Can LO Work in a Unionized Environment? LO11135

John Butcher (jbutcher@magmacom.com)
Mon, 25 Nov 1996 20:56:19 -0500 (EST)

Replying to LO11078 --

Like other respondents, I see no reason why a unionized environment cannot
be just as "learning" as any other. Most of my professional work involves
facilitating national joint labour-management committees working to
address human resource issues on a sectoral level. Much of the time, it is
impossible to distinguish "labour" from "management" positions: each
recognizes their mutual dependence and the need to work cooperatively to
make progress. Since 1963, the Canadian federal government has sponsored
the Industrial Adjustment Service, a program which provides technical and
financial support to labour-management groups addressing change at the
organizational, regional, community and national levels. The program is
explicitly based on the idea that the management of change is best done by
those most directly affected. At a time (in the early 1960s) when other
jurisdictions were debating whether labour or management or government had
primary responsibility for resolving problems arising from industrial
restructuring, the Canadian approach was to assume that labour and
management and government each had fruitful roles to play. There are a
range of other institutional mechanisms, such as the Canadian Labour
Market and Productivity Centre, the Canadian Labour Force Development
Board, and several national human resource "sector councils", which are
structured to ensure that labour and management have an equal voice in
programming and policies. We have our share of industrial disputes in this
country, but the parties are well able to put contractual differences
aside when there are common problems to be faced. What neither labour nor
their management counterparts will tolerate is being jerked around in the
name of the latest "fad of the week" which is not grounded in
organizational realities and which does not share benefits equally.

--

John Butcher Associates in Planning Inc. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada jbutcher@magmacom.com

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>