Tuesday, February 27, 2024

The CLAC Difference in Healthcare

CLAC’s approach allows for greater communication between management and workers who see themselves as collaborators working toward a common goal

By David Houston, Representative

In my past life in developmental services, a field closely associated with healthcare, I had the opportunity to work for two companies. One was unionized, and one was not.

The nonunion company offered considerably lower wages than market value. After a few employees were unfairly dismissed, I observed morale dip to an all-time low. I decided to leave for a company organized by CUPE, and it was a breath of fresh air. Well, at least for a while. . . .

The initial pay increase was certainly helpful, and there was a grievance process in place. I didn’t feel the same vulnerability to managerial whims as I had at the nonunion company, but I did in time begin to notice other problems. For example, our dues were being used to support political parties and agendas that had nothing to do with healthcare and did not have the support of a sizable number—perhaps even the majority—of staff.

I also noticed that managers seemed afraid to discipline poor performance, due to fear of union retaliation, even when disciplinary measures would have been reasonable and welcomed by the rest of the team. I noticed how this fear of union retaliation led to mistrust and poor communication between management and workers.

I remember pointing out these problems to a coworker one day. She sighed heavily and shook her head. She too expressed her wish that a union could help negotiate better wages, protect us from bad management decisions, but without scaring good managers from dealing with deserved disciplined and that would not waste our dues money on what she called “political garbage.” I was relieved to hear I wasn’t alone in these views.

CLAC has garnered attention for its unique style of labour relations, a style that seems particularly attractive to those working in the healthcare sector. To begin with, CLAC doesn’t use union dues to push “political garbage,” as my coworker so succinctly put it.

But, perhaps more importantly, CLAC takes a more conciliatory approach to workplace issues. To be sure, when there is genuine injustice, CLAC goes to bat for its members. But the default stance is to work with management—not against! This allows for greater communication between management and workers who see themselves not as adversaries who must remain on their guard, afraid of the consequences of upsetting the opposing side, but as collaborators working toward a common goal.

The attraction of this approach should not be surprising given that healthcare employs predominantly female workers. Women make up roughly 85 percent of the workforce, which explains why healthcare workers tend to oppose strike action in preference to more conciliatory approaches.

Studies have shown that job stability and the fear of losing one’s job is a greater concern for women than men, which makes them more likely to avoid open conflict. Moreover, healthcare professionals are statistically more likely to be reluctant to strike. This reluctance to engage in open conflict, especially strikes, fits with CLAC’s historical reluctance to strike and emphasis on a friendly, collaborative approach to solving labour relations differences.

You might be tempted to think that although this all sounds very nice and must be quite lovely when your employer’s reasonable, the only way to really get things done with an unreasonable employer—and get a fair wage—is to take the more combative approach. After all, in my own experience in developmental services working for a nonunion company, didn’t I just admit I wasn’t compensated fairly? Yes, I did. There was a substantial gap between union and nonunion wages in the developmental sector at that time.

But a different picture emerges when we attend to data from the healthcare sector, which shows no significant difference in wages comes from adopting a conciliatory approach. The reason for this fact is simple.

In healthcare, many contract negotiations end up in arbitration. This results in most wage and benefits packages reflecting industry norms. So, it’s simply not the case that to get results you must take an adversarial stance and risk damaging relationships with people you’re going to have to work with every day.

Unfortunately for my coworkers and me, as well as many others in healthcare, CUPE didn’t get the memo. But it looks like many workers are beginning to see the positive difference that a conciliatory approach versus a combative approach makes in healthcare.

The CLAC Difference in Healthcare

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