Wednesday, June 11, 2025

A Case Study in Partnership: Does Labour-Management Collaboration Work?

A recent article published in Harvard Business Review reinforces the case that CLAC has been making for 73 years

Maimonides Medical Center, a major teaching hospital in Brooklyn, New York, launched a labour-management partnership in 1997. The hospital was motivated to improve outcomes by tapping into the knowledge and expertise of their front-line employees who were more closely involved in daily operations than management.

The results were impressive. According to the article’s author, Pamela Brier, who was CEO of Maimonides for 12 years, “our documented outcomes speak for themselves: a 50% reduction in hospital-acquired infections; a 50% reduction in patient falls; major improvements in response time to cardiac monitors (down to less than one minute); a 75% increase in unpaid bill collection; a 93% rate of patient meals delivered on time; a 63% reduction in union grievances; and the introduction of innovative new operating room procedures that prevented errors.”

CLAC was founded in 1952 based on the principle of mutual respect and dignity for all members of the work community. The premise of its labour relations model is that a company or organization will perform better when labour and management work together—to the benefit of everyone. This may seem self-evident to most people, and yet Canadian and American labour relations is still today based largely on an adversarial system that pits one side against the other.

The basic theory of the adversarial model of labour relations is that any gain by one side can only come as a result of a loss by the other. Thus, each side must naturally be opposed to the other.

In the early days of the labour movement in the 19th century, this zero-sum game was the only way forward for the labour movement, which fought for recognition and legalization. Company owners and management vehemently opposed any unionization efforts to maintain control—and often exploitation—of labour.

Unions have been legally recognized in Canada since the passage of the Trade Unions Act in 1872. Since then, labour has made many gains for workers—gains we take for granted today, such as restrictions on hours of work, health and safety protections, vacation, minimum wages, protection against discrimination and harassment, employment insurance, paid sick leave, and many other benefits.

Unfortunately, the winner-take-all mindset continues to persist to this day and remains the dominant model for labour relations in North America. But as CLAC knows, and the Maimonides Medical Center discovered, much more can be gained by working together than against each other.

But creating a collaborative, partnership approach is not always easy. Many companies still accept the adversarial approach and even prefer it. It’s familiar. It’s easy. Working together, resolving differences, and creating win-win solutions takes effort. Building trust takes years and can be shattered quickly.

Brier points to six keys the hospital adopted to make collaboration work.

Introduce the idea collaboratively. Recruit a small group of union stewards, front-line workers, managers, and administrators to lead the initiative. CLAC does this by negotiating regular labour-management meetings in its collective agreements.
Set up infrastructure and choose initial projects. Basically, the hospital created the ground rules for collaboration and which projects got proposed and selected. “Be sure to create respectful welcoming environments for all,” Brier advises.
Build understanding and trust. “Invariably, some managers will not warm to the idea of sharing authority with lower-ranking workers,” says Brier. “And some union members may see the project as collusion with management. Address these concerns seriously.”
Identify and invest in skills and leadership. Educational opportunities should be available to all employees. CLAC’s highly successful Cooperate to Win program—available to members and managers—provides training in collaborative approaches.
Look at systemic issues to resolve inevitable problems. Don’t look to blame one person when something goes wrong. Look for the underlying causes to properly address and fix things that went wrong.
It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Building a cooperative partnership often takes many years. It’s not easy, but as the Maimonides case study shows, it’s worth it in the long run for everyone in the work community.

“Wages, benefits, and financial stability will always create tension,” concludes Brier. “But the next time collective bargaining contracts roll around, you will be in a better position for successful negotiation. Employees want respectful environments where they have a say. A collaborative culture allows you to create a thriving organization that delivers high quality to customers and a humane workplace where employees are valued and happy to come to work with shared goals and mutual respect.”

Based on our 73 years of experience doing the hard work of practicing cooperative labour relations, we couldn’t agree more.

A Case Study in Partnership: Does Labour-Management Collaboration Work?

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