I have been remotely monitoring the ongoing saga between the Professional Associations and the Jordanian government with great interest. For some reason I feel compelled to comment on what‘s going on: These "professional" unions are becoming a waste of space. Many unions that impose mandatory subscription fees fail to do anything useful for members, instead wasting time, effort and energy indulging in regional politics.
I wonder: If they are so keen on debating political issues then why not pursue other avenues to do so? The unions shouldn’t be a platform for voicing frustration about issues like the American administration’s foreign policy, as but one example.
Instead of focusing their time on, say, increasing the minimum wages of their members and finding ways to improve their respective professional fields, the unions organize rallies, events and sit-ins discussing regional (Note: regional not local) politics — something that will advance their particular body absolutely nowhere!
Inspired by a Thomas Friedman column, I’m compelled to say that the associations focus all their energy on anti-Americanism, failing to see the problems in their own backyards. If they insist on putting regional politics such as Iraqi elections (as another example) ahead of their real raison d’être then I would not shed one tear if they were closed down!
Unions are a recent phenomenon in the US. They were established after the depression of the 30s. actually, The political purpose for unions was to establish a vehicle through which communism can be checked before it establishes a foothold among depression affected americans. The idea is unions okay communism not okay (McCarthy-ism). That worked real well. Now that communism is dead the need for unions is up for grabs. Hence, low participation in union membership. How does that compare with whats going on in Jordan today?
The opposite seems the case. To check the power of outside influences over trade associations (unions of technocrats) controlled political parties are the answer. Will it work in Jordan? why not?
Linda, exactly! That’s the whole issue here. PAC greatly overstates the idea that their voice is being surpressed. Never will a union exist without politics; it’s very presence is a political one. But one is the organ for one thing. Parties, in this case, is the organ for the other. They have to work together. At this point it is very one-sided.
I think that’s because of the press they draw and such (the power PAC now commands). They get their voice heard by many, something particularly important when so many are so frustrated. But once their position is clear, which happened a long time ago, it is time to go the next step: work with the parties. And, of course, they must never forget their real purpose in this: supporting the worker.
Right now, unfortunately, they are highly distracted. The wife pointed to Friedman and I think in this case at least he got it right: For Europeans hating Americans is a hobby. In the Arab world it’s become a full-time profession.
By the way, if anyone is interested, reading up on Cezar Chaves would be good to learn about great examples of what great unions are like.
Well you guys, I have to say that this is an interesting disscusiion about unions, because I am learning a great deal about unions in Jordan.
What Akram just posted is what I have most knowledge in when it comes to unions. I am a big union supporter, thus, I boycott places like Starbucks and WalMart. (But if Wal Mart even had a union i think i would still not go there because I hate that place with a passion. The second i go in there i get nervous, ticked off and annoyed). Any way, I digress.
Unions need to have political stances, because thorugh politics and laws they can get regulations passed. With that said, once their stances are made, they need to do the primary work they were created for the sole purpose of doing: making sure their members are not exploited for their labor, their memebers recieve the proper wages they deserve for thier labor, and any other benefits their members deserve.
Imagine if Cezar Chaves (a man i will always admire) said farm workers need to form a union to earn the right wages and benefits they deserve, and once the unions he was fighting for were created, started to digress and only focus his energy on a war that was going on or political issues that had nothing to do with his begining purpose of forming a union? well, we probably would not celebrate his birth as a state holiday in California.
Very interesting discussion. I spent the last 25 years of my life defining and setting precidents in labor relation cases for Unions, Growers and Workers in the agricutural fields of California. We were able to do that due to political parties (Democratic Party) and trade associations pushing for laws(Agricultural Labor relations Act of 1975) working together to establish rights and responsiblities for each of the affected entities. It seems to me that political parties and trade associations work hand in hand within the scope and range of their defined rules,regulations, and procedures to bring about the necessary precidents under the law which determines the relationships and behavior between
the affected entities. THAT IS THE CIVILIZED WAY OF GETTING SOME IF NOT ALL OF THE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES ONE STRIVES FOR DURING HIS/HER SHORT LIFE SPAN ON THIS SHIP CALLED EARTH.
Well I believe that everything is related and affects the whole country with its unions, members, parties, organizations and everything.
Memebers are not free to speak their minds, and they suffer to get a job coz of connections “wasta” so they turn to unions believing they’ll find help. Unions (that consist of these members) are restricted from many things, have limited freedom and are not able to get over “wasta”, so they’re controlled in a different way. Organizations, also have limited freedom no matter how hard I try to convince myself of the opposite, even NGO’s get under the watching eye of governmental rules and restrictions. What I’m trying to say is that in Jordan, just like most of the Arab world, there is no freedom in action or speech (although I admit that Jordan’s freedom of speech is way much better than other Arab countries) and when people lack freedom they start forming official entities to express their grievance and depression, otherwise, they take the shortcut and start focusing on regional or foreign policies, the topics where they can somehow express their opinions without being punished.
So I guess the problem is bigger than associations, and to solve this problem we shouldn’t neither blame it on the system nor on the people. To solve it we have to work on both, educating the people with twisted minds who believe in no compromises and who think war and terrorism is the only way to peace, and fix our systems who give limited freedom to selective issues and offer the best to the last name or biggest account.
Oops, that turned out long 😛
Hmmm. Well, I’m probably not one who’s opinion should count here, but after working with PAC (particularly during the whole Jordan Engineers Association and the Anti-normalization Committee dustup) while at The Jordan Times I do want to add one thing. Isam, you are right that because political parties have such poor structure the unions are becoming the place to voice political issues. But that seems a poor excuse.
The king on a number of instances has called for the parties to shape up. Why allow frustrations to run from a poorly implemented party structure to unions, where the primary modus operandi should be on professional/job politics (i.e. what’s good for the individual members and not what is “good for the kingdom”).
What I’m hearing and heard many times from PAC while at the JT was the argument: “The parties system is broken, so we’ll use the unions.” Isam, you’re a computer systems guy right? Does it make sense to abandon a system designed for one purpose and twist another system to suit those ends, particularly when the other system is in no way designed to do so? Things get at cross purposes that way because while initially there might be some traction eventually the “twisted system” will break simply because it is not designed to handle those actions/transactions.
Perhaps as a band aid you could suggest such manipulation. But over the long haul it will create a problem and it has. Very little effort has gone into restructuring the party system. Why is that? That’s the proper venue.
I think it’s because, as you note, PAC has some clout, some real power. But that power came because of their connection to their professions and the opportunities that provides and that the unions have created over time. Using it in this way will eventually — and that time may be nigh — spend up that political capital, ruining what power they had.
To me the “my voice must be heard, don’t stifle my freedom” idea here is a red herring. There are organs created for this, specifically the parties. People are frustrated, sure. But to prevent anarchy the right avenue must be taken. Imagine if every time you dealt with a colleague they put their particular political grievance in your face. In every corporate setting they stated: “Unleash corporate greed. Let the big boys win,” (something you happened to disagree with) stamping it on every company document they got their hands on. Eventually, they are trampling on other people’s rights and freedoms.
This is why you establish particular organs in a society to allow for this free expression. Without such order anarchy is only a few steps away. It seems confusing when so many agree with a particular agenda. But what is the next step when so many agree? Well it points to a need for change and the way to get change is through the political parties system.
The unions were supposed to help working people get working rights. They were not established to bring change to society or to the government but they are heading down that path. That’s going to be a problem and is proving so. Why not fix the parties or work within that already established system? Why abandon them? Is it just because it proves easier through the unions?
That seems a lame excuse and, again, with foresight, it’s clear eventually that path will end without the change desired coming to fruition. The idea is not to stifle people’s freedoms or rights but to direct them to the proper organ (political organ I mean) where those concerns can be constructively addressed and *hopefully* real and meaningful change can come if the majority of the society thinks it should. The unions have become twisted to be a very visible place to air one’s grievances about society and the government. That’s clearly not what they were designed for so why not use the system that was created for just such a purpose: The parties.
Some of the benefits I got when I was a member of the Engineering Association were a discount on admission to their swimming pool( I had a near death experience in that pool), and few lectures on certain topics. Putting some companies and names on their black lists and encouraging others not to deal with them, is way too much and I am glad that the authorities are alert for their extremism. I believe that those associations can play a good role in the development and luxury of their members and the community as well, and expressing opinion is something healthy and should be pursued; but to mandate their opinion on members and others is way too much.
Well, I happen to disagree with you in here. Although the Unions main focus should be the members wellbeing, what is happening in Jordan is that the Unions is taking the role of political parties because of the poor parties structure we have. No one can deny that the Unions are more influential and open than political parties in Jordan. Another thing, members of the unions elect their representatives in different boards partly because of their political views. And the representatives should be able to express those views.
I agree that the unions are getting themselves head2head with the gov, specially with the “Normalization with enemy” thing. And the fact they they expel members from diffrent professional Associations due to their political views or stands, specially when it comes with dealing with Israel. Now this is against Freedom, and I am against that. But what the gov is doing by disallowing the Unions to express their political views is a disgrace as well.
wow natasha,
That is such a a strong stand 🙂 but actually you are right… I am bothered as well that nothing advances, people just use any gatehring as a way to voice their frustration as you put it… mostly because they are too worried to voice it under their own names.. anyway… I believe Jordan as a society will advance only when people use the right times to do the right things and not mix everythin together.