The Negotiation of a Gentlemen’s Agreement: A Case Study of a Private School
This article, which is based on a case study conducted in a private school in Quebec, examines non-union representation by looking at the process of negotiating an agreement that is at the margin of the usual system. It aims to understand the reasons why a group of workers, together with their employer, follows this particular route in signing a labour agreement. The case of non-union representation, studied from a variety of data sources, shows that the mode of representation initiated by the employer forms part of the union avoidance thesis. Thus, the recognition of a group of teachers and the voluntary negotiation on the part of the employer are directly related to the desire to avoid unionization. From the teachers’ perspective, the choice to remain as a non-recognized group is based primarily on the quality of the relationship with management and the desire to have a mode of representation that is free from conflict. Teachers are, to a large extent, satisfied with the terms of the labour agreement, particularly as they receive a number of benefits that have been negotiated for the unionized teachers. The results show that these teachers are not under the yoke of managerial ideology, but their power to influence decisions is somewhat limited. The agreement is based solely on a particular context, on trust and fear of reprisals, and hence has important limitations in terms of its application.