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Can anyone recommend any books for effectively managing organized labor? I am specifically interested in the following:
[list]building trust (which is currently non-existent)
creating incentives
achieving change[/list:u]
I started working at a new company about 6 months ago, about the same time I discovered Manager Tools. I am 24 years old, and hope to have a long career at the company.

My new employer is a railroad, so most of the workforce is unionized, and can't be off-shored. At the same time, the organization is in desperate need of change, and labor-management relations are fraught with distrust. I saw [url=http://www.manager-tools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1087]Mark's response to a forum post[/url] regarding unions, and I would like to know how to implement the MT recommendations at a unionized shop.

I would be interested to read any books (or periodicals, or any other material) that you gurus can recommend.

AManagerTool's picture

I worked in a union shop as a team leader (US) and a supervisor (THEM). There is always the US and THEM boundary that gets policed by both the Union and HR. I'd be surprised if you could even do One on One's with a union guy without the shop steward and HR rep there...LOL. I know that they had to be there for any feedback sessions. This is something I could never really resolve...sorry. Alas, I did indeed fail at tearing down that wall.....but no more than every other manager in my position.

If there are books...I'd like to read them too.
I am really interested in hearing how you do. Keep posting.

bug_girl's picture

I agree with Tool--there will always be that boundary, but you can work across it by simply welcoming the union rep, always including them, and asking their advice. Have lunch with them if there is a lunchroom. Be approachable.

Some of it is just ritual--think of it as just a version of this grouse dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LNP7TfMBCw&feature=related

[i]Edited to add:[/i] an even better version of the grouse dance!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvoZkjuYD54&feature=related

bug_girl's picture

Upon reflection...I should expand on my answer.

I have to work with 3 different unions. One of them is the Teamsters.

The #1 thing to remember is to always, [b]always[/b] follow their rules.
(This is the "ritual" part.")

Decisions about the union contracts are almost always made at very high levels. You do not want to poke anyone up there, on either side, with a stick.

The union managers and reps are just looking out for their people, and while Tool is correct that there will *always* be an us/them thing, it doesn't have to be adversarial.

I think the thing that's let me succeed with the unions is that I have made it clear how grateful to the union movement I am for many of the benefits we [i]all[/i] enjoy today as workers. I happen to know a bit about the early union movement, and that sense of shared history and values has worked.

Why not pick up some books to read about the union movement?
Gosh, you could even ask the union folks to make some suggestions :D

It can be a pain to work with unions when you have a poor performer--but it also is a check to random dismissal. Since I work "at the pleasure" of my boss and could be fired tomorrow for no reason at all, I can appreciate that.

rfoley's picture

[quote="AManagerTool"]There is always the US and THEM boundary that gets policed by both the Union and HR. I'd be surprised if you could even do One on One's with a union guy without the shop steward and HR rep there...LOL. I know that they had to be there for any feedback sessions.[/quote]
I agree. With the current level of distrust, any new initiative will be met with suspicion by the union -- especially because Manager Tools seems based on communication between two people, without a union intermediary. If I can successfully implement the Management Trinity, I expect the trust will improve, but getting over that first hurdle is daunting.

[quote="bug_girl"]Why not pick up some books to read about the union movement?
Gosh, you could even ask the union folks to make some suggestions :D[/quote]
I had originally requested books on union history in my list above, but I deleted it before posting because I didn't think it was relevant to Manager Tools.

I already have a few books on labor relations, and a few more are on my "to purchase" list. A few months ago, I asked the union rep for recommendations, but he didn't have any.

[quote="bug_girl"]It can be a pain to work with unions when you have a poor performer[/quote]
Actually, with only a few exceptions, poor performance is not an issue here.

The bigger problem revolves around seniority, because we are in a hiring boom to replace retiring workers. It is hard to attract talented young workers when they will be banished to weekend and graveyard shifts for their first few years, and any attempts to motivate the new workers (without first having offered the same incentives to all of the more experienced employees) results in union objections. The inability to incentivize a new employee without offering everyone else the same exact incentive strikes me as wildly ineffective.

Then again, this is only the current issue at hand. It could change in 6 months.

[quote="AManagerTool"]If there are books...I'd like to read them too.
I am really interested in hearing how you do. Keep posting.[/quote]
Well, I don't know how long it will take, or how well it will go, but I will keep posting. If there's no existing test case, I guess it will just have to be me.

[b]PS to bug_girl:[/b] you do not wish to see me dance.

bug_girl's picture

Hey, if you're a dude, and you dance at all, you get big points. :D

The issue of seniority is a tough one. One problem we have is "bumping rights"--if someone with seniority is laid off, they can bump a junior person out of their job. It creates a chain reaction that is incredibly disruptive.

It's part of the ritual--it must be done, can't be changed, and we just have to work around it.

Re: books
I think anything that builds trust and improves communication with your directs is relevant to MT. (of course, I post about prairie chickens, so I may not be representative...)

I have been wracking my brain trying to come up with the name of some of the really quite good books I read in the past, and I got nothing. If it comes to me, I'll add it.
If you want something that is more recreational, pick up Studs Terkel's Working or Hard Times. Neither is about the union movement, but include stories from the early days, and are really fascinating.

Ultimately, getting where you want to go will just take a lot of time and reaching across that boundary. It can be done; I see it work pretty well where I am.

I guess my earlier post has a "you must give respect" tone in a Godfather-y sort of way, but that is part of it, even if a guy named Vinnie or Guido isn't involved. If they know you're sincerely trying to work with the union and appreciate its goals and values, that helps a lot.

rfoley's picture

We have a bump process too. We also have an "extra board" -- meaning that employees (almost always the newest ones) have no set schedule and are under constant threat of being called into work on 2 hours' notice. These processes do not make it easier to recruit young talent.

I agree that implementing the Manager Tools can be done successfully. It will just take more effort and patience. And considering all of the constraints put on management, I think the end product will look somewhat different than in a white-collar workplace.

AManagerTool's picture

I love prairie chickens.....they taste like.....well...like...chicken :lol:

stephenbooth_uk's picture

BLUF: Over communicate with the union

I'm a former union shop steward, but in the UK though. I can't think of any books that aren't very UK specific.

From my experience of being on the other side I think the key thing for managers in a unionised workplace is to over communicate with the union. Engage with them as often as you can and make as much information available as you can. If there's something that can't talk to them about then tell them that you can't talk to them about it and why, then when you can tell them about it tell them. Obviously you should be truthful at all times, if you don't know say "I don't know", if something is undecided then tell them "That's undecided" and (if you can) tell them what the options under consideration are and the process being used to reach a decision. The worst situation you can be in with the union with regards to information is the rep comes into your office waving a newspaper the front page of which is an intertview with you or another manager detailing the information that yesterday you told them was highly top secret and couldn't be shared or no decision had been reached on yet (I've been in that situation many, many times). That really builds distrust.

You are probably going to meet some reps who will be adversarial from the first meeting. In some cases this will be because they've run into a lot of adversarial managers in the past and expect you to be the same, in some case it will be that they just think that's the way union-management relations are supposed to be and in some cases it might be that that's just the way they are. How would you deal with a peer or senior manager who was that way? Build a relationship! That works with union reps as well.

Stephen

Ignatz's picture

I know I'm a little late to the game, but I figured I'd put in something as well. Organized labor's distrust of management and business is legendary, and grows up out of a long history of the abuse of workers. Studs Terkel's oral history books are invaluable for getting perspective on some of the more difficult times in US history. Two other books I'd recommend are Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" and John dos Passos' "The Big Money". They're both novels that illustrate some of the major issues that unions grew up to deal with - zero job security, unsafe working conditions, lousy pay, blacklisting, on and on and on. "The Jungle" is set in the Chicago stockyards of the late 19th century, and will make you very appreciative of the Food and Drug Administration. "The Big Money" deals with unions a bit more tangentially, touching primarily with their early connections with socialism and communism, but it's still an eye-opener.

Hope this helps.

Vince