In November 2011, the IRC surveyed labour relations (LR) professionals in Canada. The purpose of this survey was to describe the state of the LR profession in Canada, based on the perspectives of practitioners. This Executive Summary presents an overview of the aggregated survey data.
This practitioner-focused research complements our 2011 exploration of the state of the human resources profession in Canada, and builds on the IRC’s 2009 labour relations survey. (Download)
I can't tell you the number of times I have found myself in the midst of a labour arbitration hearing, asking myself, "Why are we doing this?" "Why are we having this hearing?" "What goal do the parties hope to achieve by investing in these expensive days in hearing?" Often, I am sure that the parties themselves do not have an answer to these questions squarely in mind. The results of the Queen's IRC research (Juniper & Hill, 2011) prove me right. It appears that human resource practitioners have identified a strong need to develop analytical, critical, and strategic thinking - the kinds of skills necessary to ensure that their grievance handling becomes more effective and "strategic".(More)
In 2009, the IRC conducted a survey of LR professionals to glean their insights on the level of skills, knowledge, and abilities required for the profession. The survey also explored the amount of time LR professionals were spending on certain LR tasks. Based on this research, led by Anne Grant and Stephanie Noel, the IRC determined that Mastering Fact-Finding and Investigation is a critical skill that LR professionals must hone. Accordingly, earlier this year, the IRC launched its inaugural Mastering Fact-Finding and Investigation program. The program is part of the IRC's new Advanced Labour Relations certificate, which builds on the skills and knowledge acquired in the Labour Relations certificate series. The Advanced Labour Relations certificate includes three programs: Mastering Fact-Finding and Investigation (launched in April 2011), Strategic Grievance Handling (launching in May 2012), and Optimizing the Labour-Management Relationship: Leadership Skills for LR professionals (launching in 2013). (More)
It is an exciting time at the IRC. Not only are we continuing to expand our programming options, we are also exploring new locations to hold our programs. Most recently, the IRC's program team headed to Fort McMurray, delivering our Managing Unionized Environments program in October. As the IRC evolves our programming options to best meet the needs of HR, LR, and OD professionals, we also aim to offer programs in locations that are convenient for our participants and their sponsor organizations. The resounding success of the October Managing Unionized Environments has encouraged the IRC to consider offering additional programming options in Fort McMurray during our 2012-2013 program season. Having grown up in Sudbury, Ontario, a mining town, I felt very much at home in Fort McMurray. Conversations that I had with participants during the program were positive; it seems that Fort McMurray is a desirable location for IRC programs moving forward. (More)
The labour relations environment in Ontario's education sector 1 is both fascinating and dynamic. The late 1970s and 1980s marked a period of relative stability. Conversely, the 1990s were marked by turnover in provincial government, legislatives changes, new policy initiatives, and labour disputes. Not surprisingly, these phenomena dramatically impacted the working relationships between teachers, school administrators, 2 school board staff, educational support workers, and school trustees. A series of new initiatives in the past decade reduced the incidence of labour disruptions significantly and provided some stability, and there is still progress to be made. What is apparent amidst this contextual background is the importance of labour relations to the education sector. Accordingly, this report outlines the key components of the IRC's Education-Labour Relations in Ontario research initiative.(More)
One of the ways in which the IRC is ramping up our communication strategy is by speaking directly with participants in post-program interviews. Recently, I conducted brief interviews with a small sample of participants from the IRC's inaugural Managing Unionized Environments (MUE) program.
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A key component of fact-finding is the gathering and reporting of evidence. The fact-finding report is intended to be a reliable resource for labour relations practitioners. Thus, the following DOs and DON'Ts should be considered when preparing the evidence section of the fact-finding report:(More)
In almost all organizations today, both public and private sector, managers are looking to deliver better results and greater productivity. And within these same organizations, the union is often seen as a barrier to management effectively achieving these goals. From the union's point of view, management views the collective agreement as an impediment to achieving results, leading to frequent violations of the collective agreement. This dynamic leads to ongoing conflict between management and union, further draining the organization's energy and resources, eroding the very productivity and results the company is seeking to achieve. Both management and the union need to revisit how the collective agreement is used, and could be used more effectively, within the organization.(More)
It is a sunny day in June 2008, and in the Calgary office of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), a gathering of senior managers of ENMAX Power Corporation and members of IBEW Local 254 is getting animated. The lively discussion centres on the hot-button topic of discipline: when should managers invoke it and how can it be made fair and transparent? The discussion falls along party lines, and neither the managers nor the union members hold back. (More)
How can human resources professionals bargain and build meaningful relationships with the union during tough economic times?
In her recent presentation at Queen's IRC's Labour Relations Foundations program, Ontario Nurses' Association President Linda Haslam-Stroud provided sound advice for signing off on successful collective agreements. In the following excerpts from her talk, Linda shares her top 10 tips. (More)
By Alan Morantz
Queen's IRC Thought Leadership Consultant
Trade union mergers in Europe and North America have been going strong since the Second World. It is almost always a question of survival: mergers or absorptions are thought to help unions maintain or grow membership to sustain their financial base and increase bargaining power.
While in the past mergers occurred among unions in the same industry or occupation, more recently unions from different parts of the economy have merged to create super-unions, such as ver.di in Germany and UNITE in the UK. (More)
By Paul Juniper, Director, Queen’s University IRC, with Alan Morantz
You would think, in this money-mad society, that most people make their big work-related decisions on the basis of maximizing their compensation. And you would be wrong. In fact, social scientists will tell you that most people satisfice; that is, they choose an action that is merely “good enough” rather than optimal. (More)
The economic upheaval currently gripping world economies will profoundly alter the dynamics of labour relations in Ontario, says a senior official in Ontario's Ministry of Labour.
In a presentation in late March to Queen's School of Policy Studies, Kevin Wilson, Assistant Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Labour's Policy, Program Development, and Dispute Resolution Services Division, said the current recession has hit Ontario hardest: consumer confidence is the lowest in Canada; unemployment is headed for 9 percent; and the crucial automobile and parts manufacturing market has been decimated.(More)
Build trust, be yourself, prepare for tradeoffs - and watch the junk food. Ford Canada's Vice President of Human Resources Stacey Allerton Firth shares these and other secrets for successful interest-based bargaining. (More)
Rob Hickey, a faculty member in the Queen’s Master’s of Industrial Relations program, says restructuring is the big issue of2007 for both labour and management. Below, Rob - who worked as an organizer for the Teamsters for a decade in the United States, and earned his MA and PhD from Cornell University’s School of Industrial Relations and Labour Relations Studies - discusses IR issues, and what he’d most like to see happen in IR in the year ahead.(More)
An Excerpt from “The Leadership Gap” by David Weiss and Vince Molinaro
Queen's IRC faculty member and consultant Dr. David Weiss hasconcluded in his research and practice over 20 years that there is acrisis in leadership capacity. In the following excerpt, David andco-author Dr. Vince Molinaro share practical strategies for seniormanagers and HR leaders to bridge the leadership gap in theirorganizations. Learn how to unleash your “capable” leadership potentialto rise to the top — and about perilous personal factors that could prevent your ascent. (More)
Skill-based pay plans (SBPs) in unionized companies is the subject of this paper. It focuses on a unionized mining company, detailing problems and successes, and also provides guidelines for implementing skill-based pay plans. (Download)
The author examines when interest-based bargaining works and when it doesn't; traditional and new approaches; how to implement interest-based bargaining; and provides a case study of mutual-gains bargaining in action in an Ontario gold mining company. (Download)
Three approaches to negotiation are examined in this essay - competitive, collaborative and contextual - by looking at Bell Canada and the Communications, Energy and Paper Workers' Union of Canada to see how their approaches changed depending on the context. (Download)
In this Q & A with Emeritus Professor of Political Economy and Industrial Relations John Crispo of University of Toronto, the conversation ranges from the greatest pressures on the Canadian IR system to how Canada fared after a decade of free trade, what's happening to workers, and the future of unions in Canada. (Download)
How do you manage change while promoting labour-management collaboration? In today's organizations, unions and management are increasingly being asked to work together in areas that stretch far beyond collective agreements, such as organizational design and business and profitability planning. (Download)
Learn how a strategic grievance procedure can improve labour management relations. This current issues paper explores the four key roles of a grievance procedure, secondary roles, and how solid procedure facilitates conflict management and dispute resolution. (Download)
Court rulings differ with respect to the authority of arbitrators to require management to act fairly and reasonably in exercising discretion under a collective agreement. This paper looks at the legal framework and the controversy over this aspect of arbitation with collective labour agreements. (Download)
In this health care-related paper, learn the results of a survey of major hospitals across Canada. The research explores workforce management and culture; unionization and labour-management relations; workforce reduction behaviour; and organizational performance. (Download)
While a comprehensive model for organizational learning (OL) remains elusory, the wide web of scholarly conversation and debate has spurred rich insight into the central questions of how and what people learn in organizational settings. This paper is aimed at exploring some of those debates, with a view to identifying a complementary set of factors that, if present, might tip the balance towards more fruitful learning in organizations. I begin by exploring the debates shaping the literature through two central questions: 1) What is learning? and 2) Can organizations learn? Based on the insights gained, I turn to the question of how organizations can increase their capacity to learn. (Download)
For the foreseeable future Ontario, as well as most other provinces, will be faced with a shrinking school system, staffed by an aging and static teaching workforce. Responding to this challenge will be complicated by factors such as high retirement levels, more restrictive collective agreement language, and pension solvency issues. (Download)
This paper provides analysis into the workings of the collective agreement that governed the relationship between the National Hockey League and its Players' Association. By examining the elements and processes of the collective agreement, the nature of negotiation, and the roles of agents, owners, general managers, and arbitrators, it shows how significant increases in player compensation that occurred over a ten-year period set the stage for the 2004-05 negotiations and season-long lockout. (Download)
Why is there no consensus about best practices for managing individual employee performance (IEP) in unionized workplaces? This paper discusses the reasons, investigating the success of collectivist or high-performance work systems; why managers and unions need to address IEP issues and what's in it for them; what academic research says about best practices; and workable strategies for managing IEP. (Download)
In his 2008 Don Wood Lecture address, Harvard University Professor Dr. Richard Freeman spoke about "meta-market coordination problems", the unravelling of the Washington Consensus, and the role unions have in addressing global problems. "How we resolve these problems will have more of an impact on workers than collective bargaining or normal labour policy."
Dr. Freeman holds the Herbert Ascherman Chair in Economics at Harvard. He is currently serving as Faculty Director of the Labor and Worklife Program at the Harvard Law School. He is also director of the Labor Studies Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Senior Research Fellow in Labour Markets at the London School of Economics' Centre for Economic Performance, and visiting professor at the London School of Economics.
The Don Wood Lecture is a joint initiative of Queen's University IRC and the Master of Industrial Relations program. The Lectureship was established in 1987 to honour the late Dr. W. Donald Wood, Professor Emeritus, Queen's University and former director of the Industrial Relations Centre and School of Industrial Relations at Queen's. The purpose of the Lectureship is to bring to Queen's University distinguished individuals who have made an important contribution to industrial relations in Canada and in other countries. Such persons are either senior scholars from the academic world or public figures from business, trade unions, or government.
George C.B. Smith, Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Organization at CBC/Radio-Canada, shares lessons from his 33-year career as a management negotiator. He underlines three essentials for success: organizational alignment; managing the interpersonal aspects; and managing the complexities of the process. (Download)
Professor Vos of the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University talks about markets; the revitalization of laissez-faire economics; how policy changes around unemployment insurance and wage standards, coupled with fundamental shifts in macroeconomic trade and regulatory policy have left workers more vulnerable; and how IR can contribute to improvements. (Download)
In this interview Professor Vos discusses trends in the world of work; what unions offer workers today; IR in Canada and the United States; the health of collective bargaining systems; and future issues and challenges in industrial relations. (Download)
In his lecture, Robert McKersie, a
professor at the Sloan School of Management at MIT, talks about
labour-management relations over the years, the emergence of the
non-union sector, the quality of working life movement, and strategic
labour-management partnerships, providing examples and advice on
initiating and sustaining these relationships.
Professor McKersie answers
questions about the most pressing economic needs in North America
today, the role of industrial relations (IR) and human resources
management (HRM) in meeting them, the implications of new theories
about IR and HRM, and issues around “cooperative” labour-management
approaches.
Strikes in Essential Services is a comprehensive study of the law and practice on the regulation of strikes and lockouts in essential services in Canada (More)
Canada's progressive system of public sector collective bargaining has never been under such attack from so many quarters, and it may be in danger of being permanently dismantled. This epitomizes the difference between private and public sector labour relations. (More)
HRM Project Series - The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the industrial relations system and the ability of companies in manufacturing and other 'blue-collar' industries to alter the way in which they organize work. (More)
HRM Project Series - This paper establishes a framework for understanding the process of change and adjustment in human resources management and industrial relations in Canada. (More)
