'Trade Unions at Whose Service?' Coercive Partnerships and Partnership in Coercion in Turkey's Metal Sector**

Zusammenfassung

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Partnership in coercion is defined as cooperation between trade unions and employers at the expense of workers' interests. It differs from coercive partnership by trade unions' not mandatory but willing participation for furtherance of their own interests that are detached from those of their members. The legal changes after 1980 in Turkey created the basic conditions for both of these partnerships patterns. The analysis of the metal industry bargaining system reveals that there are three additional factors which rendered partnership in coercion possible in this sector: employers' needs, weak trade union internal democracy and competition among trade unions. However the examination of some other industries in Turkey shows that partnership patterns in the metal sector cannot be easily used to make generalizations.

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Auszug

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'Trade Unions at Whose Service?' Coercive Partnerships and Partnership in Coercion in Turkey's Metal Sector**

Introduction

Partnership between employers and trade unions has been one of the prominent topics in contemporary industrial relations (see for example: Edwards et al. 2006; Bacon/Blyton 2006; Lucio/Stuart 2005; Ashwin 2004; Terry 2003; Haynes/Allen 2001; Marks et al. 1998; Kelly 1997). The essence of partnership can be described as the determination of employers and trade unions to take joint action towards realization of their mutually recognized interests. Although this description seems to be clear, the exact usefulness of partnership for a trade union can be represented in different ways. It can be considered as one of the revitalization strategies that trade unions may adopt together with recruitment, mergers, coalitions, political action and international links (Frege/Kelly 2003). However it is also possible to argue that, trade unions can satisfy workers' needs only through successful engagement with employers in an environment where both the state and employers do not envisage a crucial role for them. Thus under certain conditions partnership may become the precondition for trade union effectiveness rather than one of the strategies for being effective (Boxall/Haynes 1997: 568-571). Thus one can see that for trade unions partnership may appear as an optional choice or as necessity. Yet in either situation, partnership is not considered as an impediment to the ability of trade unions to represent the interests of their members.

However the examination of the relationship between trade unions and employers in ex-Soviet states (Ashwin 2004; Kubicek 2002) leads one to ask whether trade unions involved in partnership with employers can remain as representative entities if their existence depends on their usefulness for employers and/or willingness of employers to tolerate them. Obviously under such conditions the relationship between trade unions and employers can be best named as coercive partnership in the sense that trade unions would be part of such a relationship reluctantly and only for mere survival (Lucio/Stuart 2005: 809). The defining feature of coercive partnership is that in such a relationship trade unions are "incorporated into making concessions" for benefit of employers. (Bacon/Blyton 2006: 225-229).

In this article by focusing on the bargaining system in Turkey's metal industry I will show that there is another variant of partnership, that is, partnership in coercion which is based on not reluctant but willing cooperation of trade unions with employers at the expense of workers' interests.

Theoretical Framework

Partnership in coercion as a union strategy can be described as trade unions' collaboration with employers not merely for survival but for furtherance of their own interests which are detached from those of their members. I argue that this kind of relationship may emerge under conditions that are likely to generate coercive partnerships. Thus partnership in coercion can be understood by first exploring the nature of coercive partnership and its influences on the union behavior.

Coercive partnership and its determinants

The possibility that trade unions may be forced into coercive partnerships by employers has bee...

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