Syndicalisme critique et défi institutionnel : Vers l’individualisation du militantisme ?

Nous posons dans le cas d’une monographie française (les syndicats Sud) la question de la régénérescence démocratique du syndicalisme bureaucratique. Malgré des référents politiques communs, notamment le souci de rénovation « démocratique » via la recherche de proximité avec la base, le réveil de l’action revendicative met aux prises des logiques d’action et des porte-parole opposés au nom du réveil de sensibilités politiques divergentes, mais tous héritiers d’une même culture politique soixante-huitarde. Dimensions collectives et individuelles se mêlent donc à des problèmes de structure du syndicalisme, partagé entre deux conceptions contradictoires du contrôle (salarial ou social) ou de la démocratie (directe et indirecte). Le procès d’institutionnalisation contredit la réactivation des référentiels politiques du syndicalisme français, tandis que le procès d’individuation sociale accentue le rôle des individus dans un contexte de rareté de l’action collective.The French union movement welcomed a new member into its midst during the 1990s, the Fédération des syndicats Sud (Solidaires, Unitaires and Démocratiques), a breakaway group from the CFDT (Confédération française démocratique du travail). Members of the Fédération des syndicats Sud mostly come from a hard left tradition. They are typically a young, but otherwise diverse, group who see strike action as the principal means of achieving workplace change. Leaders of the Fédération des syndicats Sud may be described as “strike generators.”Trade unionists who are members of the Fédération des syndicats Sud made a breakthrough in the elections following its constitution, and the union had success in recruiting members in the Public Service, especially the rail service, the hospitals, the postal service and telecoms. The approach adopted by the Fédération des syndicats Sud appears to have spawned a renewed interest in radicalism and militancy amongst members of other unions and employees generally. In particular, the Sud example is creating an impetus for organized labour leaders to renew their links with members.The success of Sud-PTT, the first of its kind, rests on a mixture of political and union families and existing union attitudes and preoccupations. The new movement’s success appears to be due to a strategy of identifying and addressing particular worker needs. These are: the protection of salaries and working conditions (of the CGT type), the more qualitative need for the reduction of work time and of racism (of the CFDT type), and the more reformist need for career management and social causes (of the FO type) (Sainsaulieu, 1998).This article examines the way Sud currently operates and how it is perceived 10 years after it was formed. The study uses a participative observation approach and examines, in particular, two struggles faced by paramedical hospital and non-medical workers in the Paris region. The author observed that local strikers were acting without the support of Sud militants, and the union federations, including their own Sud-Santé federation. The action of local activists was called “basist” or “localist” by their federation. The local strike was led by a non-permanent and politicized anesthesia nurse (who had hitherto refused union membership) and by a psychiatric nurse, with a similar profile in the neighboring hospital. It is concluded that these strike leaders took collective action while the federation sought unity with other unions at the regional level. This phenomena can be viewed as a tradeoff between taking strike action without the endorsement of others in the region and achieving unity amongst unions and unionists.It is concluded that taking strike action with broad support has been a key component of Sud’s success. In particular, the Sud approach has been based on: radicalism and the influence of the masses, direct and representative democracy (in professional elections), control over workers and social control (Hyman, 1991). The hospital sector is not the only one involved, other conflicts within Sud became evident in discussions within the federation of Postal Services and Telecoms. These conflicts revolved around on the choice between general and sectoral campaigns, and between local and federal concerns.Studies of strikes show that the “base/summit” divide (if one can use this image, given the small size of the sudiste pyramid) is carried out within a single generation. Those of the “sixty-eight” generation may be considered to possess either a responsibility ethic or a conviction ethic. Founded by radicals, Sud has moderated over the years and has divisions within its membership which would seem to separate it from the CFDT. These ideological gaps have revealed themselves in practice between partisans of direct and indirect democracy. They are also based upon the experiences of different sets of activists, some concerned with structure, and the others attached to teams and local practices, more sensitive to collective action.The primary focus of our analysis is dual: born of and for collective action, unionism appears yet again amid contradictions, between control over workers, and social control. At the same time, the importance of the individuality of opinion leaders is reaffirmed. More militant unions typically gain their reputation from the attitudes and orientations of their leaders. Finally, we find traces of the anarcho-syndicalism militants “persuaded of the necessity of individual action and of the value of the individual, trained and educated” (Chambelland, 1999). In other words, faced with institutionalism the strong individualist dimension of collective unionism has persisted, even grown.What then becomes of the democratic union collectivity, caught between institutionalization and individuality? Democracy is a source of legitimacy for any modern political organization. Unions in particular should remain democratic, irrespective of their degree of professionalism or centralization. In the same way, unions must be grounded in the collective work, from which they stray on more than one point. However, despite the ethical involvement of activists and occasional collectives, it seems to us that it is necessary to abandon the assimilation of unionism into a “vast movement of emancipation” (Contrepois, 2003). Its local or temporal vitality translates into action but without subverting a tendency to union supremacy for itself (Hyman, 1991). There does not seem to be any intangible safeguard, or political culture, so present in France (Clegg, 1976), nor a “militant elite” sheltered from distortions (Collinet, 1951), even if collective action requires, in effect, collective and individual resources.Intra-organizational tensions underline the importance of individual militant energy, first for action and implantation, then as a counter weight to institutionalization. Everyone, regardless of their position in the union, can keep or preserve preoccupations outside of the union and follow higher principles, be they ethical or political.Con el caso de una monografía francesa (los sindicatos del Sur), nosotros planteamos la cuestión de la regeneración democratica del sindicalismo burocrático. A pesar de las referencias políticas comunes, en especial la preocupación de renovación « democrática » vía la búsqueda de proximidad con la base, el despertar de la acción reivindicativa enfrenta lógicas de acción y voceros opuestos en nombre del despertar de sensibilidades políticas divergentes, pero todos ellos herederos de una misma cultura política de la revuelta del 68. Las dimensiones colectivas e individuales se mezclan entonces a problemas de estructura del sindicalismo, dividido entre dos concepciones contradictorias del control (salarial o social) o de la democracia (directa o indirecta). El proceso de institucionalización contradice la reactivación de referenciales políticos del sindicalismo francés mientras que el proceso de individualización social acentúa el rol de los individuos en un contexto de escasez de acción colectiva

Professional Work in Health Care Organizations: The Structural Influences of Patients in French, Canadian and American Hospitals

Although there are several studies of the impact of employment of health professionals in large bureaucratic organizations, there has been significantly less research focused on the structural influence of patients on this relationship. In this paper we present comparative qualitative data gathered on the work experiences of health care professionals in Canadian, U.S. and French hospitals. We elaborate specifically on a typology of structural influence of clients on health care professionals work in hospitals in terms of open and closed units.health professions, health care organizations, patients, hospitals, physicians, nurses, comparative perspectives

Fondements sociologiques et perspectives pour la gestion des ressources humaines en entreprise

Des pratiques nouvelles de gestion du personnel ont indéniablement été développées au cours des années 80, dans le domaine de l'animation de groupes de travail, de la formation et de la requalification visant à reconstituer de nouveaux métiers, dans la gestion prévisionnelle de l'emploi et des compétences et dans la gestion explicite des mobilités, recrutement et placements extérieurs. La sociologie du travail, des organisations, de la culture en entreprise et des relations professionnelles, est ici interpelée sur les conditions sociales de la mise en oeuvre de telles pratiques dans les ensembles humains de production. Agir sur les ressources humaines de l'entreprise implique en effet davantage qu'une attention portée aux individus; plus on cherche à les motiver au travail pour soutenir l'entreprise et défendre l'emploi, plus on rencontre la structure sociale de leurs interactions quotidiennes de travail, et par là une mise en cause et en mouvement de l'entreprise comme société particulièrement inscrite dans la societé globale. La sociologie, qui étudie la dynamique de reproduction et de transformation de tout ensemble humain structuré, est donc concernée par cet effet de société entrâiné par le développement de nouvelles pratiques de gestion des ressources humaines (GRH) en entreprise.

SUD-PTT, un nouveau syndicalisme «politique» ?

Le syndicat SUD-PTTest une scission récente (1989) de la CFDT, la deuxième centrale syndicale en France. Il est animé par une génération de militants marqués par Mai 1968, politiquement proches de l'extrême gauche. Mais ces militants sont aux prises avec une génération de nouveaux adhérents, dans un contexte d'urgence sociale. Idéologie et préférence partisane sont mises de côté au nom du pragmatisme, tandis qu'un sens élevé des questions transversales aboutit à un syndicalisme sociétal original, qui a fait école dans différents secteurs.SUD is a very contemporary type of unionism : it rejects a single, general discourse in favour of a complex balance of cultural sensibilites and a range of policies, linked to each other simply by common themes; it is as much a "front" as an organization, a sort of organized front. Furthermore, it is a melting pot, in the sense that a wide range of concerns — political and social, qualitative and quantitative, materialist and post-materialist — are mixed together, as well as in the sense that the result is a common denominator : pragmatic militancy (contestation pragmatique).This approach is obviously advantageous in terms of its openness and its integrative capacity. This is what explains the attachment of its members to a profile of pragmatic militancy, an economical profile in which there is an expectation of confrontations rich in different sensibilities, but which does not stand in the way of immediate action. In this manner, sudistetrade unionism is attractive more in cultural than ideological terms, for it provides each member with a meaningful experience without forcing everyone into the same mould. SUD's attraction is due to its ability to provide for the coexistence of a range of union and political approaches, without, as yet, the appearance of any fault Unes creating internal divisions. In this context, the members are involved in a cultural experience of access to meaning, but the lack of a transformational project makes a long-term synthesis and mobilization difficult. There is no shortage of radical ideas and practices, but, in the absence of confederalization, these are in practice focused on a single occupational universe, thereby rendering inoperable the class radicalism that is sometimes expressed. Furthermore, these ideas remain wholly rhetorical or symbolic as they related to the wider society, where SUD claims to act more as a thorn in the side of the powerful rather than construct a new social project.This lack of a social perspective highlights the limited progress made by the "militants of 68", whose original political posture was too dogmatic to lead to mass, open politicization, but was at the same time too diffuse.The CFDT got around this problem by aligning itself with the non-communist left, distinct from the philosophical communism of the CGT. However, for radical trade unionism, this proximity helped to discredit the option of political action, leading in tum to the split that created SUD. But the focus on the defence of immediate interests means that this type of unionism tends towards a pragmatism that is at once reformist, routine and self-satisfying. In the long run, this can blunt its radical commitment to social transformation, as well as its innovative, critical and, indeed, irreverent practices.Lacking a clear vision of its link to society, SUD-PTT is meanwhile unable to offer any ideas for reshaping trade unionism or the public sector, and so it falls back on emphasizing the virtues of pluralism and of the recourse to criticism to create the conditions through which an innovative organization can be built.Like SUD-PTT, the CGT no longer has a social project, so much so that observers commonly contrast "the pragmatic exploitation of discontent with the elaboration of a social project."As if to confirm this reading, the CGT has removed the reference to the "abolition of capitalist exploitation" from its statutes. It underlined that the paralysis of the confederation may prevent it from satisfying the aspirations of its young new members, who are "looking for dynamic organizations." We would also like to take the opportunity to qualify the term "pragmatic" that is applied to the militant trade unionism that we have examined. SUD-PTT profits from the dynamism of young, politically experienced leaders who head up a lean and relatively non-bureaucratie structure. In the opinion of even its fiercest adversaries, SUD-PTT "has a well structured discourse, plays the card of transparency, and has a demonstrated ability to produce analyses of the Telecomsthat appeal as much to managers as to the rest of the employees."1 An "old soldier of CGT-Poste" seconded this compliment in the following terms : "The SUD activiste, well schooled thanks to their involvement in the extrême left, are everywhere." SUD-PTT is certainly not short on ideas—about women, the Third World, Bosnia and Kosovo, unemployment, homosexuality, immigration, the class struggle, and the restructuring of firms in general and of the public sector in particular. Its links to the grassroots and the responsibilities in the ex-PTTs provide a degree of legitimacy to this ideological baggage. The CGT certainly cannot match SUD's ability to change direction or its reactive capacity, at least in qualitative terms. Moreover, the CGT's recent shift towards reformist trade unionism, its rapprochement with the government and its desire for social peace, leaves an opening that is waiting to be filled, especially in the public sector. The PTTs therefore have an electoral terrain for trade union renewal, for a trade unionism that is neither too accommodating nor old-fashioned. This has allowed inventive and committed activists to create some manoeuvring room. More broadly, this raises the question of whether we are witnessing the emergence of a new model of militancy.El sindicato SUD-PTT est un grupo que se separo recientemente (1989) de la CFDT, la segunda central sindical en Francia. Esta animado por una generaciòn de militantes marcados por los hechos de mayo de 1968, polìticamente cercanos a la izquierda extrema. Pero estos militantes se encuentran con el problema de la nueva generaciòn de miembros, en un contexto de urgencia social. Ideologìa y preferencia partisana se ponen de lado para favorizar el pragmatismo, mientras que un sentido elevado de las preguntas transversales acaba con un sindicalismo social original que se a convertido en escuela en varios sectores