There are good reasons why some labor-management partnerships fare better than others.
In 2009 President Obama signed an executive order, similar to one signed in 1993 by former President Clinton, establishing government-wide labor-management forums and promoting partnerships between federal employee groups and agency officials.
Supporters of Clinton-era labor-management partnerships say they fostered greater cooperation between labor and management, recognized the importance of input from employees and their union representatives in agency decisions, created effective processes for engaging frontline employees, and facilitated faster resolution of contract disputes and grievances.
Detractors argue the process sometimes excluded middle managers from important discussions, required senior managers to relinquish too much power, created costs for attending partnership meetings that yielded limited results, required consensus-based bargaining tactics which understated critical differences, and failed to hold managers accountable for implementing partnerships.
Labor-management partnerships fared much better at some agencies than others. The most important contributor to successful labor-management partnerships was support from agency chief executives and union presidents. Top executives must be prepared to do whatever it takes to ensure agency chief human capital officers and labor relations specialists understand that partnership is a legitimate approach to labor-management relations. Union chiefs must foster similar acceptance among their contract negotiations staffs.
The successes and failures of various partnerships under Clinton’s executive order surfaced helpful implementation guideposts for agency executives and union officials.
Agree on the Mission. Labor and management officials must develop a shared understanding of what their partnership is trying to accomplish. For example, they could define partnership broadly as using stakeholder involvement and cooperative problem solving to influence the agency’s direction and decisions affecting employees’ work environment.
Get it in Writing. Draft a formal partnership agreement that clearly defines manager accountabilities and employee responsibilities when decisions are made with employee input. Regard the agreement as a “living document” subject to periodic adjustment to meet changing circumstances. In multi layered agencies, such agreements describe in detail how labor-management forums and processes will work at various levels within divisions or functions, and how they will foster communication and coordination across these operating units.
Use Consultants Sparingly. Agency employees often team up with outside consultants to provide their labor-management forums with start-up guidance and training. After that, agency officials should rely on consultants primarily to develop in-house facilitators who can support ongoing partnership activities without external assistance.
Provide Multiple Forums. Productive partnerships include regular, on-going and sometimes intense interactions in scheduled and structured labor-management forums. They also create platforms for episodic, impromptu and informal exchanges of information and practices, including face-to-face interactions, virtual networks and task teams.
Develop an Input Process. Develop a common understanding of the input process leading up to management decisions—what the process entails, why it is in everyone’s respective interests, what results are expected, and what actions will occur after the process has concluded. Agencies should provide managers, employees, union officials and other stakeholders with substantive information and involvement in workplace decisions before establishing policies or taking actions that affect the work environment. Management officials should provide this information honestly, openly and early enough to secure direct, informed and credible input from these stakeholders.
Break the Consensus Barrier. Consensus is neither necessary nor attainable on every labor-management issue. Adopt a “strive-for-consensus” approach. Forum participants should make good-faith efforts to reach agreements each side can live with and publicly support. But use other methods—such as voting or delegating to the forum chair—when consensus is jointly perceived to be unnecessary or unattainable.
Build Partnering Skills. Every participant in labor-management forums should receive training in interest-based problem solving, strive-for-consensus decision making and collaborative bargaining. Agencies should foster these partnering skills through professional development programs and training for union stewards and agency managers. Effective interpersonal communication and collaboration create positive agency-union partnerships and constructive agency-stakeholder relationships—both of which are vital to agency performance.
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