Guilds (Urcea)

A guild in Urcea is an association of every firm within an industry which represents the interests of both capital and labor. The guild is designed to ensure a level "playing field" for firms, both extant and newcomers, and also designed to eliminate class antipathy by mutual collaboration and decision-making between capital and labor. The guilds, through the Gildertach, are also responsible

History

The modern guild system developed gradually out of more traditional medieval guilds common in other Occidental countries just prior to the beginning of the early modern period. In Urcea, guilds represented the power of the privilegiata during the early renaissance period. They became a cornerstone of what could be called "proto-economic policymaking", becoming responsible for being a direct intermediary between the Julian Palace and the economy with the establishment of the Gildertach in 1407. During the Great Confessional War, as major demographic and economic disruption struck Urcea and the rest of the Holy Levantine Empire, the Kings of Urcea began to gradually regulate the guilds. Leo II made major reforms to the guilds in order to curb anti-competitive behavior, requiring them to admit new firms if they paid an up-front fee. Reforms continued throughout the early modern period with the introduction of a formal Guild Law in 1640. Throughout this period, the Guilds were confronted with various reforms which changed their scope and goals from protecting against domestic competition to protecting against foreign competition. The last major reform to Guilds and the Guild Law came in 1816 when King Niall V invested the Gildertach with oversight of trade negotiations and agreements, signaling the completion of their change in focus. In the midst of the Third Caroline War and at the urging of Aedanicus VIII, Guilds voted to give labor a full representation in 1847, replacing a constellation of various local policies regarding labor's representation. Most guilds adoptd the modern hierarchical structure during the Red Interregnum, reforming into a simple, uniform guild governance structure.

Function

Guilds serve as the primary self-regulator of labor conditions and labor law within Urcea, including the establishment of workplace conditions, wages, and other standards related to labor.

Structure

Each guild has a national, provincial, and local structure. On the national level, each guild is governed by their National Guild Authority, which of comprised of a "Gilder Assembly" which is made up of elected representatives of vested members, and the "Governing Board", which holds some executive decision-making power within the Guild. The Gilder Assembly's members are elected from each province by each province's vested members and seats are apportioned based on how many vested members there are per province. In the Guild Law, no distinction is made among Urcea's three kinds of subdivisions and are all referred to as "provinces". According to the Guild Law, each province must send an equal number of members representing capital and labor to the Gilder Assembly, and under the Guild Law these two groups form a "Labor Caucus" and a "Capital Caucus" respectively within the Gilder Assembly. Elections are typically held annually, with most vested members voting either at their labor meeting, their chamber of commerce meeting, or at the workplace. In addition to being the overall governing body of a guild, each guild's Gilder Assembly is responsible for appointing individuals to serve on Provincial Investiture Boards. The Governing Board of the guild nominates individuals to serve at the Provincial Investiture Board, in consultation with each caucus, and the Gilder Assembly is responsible for confirming the nominees. The Gilder Assembly is also responsible for electing members of the Gildertach, which serve at the pleasure of the Guild. These members are typically chosen from among the Assembly's own membership, with five members representing each guild.

Provincial Investiture Boards are not administrative bodies but are primarily responsible for maintaining the process of investiture happens at the local level, but since the late 1980s the Provincial Investiture Board is increasingly responsible for being a resource on guild law and various guild developments, working as an intermediary between the National Guild Authority and local labor unions and chambers of commerce. Like the Gilder Assembly, Provincial Investiture Boards are made up by equal representation of labor and capital within their province, with membership varying based on the number of vested members within the province in the guild. The Provincial Boards have two direct tasks deputed them by the Guild Law, the first of which is to oversee and ensure the ethical working of the Diocesan Investiture Boards, holding regular audits of their business and supervising their general proceedings. Secondly, the Provincial Investiture Board is responsible for appointing the members of Diocesan Investiture Boards based on the nomination of vested members within the province. Any vested guild member can nominate an individual to fill a vacancy on a Diocesan Investiture Board, and the Provincial Investiture Board is responsible for consideration and approval of these nominations. Members of the Provincial Investiture Board can serve one ten year term on the Board which may not be renewed following the end of their term.

Diocesan Investiture Boards are solely responsible for creating vested members of guilds, and it is their primary responsibility. The Diocesan Investiture Boards range widely in size, with the smallest rural dioceses having as few as four members with the largest - the Urceopolis Metropolitan Investiture Board - having two hundred members, larger than most Provincial Investiture Boards. Members of the Diocesan Investiture Boards serve at the pleasure of the Provincial Boards and members may be removed at any time. Any business firm or labor union - including local or workplace-specific segments of unions - within a diocese may nominate one of their own members to become a vested guild member. The Guild Law does not specify how many members a Diocese may invest per year, but precedent typically dictates that each firm or union may only nominate one of their own members per year to be invested except in localities with guild communes, where a larger proportion of guild members are invested. Diocesan Investiture Boards may, in some circumstances, also resolve disputes between employers and employees or disputes between different firms. Like the other parts of guilds, the Diocesan Boards are made up of an equal number of representatives of labor and capital.