Union Approach to Health and Safety: - United Steelworkers

interests. It is supposed to remove artificial barriers to more natural interaction.
When union members are seated inter-mingled with management, it removes an important
physical symbol of unionism and union identity. It makes interaction among union members more
difficult. It makes impossible what might be called "mini-caucuses", when one union member leans
over to another to ask a question or discuss a point. In these ways, it weakens the union members’
ability to act in unity and therefore undercuts union strength.
It is important to note that this inter-mingling (and the other techniques described in this
section) do not weaken management in the same way they weaken the union. Management's power
doesn't come from unity the way the union's does. Management power comes from ownership, from
the law and from their ability to make unilateral decisions about operations and investment. Managers
have to "unite" with upper management or lose their jobs. So what might seem like "equal treatment"
on the surface, - both union and management are divided up - is really an attack on the core of
unionism - unity.
Spreading union members around the room also visually removes the process from a
bargaining context (it no longer looks like a bargaining session). This is important because the physical
setup of the room provides important signals for behavior. In a bargaining session, or a meeting that
looks like bargaining, the union does many things to protect itself, its identity and its strength that
simply become less natural and more difficult when people are dispersed. When people are seated
together, they are more likely to act together.
Another way to think of this is to ask: If a member were to walk by the room where a labormanagement
meeting is happening, what would they see? If the union members are interspersed with
management, they would not see a union, and they might wonder what is going on. If they see union
members sitting together on one side of the room, they are more likely to feel comfortable that they are
being effectively represented.
Ideas for Acting Like a Union:
Change seats to make sure that union folks are sitting near each other and across from
management.
Make sure you set the “ground rule” of separate seating early in the process.
7) Off-Site Meetings