Synopsis: Communication For Productivity
Letters written to some 7500 Workers / Managers /
Union Leaders, following a period of strike / Go slow / Murders (1979 -
1987), at Mumbai factory of Larsen & Toubro Ltd. This direct / open /
honest communication led to a remarkable atmosphere of trust between
Workers and Management, which, in turn, increased productivity at 3% per year
(ave).
|
18 APR 1985
To:
Dear
Colleague
Last week I
sent you a copy of an article by S.R. Mohandas. In that article,
Mohandas makes mention of the
problems faced by the management of
NOCIL.
Some details of NOCIL issue
are explained by
Mr. M.S. Patwardhan (Managing Director) in the enclosed
news-paper report.
NOCIL
has an
internal union-leadership and
although NOCIL management seem
to' have
reached more-than-reasonable
settlements with the
union-committees, committee after committee failed
to carry
the rank-and-file
workers with
them. This is what
Mohandas calls the
"implementing or
delivery-capabilities" of a union
leadership in contrast to their
grievance "representation-capabilities".
We have also
heard of many cases where
the workmen have disobeyed strike-calls
issued by the
union-leadership, whether
internal or external. So one point is clear:
an internal leadership, by itself, cannot avoid situations of confrontation. Of
course, it helps
to negotiate with persons
whom you meet and talk to
daily. You understand them better
and they understand you better
- and both understand problems better.
So we
succeed in convincing
the union leaders
of our view-point and make them agree that our offer is
"just and fair".
So you passed the test of
your convincing-ability! But what
about- their
ability to articulate (not
sell) management-views to workmen at large?
Our task therefore
does not
end with "educating"
a dozen persons. It
goes far beyond, it is
management responsibility to train/educate/enlighten not only the union office-bearers but all the shop-representatives and finally all workmen.
It was with
this in mind that we started some 3 months back,
2-day "Worker &
Productivity" programmes for
Shop Representatives. Our idea
was to cover
all 200 shop-representatives within 10 programmes. I believe, so far we have
completed 7 programmes and
covered 140 shop representatives! Obviously we
need a far more enthusiastic
response (from shop-foremen) in
the ensuing programmes (refer enclosure).
And very
soon, we will
have 3 lecture-halls for worker-education classes in
place of existing one hall
-enabling us to conduct 3 batches simultaneously. (We do not conduct any programmes during
July-August-September - being our final quarter).
I do hope
you will see the tremendous potential of educated
workmen and compete, with each
other to see that
maximum number of your departmental workers go through these classes.
No comments:
Post a Comment