contracts are the order of the day with employers unwilling to make long-term
commitments to employees even though it’s not uncommon for contracts to be
renewed for ten or more consecutive years. Professional employees not only find
themselves in more demanding positions but also face increasing pressure to
keep current and valued.
Despite the trends, many
professional employees still believe that individual or collegial relations
with the employer are most appropriate to professional values. Those values
include personal responsibility for work and assignments, independence of
action and judgment, and an abiding commitment to a professional code and
duties. Unionism is dismissed as a mode of relations that emphasizes collective
action rather than individual responsibility, replaces independent judgment
with executive or mass decision-making, and sacrifices professional
responsibility to the picket line.
A union can address these
problems and enhance professional values in the workplace. The core principles
of unionism are consistent with professionalism. Both movements can trace part
of their histories to the guild movements where workers with particular sets of
skills in common joined together both to protect their control over those
skills and to protect their economic position. Many professional codes, for
instance, indicate that members have a duty to see that they are adequately
compensated for their work.
Professional values also reflect
an industrial era when the norm was for professionals to be self-employed or
associated with firms who contracted with larger companies or institutions. As
professions have become more established and corporations and institutions have
become increasingly dependent on the intellectual capabilities of
professionals, professionals have increasingly moved from contractual to
employment relationships. While many employers did respect professional skills
and values, competitive pressures to reduce costs, increase flexibility, and maximize
profits have left little room for that respect to be demonstrated in employment
relations. As a result, professional positions in many workplaces do not allow
for the same self-direction, control, and independence of judgment that were
once the hallmarks of professionalism. In many cases, increasing workloads have
meant that professional standards have been compromised as well.
Rather than being contrary to
professional values, a union offers a strong defense of those values. A union
makes it possible for professionals to come together to represent their own
interests to their employers, to talk about the unique issues professional
employees face, and to deal with the problems that arise in a constantly
changing workplace. A professional union allows professionals to gain a say in
their workplace through negotiation with management. It also allows
professionals to determine how that say will be expressed. A union is the only
guarantee that professionals will have a voice in their workplace and that they’ll
be regarded as equals in setting the terms and conditions of their work.
Joining a union is the only legal guarantee that the employer will consult and negotiate over workplace issues. It’s the only guarantee that the agreements reached with the employer can be enforced quickly and easily. It’s the only guarantee of an impartial process for resolving problems that arise between the employer and professional employees.
This article by the Professional Employees Association of Canada