How Labor-Management Partnerships Can Deliver Outsized Results

Business leaders often view collective bargaining agreements as the be-all and end-all of management-union relations. But front-line workers are closer to day-to-day operations than management and know where to fix common problems. Leaders should instead focus on fostering lasting partnerships with workers and union members through formal labor-management partnerships, which can lead to significant improvements in organizational performance and worker engagement. Drawing on documented improved outcomes and proven best practices from the labor-management partnership created at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, organizations can create effective labor-management partnerships by following these steps:

• Present the idea together.
• Build understanding and trust.
• Set up infrastructure and select initial projects.
• Identify and invest in skills and leadership.
• When bad things happen, look at system problems.
• Marathon pace, not sprint pace.

When most business leaders think about working with unions, they tend to focus solely on the collective bargaining agreement as the essential and ultimate part of the relationship. Once the contract is signed, the workforce often takes a backseat — until the next negotiation two or three years later. Front-line workers are closer to the day-to-day operations than management and know well where and why problems start and how to solve them. Yet too often management persists in believing it knows best or, worse, sees low-wage workers as replaceable. goods.