Friday, March 8, 2024

From Good to Great?

The more that employers, employees, and a cooperative union like CLAC partner together, the more workplaces will flourish

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By Eric Nederlof, Solidarity Program and Support Local Manager

Some organizations have generally healthy and positive employer/employee relationships. In such situations, CLAC might be viewed as an outsider or an interloper when employees seek to bring them in. This view is held mainly by management, but even by some employees.

Common arguments against a union are that they will add expense to the operation. Perhaps the thinking is to leave well enough alone or that things aren’t so bad, or the fear is that the workplace will be at the mercy of outside decision makers if a union comes in.

Let’s look at those claims to see if they hold up.

It is true that there will be added cost to an organization that has chronically under-spent on their internal staff relations and human resources. However, in such cases, the extra spending is really just the amount the organization should have been spending in the first place.

This scenario is unlikely if a generally healthy and positive relationship already exists between management and employees. Returning to the marriage analogy from previous articles, in a situation like this, bringing in CLAC would be like a happily married couple going to a marriage retreat—getting assistance to enhance and improve on an already good relationship and helping to grow the value and purpose of the enterprise. Going from a good relationship to a great one.

Another reason for added expense would be management spending money to fight against the will of their employees. They may choose to spend money on lawyers hoping to find a loophole or technicality that they can exploit to thwart the will of their employees to unionize, so that management can maintain their unilateral control. They may even try to blame the expense on the employees or the union, even though they are choosing to spend company dollars to interfere with a decision that is the employees’ alone to make. This action shows that despite all past demonstration of employees’ commitment to the organization’s values, goals, and success, management doesn’t really trust their employees. They are willing to allow the organization to financially suffer to protect their power and control on decision making.

Workplaces with good employer/employee relations usually have been built through focused human resources efforts and other legitimate means of employee engagement and participation. Both management and employees are genuinely concerned about having good relationships and buy-in to the overall mission and purpose of the enterprise. These are all excellent endeavours and I congratulate those that have made the effort and taken on the necessary expense and extra work to make those relationships successful. Healthy workplace relationships do not come cheaply or without effort.

Even when an organization has healthy labour management relations and there is a high level of trust between management and employees, it still makes good sense, economically and otherwise, to seek the assistance of a union like CLAC.

Employing the services of CLAC will not cost such an organization money. In fact, feedback from many employers tells us that CLAC actually ends up saving operational costs.

Why? In larger, multi-faceted, or complex organizations, the complexity of the employee/employer relationship often grows beyond the level of the employees’ and managers’ labour relations interest or level of expertise. It’s like hiring a consultant or a subcontractor to do certain work a company is not equipped to do.

CLAC’s aim is to be an extension of the employees it is serving in that workplace. The adage that the employees are the union is true with CLAC. We work to empower workers to find their voice and express their interests well. We also help them understand management’s viewpoints and work to ensure miscommunications are avoided. CLAC champions the viewpoints and ideas of the employees. From there, we work to assist the whole team to come together and create workable solutions that will enhance the entire organization, allowing it and the workers to flourish.

CLAC’s labour relations expertise, training services, health and retirement benefits, and other services can also add value for everyone involved in the enterprise. It allows the employer to streamline their human resources, freeing up both organizational time and money for other core activities. It also frees up employees’ time to do their core work instead of addressing labour relations functions off the side of their desk or on their own time. Everyone is able to be more focussed and efficient, which is a win-win.

CLAC can also provide the necessary environment for the free exchange of ideas and opinions without judgement or repercussions. It gives employees a protected avenue to participate in workplace decision making and helps to level the playing field. The ability to create an atmosphere where important decisions are made as much as possible through consensus allows employees to provide input and feedback on policies, resulting in a more cohesive, functional, and joyful workplace.

There are also tangible, monetary benefits to the workplace that can be achieved through respectful, peace-seeking, positive labour relations. These include

• greater productivity;

• fewer lost days to illness, stress, and other reasons;

• increased retention;

• improved ability to recruit; and

• better mental health.

The more that employers, employees, and a cooperative union like CLAC partner together, the more workplaces will flourish. We think that we can help yours.

Check out Eric's other blogs in this series: It's a Culture Thing and Disagreeing Positively vs. Positively Disagreeing

From Good to Great?

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