Patrick Stevedores Dispute

Fox (1996) stated that there are two major employment relation frames; unitarism and pluralism. The unitarist approach of conflict believes that management, staff and the workforce are integrated and share the same goals and interests; thus working together towards the same targets and for the benefit of the company. In other words, there is no evident division between employers and employees (Loudoun, McPhail, Wilkinson, Sappey, Burgess, Lyons & Buultjens 2009). Unitarism demands loyalty from all employees which is known as the paternalistic approach. Whereas, the pluralist approach of conflict believes that employment relationships are un-restricted which ultimately creates underlying structural antagonism, which can create conflict between employees and the workplace. The aim of pluralism is to resolve conflicting ideas by accepting that various groups of people have different interests, demands and requirements in order to help stop the enterprise from being damaged. However, these interest may conflict or coincide with rival leadership (Geare et al. 2006).

As the employers and employees of the company aren’t working together and cooperating, the unitarist approach would explain the position of management in this case. It is clear that the management aren’t concerned about the welfare of the company as they are attempting to compensate the offers presented by the unions and not accepting these offers in order to offer their own conditions. As the employers and employees are trying to change to benefit the company, the unitarist approach would therefore explain the position of the unions.

The Patrick Stevedores dispute shows that there are conflicts of interest between the management towards it’s employees. The pluralist approach explains the position of management. The aim of the pluralist approach is to keep the conflict within an acceptable barrier to stop the conflict from escalating and destroying the company. The management believe that it is...