Case Study of Shaheen Corporation

9
Introduction: The Shaheen Corporation was established in Gazipur in 2005 as the sole agent and distribution in Bangladesh for supplying electrical goods and appliances for local consumption. It represented some of the leading electrical company in the United Kingdom, the united state of America and Japan. The company began with 5 employees but when the company’s sale is increased and captured 60% of market, and then they increased their employee’s number. At the beginning, the chairman of the company was visit the factory everyday and communicates with the workers about their work and other things. But at a time, the chairmen thought that its really wasting his time so organized the workers formed a trade union that will dealing with employees and their problems in democratic way. The union secretary is a staunch trade unionist and a very shrewd and cleaver. The firm secured permission in 2009 to set up another factory in saver. But when the factory authority getting the preparation to inaugurate the plan, at that time the trade union gave the factory authority some demands of the employees. The factory authority ready to fulfill some of the demands which is logical but the union secretary refuse the counter proposal of the factory and boycott the opening ceremony and stage demonstration. So, the chairman of the company was very much under tension and talk some of the non- union members whom are refer to the chairmen village. They said that ignore the union threat and continue your procedure, we will try and prevent the anticipated unpleasantness.

Transcript of Case Study of Shaheen Corporation

Introduction:The Shaheen Corporation was established in Gazipur in 2005 as the sole agent and distribution in Bangladesh for supplying electrical goods and appliances for local consumption. It represented some of the leading electrical company in the United Kingdom, the united state of America and Japan. The company began with 5 employees but when the companys sale is increased and captured 60% of market, and then they increased their employees number. At the beginning, the chairman of the company was visit the factory everyday and communicates with the workers about their work and other things. But at a time, the chairmen thought that its really wasting his time so organized the workers formed a trade union that will dealing with employees and their problems in democratic way. The union secretary is a staunch trade unionist and a very shrewd and cleaver. The firm secured permission in 2009 to set up another factory in saver. But when the factory authority getting the preparation to inaugurate the plan, at that time the trade union gave the factory authority some demands of the employees. The factory authority ready to fulfill some of the demands which is logical but the union secretary refuse the counter proposal of the factory and boycott the opening ceremony and stage demonstration. So, the chairman of the company was very much under tension and talk some of the non-union members whom are refer to the chairmen village. They said that ignore the union threat and continue your procedure, we will try and prevent the anticipated unpleasantness.

Symptoms:Dispute between the authority and workers are increasing day by day. This type of dispute always is harmful for the workers. Because past result said that if any industries workers were came out to the street for protesting then it will be the reason for the dead of the workers and also the reason of unemployment of the workers. Not only in Bangladesh but also the others countries workers now are protesting for their rights. We would like to give some symptoms on the base of some occurrence which is already happened in Bangladesh and others countries.

December 14, 2012When Kona, a textile worker in Bangladesh, tried to help her co-workers win better conditions on the job, she was harassed to the point where she and her husband were forced into hiding. But through the assistance of the garment workers union federation, which negotiated a resolution with management, Kona ultimately resumed her life and work.November 27, 2012The Solidarity Center joins the international labor and human rights communities in expressing sorrow over the unnecessary and tragic loss of life at a Bangladesh garment factory over the weekend. Between 112 and 120 Bangladeshi garment workersmost of them womenhave been confirmed killed in one of the nations worst industrial disasters in recent memory.October 3, 2012the murder earlier that year of a Bangladeshi union organizer is part of an escalation of attacks on the nations 4 million garment workers who seek to change abusive working conditions, says Kalpona Akter, executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS).On May 26, 2010, the tenth worker that year at the Foxconn electronics plant in southern China jumped to his death, and another worker reportedly attempted suicide by slashing his wrists. Since January, there have been at least three attempted suicides and 11 fatalities, all but one at the giant 300,000-plus-employee Taiwanese-owned facility in Shenzhen. Foxconn, the worlds largest electronics manufacturer, assembles products in China for brands such as Apple, Dell, and Nokia. The young man who jumped from a window on the factory premises was only 23 years old. All of the suicide and attempted suicide victims are young workers, between 18 and 25. They represent the new or second generation of migrant workers in China who have followed their parents from the rural areas to the cities to be the low-cost labor that has driven Chinas remarkable economic growth. Worker rights advocates and others have reported that Foxconn employees work long hours for minimum wage and that they describe working under great pressure and feeling extremely isolated. Zhang Jianguo, a senior official from the official All China Federation of Trade Unions, recently reported that workers wages as a proportion of GDP have gone down every year since 1983. On May 25, the day that another 19-year-old man jumped to his death, labor activists in Hong Kong gathered outside Foxconns headquarters there to urge the company to thoroughly investigate the recent suicides, improve working conditions, facilitate the establishment of democratic worker organizations in the factory, and invite labor NGOs to discuss Foxconns management methodology. Demonstrators lit cardboard cutouts of iPhones on fire as an offering to victims.November 2, 2012A strike by 2 million blue-collar Indonesian workers over wages and job outsourcing resulted in government promises to improve worker pay and restrict the use of workers subcontracted through labor agencies. The one-day walkout in October halted work on more than 80 industrial estates mainly throughout Java and the island of Batam, across from Singapore.April 1, 2013Sugarcane workers at the La Cabaa plantation in Valle De Cauca, Colombia, are taking part in a peaceful protest to seek recognition of their rights as workers. More than 100 workers at the La Cabaa plantation have been fired since forming a union in November, and another 500 have been forced to disaffiliate to retain their jobs, according to the union.With this example, we can now easily understand the symptoms of this dispute between workers and management team.Identification of Problems:From the shaheen corporation case, we have indentified the main problem and this is: Problems of Workers rights and facilities.Alternative Solutions of the problems:To know what the alternative solution of that problem, we talked some of the people of different organization.First of all we talked with MD.shariful Azam who is the CEO of Mahadi water technologies & Mahadi Palastric Industry and a former Financial Manager of HX textiles ltd. . He said that this type of problem is occurring most in our countries. While conflict can be dangerous, it also carries the possibility of producing creative cooperation in a winwin solution. The key to this is for participants to engage as joint problem solvers, seeking to resolve the dispute, and to try and enlarge the pie rather than acting as adversaries and aggravating the situation. Third-party or mediator intervention is used when a negotiation reaches an impasse. It is used to restore belief in the possibility of a beneficial resolution for the parties, future dialogue, and restored relationships, while leaving the control over the decisions with the parties. So, I think that the use of mediator is very import for not only shaheen corporation but also all other firms whom are facing this kind of problems.

We talked another person whose name is MD.Mozzammel Hoque, he is the Director of Unitex Processing. He said that arbitration is one of the ways of solving this kind of problem. But there have another way which is Adjudication. Adjudication is another way that can be used as an alternative in the international arena and in the national local system. The courts have the ability to enforce the law in the case of a failure of the parties to reach agreement through negotiation or mediation. There is a law, and a way to enforce it without the consent of the parties. In international disputes, where states are involved, when problems arise due to opposing interests, such as security or resources, an outside enforcer cannot act where it is not acceptable to one or more of the parties involved. But Ruling by the International Court can end the conflict only if the two countries agree to abide by its ruling. So, its another way to resolve this problem.

Analysis of the Alternatives:The alternative that yields the best outcome for anyone is called the BATNA (Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement). In this case, Shaheen Corporation already tried to negotiate with the unionist. But they are failed. So, need to apply arbitration method which is workable for this problem. I would like to give an example of using of arbitration:A dispute between Israel and Egypt over the location of the border between the two countries in the Gulf of the Red Sea was settled in favor of Egypt by an international arbitration panel, on September 29 1988. Israel had to return the town of Taba, a resort town near Eilat, to Egypt as a result of the arbitration.

As we saw from the example, arbitration method is applicable, because negotiation was rejected from the unionist, so, some human rights or other recognized organization will work as a mediator to solve this dispute.Adjudication is another method that can be used as an alternative in the international arena. We all know that we all live in a globe. If any parts of the world change, than it will be an immediate effect of the other part of the world. So, as a part of the global economy and also Shaheen Corporation is a recognized company whom is connected with some of the foreign company. So, Adjudication will be applicable for this problem.Recommendation and Implementation:As a recommendation, we can say that any practice that disadvantages a worker or a group of workers on grounds of their past, current or prospective trade union membership, their legitimate trade union activities, or their use of trade union services, Can constitute dismissal, transfer, demotion, harassment and the like. So we can take some steps which will remove this kind of dispute or other things in any organization and also need to implement this. Because implementation is very important to complete any work efficiently. So every organization needs to do this. Such as: Give the salary, wages in perfect time. If their salary is not paid wet then need to pay this salary immediately. Our economic situation is not good for this kind of dispute, so, Government will play an important role to solve this kind of things. But the most important role for every workers and management is to cooperate with the government. Many of the international organization are now working to solve the dispute between workers and the industries management team. So, this type of organization practice will play a vital role in every organization. Trade union member also need to do one thing is that not to do any demand which is not possible to do. Every organization need to be very carefully observation of the workers because if they are neglected from the every facility than they will come out to protest which is not only bad for organization but also our economy.Conclusion:The cost-benefit of such workers struggles is difficult to assess. Worker leaders believe that workers demands have been met partially as a result of their actions. Some factories now allow a weekly holiday and pay the minimum wage, allow some limited maternity leave (not the full three months), and so on. However, it is not clear to what extent workers movements have played a role in this, and to what extent this has been in response to imposition of buyers codes of conduct.

Ordinary workers, however, feel that not much has been achieved. They believe that things are just the same as before since employers promise to meet workers demands at the time of a movement but seldom keep their promise. In fact after any protest or movement owners become stricter, if anything.