Podcasts

Mike Perrone, National President, Professional Aviation Safety Specialists (PASS), describes successes in building sustainable large-scale collaboration between the union and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). He shares first hand insights into shifting relationships, from the tenuous first steps in building the level of trust required to building momentum that moved PASS and FAA from conflict to collaboration.     

Michael Filler, Director of Public Service Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), educator, strategist, and change agent, served on President Obama’s National Council on Federal Labor-Management Relations. In this interview, he provides context for labor relations in federal sector, and unique influence changes in administrations make, and how change agents in labor and management create sustainable collaborative relationships, regardless of political changes.

Randy Babbitt is Senior Vice President of Labor Relations for Southwest Airlines. Previously, he was Administrator for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and is former president of Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) labor union, and a retired airline captain. Here he describes first-hand examples from his career within government, labor unions, and airline industry the critical need for trust, respect, and recognition of shared interests on building a winning collaborative cultures, particularly within unionized organizations.

Robert Hughes is President of Overland Resource Group, which works primarily with labor and management leaders to build collaborative processes that drive performance and workplace improvement. Here he shares stories of individual and organizational transformation from his perspective as a 30+year veteran of building collaborative leadership capacities.

Paul Rinaldi, is president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) which represents 20,000 controllers, engineers and other safety-related professionals in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Here, he discusses the challenges and benefits of building sustainable collaborative environments. “When we fight, all we are doing is spending our time and energy fighting and not improving the lives of the membership or the safety or the efficiency of the National Airspace System. When we collaborate, what we’re doing is actually improving the work environment for our members [and] enhancing the safety of the system.”

Bob Tobias, is Director of Public Sector Executive Education at American University and former president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents 150,000 bargaining unit employees in 31 federal agencies and departments. He discusses the relative costs and rewards of collaborative versus adversarial relationships within organizations. He notes “If I assume that you’re out to get me and you assume that I’m out to get you and the only way that we can resolve this conflict is through arm wrestling then that’s the way we’re going to behave.”