THERE IS an old union motto, “unity is strength”, which many managers and business owners could do with learning, not least those who employ electricians.

This week’s electricians’ dispute has the potential to become a very serious self-inflicted wound on the economy, and mainly because of divergent groups representing employers failing to act with a united sense of purpose.

For decades it was popular to attribute poor employment relations to a multiplicity of trade unions, but their numbers have fallen from over 120 to under 50 since the early 1980s.

The key problem with the current electricians’ dispute is that there are at least three rival employer groups and the newest and most militant – the National Electrical Contractors’ Ireland (NECI) – has decided to pick a fight over the 20-year-old system of setting formal pay rates in the sector which apply to all employers as a national minimum hourly rate.

They challenged the system of registered employment agreements negotiated by the two more established electrical contractors’ bodies – the Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA) group within the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) and the Association of Electrical Contractors (Ireland) (AECI) – and the dominant TEEU craft workers’ union.

Together, the two employer bodies and the union are called a National Joint Industrial Council reflecting the industrial relations corporatism which even predates the past 21 years of “social partnership”.

The AECI, which has an estimated 200 members, wants to renegotiate the system of determining pay rises using comparisons with other employment groups and “modernise” the system, so issues like travel time and special allowances are not included in the pay calculation.

The ECA, representing about 50 of the bigger electrical engineering firms, is toeing the CIF parental line in seeking a 10 per cent construction sector wage cuts in its response to the TEEU union demands for an 11 per cent combined increase.

The newer NECI, which represents up to 700 small contractors and one-man electrical operations, wants to operate outside any formal registered pay and pensions structure. They got the ball rolling by securing an injunction against the most recently negotiated but not ratified or registered employment agreement. This group is not invited to participate in the current discussions at the Labour Relations Commission.

Each of the three employer groups has a different agenda and priorities reflecting the pressures they face, while their unionised employees have the unity of one disciplined organisation. Even combined they represent just about 900 out of an estimated 3,000 electrical contractors in the State.

In part, the employer divisions are a response to the effectiveness of the senior TEEU officials in securing favourable terms for their card-carrying members through astute use of pressure within the more recent national social partnership agreements.

It is a bit like the tensions which led to Isme splitting from Ibec’s Small Firms’ Association in the early 1990s or the breakaway Ilda train drivers’ body which split with Siptu and the NBRU, an early transport union splinter group. These had damaging effects, with Isme locked out of formal partnership discussions and the train drivers undertaking a 10-week strike to secure some recognition.

Unfortunately, it may be companies and businesses associated with Ibec that could suffer most from the electricians’ conflict. Hence the need for employer unity is greatest for Ibec’s new leader, Danny McCoy.

With his lack of industrial relations battle scars from his previous career as an economist, academic and strategic analyst, he may be the person to build this much-needed unity on the employers’ side.

The dispute has provided a glimpse of what the other side of the partnership coin looks like with good old-fashioned work stoppages, flying pickets and targeting of larger employers and prestige projects. If appropriate wage deals cannot be struck, we have the potential of rerunning the 1969 maintenance workers’ strike which crippled the economy and helped bring the “economic boom” of the mid-1960s to a halt.

The problem is many employers and managers only see the world from their business perspective and fail to see the need for a united approach. This became a serious issue when the CIF decided not to proceed last November with the draft pay deal which was eventually signed up to by Ibec and Ictu.

It looked then as if the CIF was reading the situation best in not making pay commitments in a time of deepening recession. Six months later, it is beginning to look as if the CIF lacked a long-term strategy and failed to take seriously the growing strength of the new rivalry from the NECI for the hearts and minds of smaller electrical sector employers.

Gerald Flynn is an employment specialist with Align Management Solutions