ORG Blog

As I took to the podium for a panel discussion at the 66^th Annual Meeting of the Labor and Employment Relations Association earlier this month, it was with a delightful trifecta of emotion:

Like most others in the labor relations arena, we watched with great interest the events and debates surrounding the recent vote by the workforce at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, TN, on whether or not to be represented by the United Auto Workers. Clearly enormous gaps exist between those who believe that unions are a thorn in the side of any organization and those who believe the UAW and VW had the opportunity to launch an alternative approach to traditional labor-management relations.

We didn’t want to be right.

It has been 119 years since a federal holiday was established to celebrate the economic and social contributions of workers, and it is worthy of celebration, indeed. Without the American worker fueling the economic engine of our country, we would never have become the most productive, affluent nation in the world. But in today’s global economy, regaining that status– and recapturing U.S. jobs– will require more than the mighty muscle and ingenuity of American workers.

As I put down my morning paper and pondered a labor-management divide so great that it merited intervention of the California Governor to stall a strike of the two largest unions at the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system, and turned my attention instead to the opening plenary session at the Florida Labor Management Conference, I was struck by the picture of stark contrasts.

While the question raised in a recent article in TIME magazine’s on-line edition titled “Americans Are Warming Again to Unions. Will the Relationship Last?” is an interesting one, the more pressing question has not so much to do with how unionism fares in public opinion polls, but rather with how the relationship between labor leaders and their management counterparts at unionized companies can be leveraged for their mutual benefit and the good of the country. The future-critical question is: What can organized labor as an institution and their management counterparts do TODAY to restore our nation’s competitive capacity and preserve jobs that fuel our economic engine?

Amidst the barrage of sequestration-related negativity confronting the federal sector, there are bright spots that deserve not just notice, but celebration. Take, for example, the Federal Aviation Administration which, as the largest sub-component of the Department of Transportation, helped propel DOT to the top of the list of Most Improved Large Agencies in the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government® rankings. Of particular note is the fact that the agency made significant progress at a time when a majority saw their employee satisfaction levels decline. As noted on the Best Places website, “Employee satisfaction decreased in 66 percent of agencies. A few agencies, however, defied the government-wide convention, including the Department of Transportation, a large agency which raised its score a full 4.1 points.”

The following blog appeared in the January 9 edition of The Hill, a congressional newspaper that publishes daily when Congress is in session, and was also included in its Congress blog.

Do you hear that great sigh?  It’s one of relief that this epic presidential campaign is finally behind us.  But that doesn’t mean an end to the power struggles and strife between and among the Executive and Legislative branches.  After such a close and rancorous race, our country is more divided than ever.  This does not bode well for the impending financial crisis that the December 31 “fiscal cliff” and the January 2 sequestration are predicted to ignite.