Tuesday, August 22, 2017

This AND That

We're all in this together, particularly in the workplace

By Dennis Perrin, Prairies Director

I’m 20,000 feet in the air enjoying the view of the prairies from my window seat. The sky is clear and I can see for miles. The view is spectacular, and it’s one of those moments where I get to just sit back, forget the worries of the day, and enjoy the world below me.

I’ve lived in the prairies for the last 19 years. During that time, I’ve come to love it. The limitless sky ahead, fields of canola, alfalfa, and wheat as far as the eye can see—there’s nothing quite like it. The prairies, despite some of the jokes, are a wonderful thing to behold.

My fondness for this western Canadian landscape would make more sense if I had also grown up here. But I’m from the east coast, where the landscape looks absolutely nothing like the prairies. Lush forests, rocky outcrops, mixed with fields, lakes, and streams were the backyard playground that I knew in my youth. I still love that setting, and enjoy it whenever I’m afforded the opportunity to see it again.

I would never have imagined that one day I would go west and come to love the prairies as well. Most of the time our minds operate in a dualistic mode of thinking. We tend to like one thing at the expense of the other—a this-or-that way of looking at things.

Although aspects of life and society sometime require this-or-that thinking, at other times it’s not very helpful. Take unionized workplaces, for example. Traditional thinking holds that you cannot have well-compensated workers and an employer that thrives in business. Labour and management are seen as naturally being at odds with one another, where one benefits at the expense of the other.

In the old days, this was often how labour relations was practiced. Employer interests were gained off the backs of their workers, and unions often had a hand in putting employers out of business. It’s why much of Canadian labour history is filled with strikes and lockouts—even violence.

It’s not hard to see how this-or-that thinking in labour relations ends up being bad for both sides.
We know from 65 years of history with CLAC that this misguided way of practicing labour relations doesn’t need to be our reality. Workers can thrive, not at the expense of their employer, but alongside their employer.

When done right, unions and employers maximize the best attributes of each other to create workplaces that are safe, profitable, and satisfying. This is not to say that working together is always easy, and it may not happen all of the time. It takes a lot of work, and requires the commitment of both parties to realize positive outcomes that benefit everyone.

It’s often been said that we’re all in this together, and this is certainly true of the workplace. When we embody this-and-that thinking, we embody endless possibility for creating better workplaces and better lives. The sky is the limit. And like the prairies out of my window at 20,000 feet, the view is spectacular.

This AND That

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