Les syndicats et les nouvelles formes d'organisation du travail

Résumé

L'objet de cet article est d'apporter des précisions sur les positions des dirigeants syndicaux locaux à l'égard des nouvelles formes d'organisation du travail. Les résultats de l'enquête par questionnaire auprès de dirigeants locaux de la FTQ, de la CSN et de la CSD démontrent que les positions varient selon la nature des nouvelles formes d'organisation du travail. De façon générale, les positions syndicales sont favorables et elles ont évolué en ce sens au cours des dernières années. La volonté de s'adapter à un environnement changeant, la position de la centrale syndicale et l'expérience passée sont les facteurs qui expliquent le mieux les variations des positions syndicales locales.

Abstract

Flexibility between trades, job rotation, semi-autonomous work groups, quality circles, total quality management, just-in-time: all of these are new forms of work organization (NFWO) which have been part of labour-management discussion, particularly since the beginning of the 1990's. The policies of the labour central organizations on these are pretty well known. But what about local union offîcers' positions? What are the factors motivating these? Is it correct to claim that the latter have changed?

In November 1991, questionnaire was sent to a sample of 266 offîcers from various local unions in the Quebec's manufacturing sector. These offîcers belong to local unions with more than 50 members and affiliated to the QFL, the CNTU or the CDU. A total of 114 questionnaires were returned including 63 from the QFL, 39 from the CNTU and 20 from the CDU.

Key findings from the data and from statistical analysis include the following. The NFWO most often introduced were: total quality (54 %), job enrichment and enlargement (50 %), job rotation (49 %), quality circles (44 %) and flexibility between trades (44 %). After their introduction, initiatives were maintained in the majority of cases (85 %), with the exception of the quality circles (50 % of cases). NFWO are normally introduced outside the collective bargaining process. Offîcers expressed favourable positions concerning quality of working life, favourable but critical position concerning job rotation and total quality management, critical (ambivalent) positions vis-à-vis job enrichment/jobs enlargement and flexibility between trades, and defensive positions regarding quality circles. Factor analysis resulted in two groupings of officer's positions, the first including initiatives related to the allocation of work and the second to quality. The results of linear regression analysis suggest that policies related to the first group were positively influenced by the officer's willingness to adapt to his/her environment and by the position of his/her labour confederation.

For the second group, the position of the labour confederation exerted a negative influence and the officer's experience with NFWO a positive influence. A trend toward more favourable policies was noticed among the offîcers of the three labour confederations, especially within the CNTU.