Improving the Effectiveness of Joint Labor-Management Relationships

This is an interactive program that is designed to assist organizations to improve the functioning of their current labor-management relationship and, where desired, to strengthen the foundation upon which a range of joint labor-management initiatives might be built. The program engages labor and management in a process in which they assess their readiness and capability to work more effectively together, construct a vision of their future relationship that they can each commit to, and identify the barriers that they must address to improve the effectiveness of their relationship.

Who should attend a program of this nature?

Labor and management representatives who have oversight and/or leadership responsibilities in negotiating and implementing the collective bargaining agreement as well as those from labor and management who would be able to influence or would be affected by the implementation of joint change initiatives would do well to attend a program of this nature or invite JLMI staff to conduct a program designed specifically for their organization. Attendance in open-enrollment seminars is limited to labor and management pairs from participating organizations.

In this two-day workshop labor and management participants will:

• Review the characteristics and outcomes of past labor-management relations and joint activities within their organization and discuss the lessons learned from these efforts.
• Assess the current state of their organization with respect to its readiness to work more effectively together as well as to implement joint initiatives.
• Construct a common vision of labor-management relations and prospective joint initiatives in the future.
• Review and reflect on the developments that are driving labor and management to change the process and outcomes of their interactions.
• Review the history and nature of labor-management cooperation and workplace changes, including team systems.
• Review the strategic choices that might be made with respect to redesigning the workplace.
• Conduct an analysis of the stakeholders who are likely to be affected by the changes.
• Conduct a force-field analysis to examine the drivers and barriers associated with the implementation of the contemplated changes.