This is different than the approach employed by some unions that look at management as the enemy. I know that a good relationship is not always possible – both parties need to want it, and if management doesn’t want to play ball, fine – I can do it the old way.
What about when a difficult issue arises, a potential source of conflict? I don’t run away from it – in fact with a good working relationship, it’s often easier to resolve problems. There is an effective approach I like – it’s to “be hard on the issue, but soft on the people”. By focusing on the real issues, and not taking (or accepting!) personal or “cheap” shots, I can achieve better results for my members.
The photo is of me talking to Gaëtan Thomas, the Vice President of Nuclear. I ran into him at the airport when we were both returning home from some out of town meetings. Because we’ve both worked to build a good relationship, we can discuss issues in a frank and open manner. It saves a lot of time, and often allows better solutions.
A great example of this is from several years ago. We had a number of long-term temporary employees and we had been working to achieve regular status for them. One night I happened to end up at a dinner, sitting next to Gaëtan. We ended up talking about the temporaries, and I was able to put forth the business case for changing their status. Gaëtan was interested in the points I raised and followed up by having his people look into it.
To make a long story short, that informal conversation started the ball rolling and many of those temporaries ended up gaining regular status. If I had tried to achieve that goal the old way – threatening grievances, work slow-downs, or writing nasty letters, I know I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere. But by valuing the relationship, and treating the issue as a joint problem that we could work on together to find a solution, we achieved real results. A win-win result.
And that’s what it’s all about.
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