I am from Canada and as a result, almost our entire HCO is unionized. There might be 100 or so excluded managers and support staff across an organization of 5000 or so.

The one area I think our organization has had success is through collaborative approaches with union leadership. Union representatives (i.e. shop stewards) have been provided with office space and regular meetings such that they are able to work full time addressing concerns of the membership before they become a massive issue. In British Columbia, the health care unions are organized provincially, so contract negotiations are handled by a central group of union people, who deal with a central group of government people. The corollary is that because unions are provincially organized, local issues sometimes are pushed aside in favor of broad policy issues. This leaves the local issues to local managers and union reps to try to manage within the framework of the Collective Agreement.

For those of us in Canada, unionization is a way of life and as such, if we want to do anything innovative, collaborating with the affected unions is something we have to do if we hope to be successful.

I would agree, Michael, with your comment that managing collaboration is less costly than managing the outfall of not engaging the unions at all. I've not found a confrontational, hands-off, style to be terribly helpful, but that's just my experience.

Hope that's of some help!

I am from the Northeast and the majority of my organization's workforce is unionized. Most of which are represented by 1199 SEIU, with nursing represented by NYSNA.

My organization has partnered with 1199 in developing Labor-Management Committees. Basically, we have formed small groups consisting of union and management personnel that sit around the table and discuss various issues and/or decisions that are being made throughout the organization.

I am the co-chair of our operations LMC and have mixed feelings on the benefit of this inititaive. When we started approximately a year and a half ago the meetings where productive. Labor brought operations issues to the table and we collaborated in developing solutions. In turn, management empowered the workforce to openly bring what some may call "sensitive" issues to the table and allowed them to voice their concerns and make recommendations for improvement. This was quite successful for a while but the meetings deteriorated as time passed. Labor participation has waned in recent month's and as a result many meetings have been cancelled. Unfortunately, the meetings that do occur have become monopolized by senior union members, ie. the organizer, contract administrator and delegates. These meetings have now turned into complaint-fests where the union openly questions managements handling of the hospital. The meetings are no longer productive and in my opinion, will be disbanded in the near future.

Peter

I am in the Pacific Northwest and we had a strong union base. We have about 450 caregivers as part of SEIU and we also have a Labor Management Committee meeting that has been in effect for a number of years. The committee meets monthly and we have used this forum to discuss rumors, recent events, joint planning and working on issues. We have created sub-teams to work on processes, especially ones that have been multidisciplinary.

The committee has also waned over time and we (management) are battling with how to keep it robust and active. we have felt value and would like to see it thrive.

I think any time you collaborate with union leadership and establish an open dialogue to address workforce concerns/sensitive issues, then positive results occurred. I've only seen it in the Department of Defense, where some employees are part of a union and open dialogues with union leadership and then with employees helped resolved workplace related issues. This type of approach is cost-effective and avoids legal actions and/or reduction in productivity.

Thanks for the information.
Jose

I am in the northeast. We just entered our third contract with the nurses, and some technical workers have just unionized and are in negotiations. We try to have a collaborative relationship but it is hard when the union is badmouthing your organization. The union is still fairly young and we are learning how to work with each other.