THE INFLUENCE OF NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL-RELA TIONS INSTITUTIONS ON UNIONACTION IN THE FRENCH AND QUEBEC SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRIES

This article deals with the influence of national industrial relations institutions on union action in the French and Quebec shipbuilding in dustries during the 1970s and 1980s. Our central thesis is that, to a large extent, legal and institutional structures determined the scope and nature of labour responses to managerial policies and practices du ring the crisis faced by the shipbuilding industries in the two countr ies beginning in 1975. The analysis reveals that the decline in both p roduction and jobs during that period elicited similar demands by unio ns for employment protection in both French and Quebec shipyards. Howe ver, union approaches to the ensuing conflicts over employment protect ion were very different in the two countries. The institutional framew ork of industrial relations, specifically the rules relating to the st atus and role of labour unions, and the legal framework for collective bargaining and dispute resolution, had a decisive influence on the ra nge of options available to unions in the two countries. The conceptua l framework used to compare the determinants of union action in the tw o countries is based mainly on the theoretical contributions to the co mparative analysis of industrial relations made by Dunlop (1958) and P oole (1986). The empirical evidence shows that, while the positions an d proposals adopted by unions at the local and national levels were qu ite similar in the two countries, the points at issue and the conduct of conflicts in the shipyards were very different. In French shipyards , management attempts to reduce the labour force in a situation of dec lining production were generally opposed by all the unions present at the local level and very often culminated in work stoppages intended t o modify or diminish the effects of job suppression. In contrast, in Q uebec shipyards, the right of management to lay off workers and to red uce the labour force is usually recognized in the labour contract and conflicts thus related to monetary issues and job flexibility rather t han to reduction of the work force. The institutional framework of uni on action appears to be an important determinant of the level, focus a nd issues of labour conflict in French and Quebec shipyards, Our main conclusion is that union action is largely determined by the rules def ining the identity and rights of the actors directly involved in the i ndustrial relations system at different levels of interaction. Such ac tion is also strongly influenced by the rules governing the interchang e between employers and unions in the course of collective bargaining and industrial conflict. These rules are, according to Dunlop and Pool e, the major factor in the continuing diversity among industrial relat ions systems.