Thursday, October 30, 2025

Harmony Isn't Just for Choirs

Are you helping your workplace stay in tune?

By Jayson Bueckert, Fort McMurray Regional Director

When you hear the word harmony, your mind probably goes to music or dance, not labour relations, collective agreements, or projects involving multiton coke drums suspended in midair. But stick with me.

In music, harmony is what happens when different parts work together to make something richer. In dance, it’s a group moving so well together it looks effortless, even though we know somebody’s probably got a creaky back. In work, it can feel just as powerful—when everything aligns and people move together toward the same goal.

Little More Belfast, a Little Less Bickering

In the late ’90s, I lived in Northern Ireland for a while and ended up singing with a small group of musicians in local pubs. Usually just a few guitars, a bit of liquid confidence, and the hope that someone in the crowd would sing along before we lost the key.

The biggest reaction we ever got? When we hit the harmonies in “Fake Plastic Trees” by Radiohead. There weren’t four parts or anything fancy—we weren’t very good—but when things clicked, the whole place lit up. You could feel the shift. It felt pretty amazing.

And it worked because nobody was trying to steal the spotlight. We were just listening, blending our voices rather than competing with them. It wasn’t about perfection. It was about connection.

Same goes for teams at work. Fewer guitars, more high-visibility vests, scrubs, or uniforms—but the principle holds.

Harmony in Hard Hats

Need a bigger example? Let’s talk about something that just happened on a truly massive scale: Suncor’s Coke Drum Integrity Project in Fort McMurray, Alberta.

This project involved replacing eight massive coke drums—giant pressure vessels used to process heavy oil from the oilsands—over the course of a few years. They were removed and replaced using the third-largest crane in the world, which is the kind of machine that makes other cranes look like a lawn chair.

Hundreds of skilled tradespeople—CLAC members among them—were part of pulling this off. And there is no room for ego or improvisation when you’re lifting the industrial-sized equivalent of a small townhome. Everyone has to be tuned in, know their part, and trust that the person next to them knows theirs.

It’s harmony made of steel and human coordination.

Work That Blends

Most of us aren’t lifting giant coke drums or harmonizing in pubs. But that sense of harmony—of people knowing their roles, listening, and adapting—is just as essential in what we do every day:

on job sites where multiple trades have to land the work on time;
on care teams that ensure our loved ones in nursing homes are properly looked after every day;
in grocery stores where team members ensure their departments are ready to serve customers;
in meetings where ideas need space to breathe;
at the bargaining table, where progress depends on timing, empathy, and clarity.

Harmony doesn’t mean everyone agrees all the time. It means we know how to disagree well, without stepping all over the rhythm.

So, wherever you are—on a site, in a care home, working the deli counter—ask yourself: am I helping us stay in tune? Am I part of what’s working? Because there is no better feeling than to be in harmony.

Harmony Isn't Just for Choirs

Little More Belfast, a Little Less Bickering

Harmony in Hard Hats

Work That Blends

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