Union Approach to Health and Safety: - United Steelworkers

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Involvement programs often utilize off-site meetings where union members and management are taken away from the reality of the workplace. Getting away from the workplace removes union members from their fellow members, and from reminders of the real world of work – simple things like whistles and the noise of machinery. This helps move participants away from “adversarialism” and towards jointness or working together. Lessons learned and behaviors practiced in seminar rooms tucked away from the real world, where they seem safe and harmless, can have a disastrous impact when carried back into the workplace, where they can seriously undercut the strength of the union. Ideas for Acting Like a Union: Don’t agree to offsite meetings unless there is a specific advantage for the union If you are at an offsite meeting, think of ways to remind participants of the real world – for example by sticking to the lunch and break schedule that people have to adhere to at work. 8) Language Language is a powerful force in our lives. The language that is used to discuss a problem can have a big impact on the outcome of the discussion. Language has built-in values that may not be (and often aren’t) our values and these built-in values are often hidden from us. The words we use can have an important impact on how people react and how they behave. Think about the following situation: A boss walks up to a union member and asks them to come to a process improvement session to discuss the work process - coffee and donuts, in the conference room, on work time. Many, if not most, union members would say “Sure, what kind of donuts?” But what if the same manager offered the same deal but asked the member to come to a meeting to bargain over the work process. In this case, most members would at least hesitate and think that the union should be involved in any bargaining. Many members would simply say no. While both bargaining and process improvement involve labor and management sitting down to discuss what the future will look like, the different labels lead to very different responses. There are several things (union-building things) that you would do (or should do) to get ready for a bargaining session that most people wouldn’t do to prepare for process improvement. Process improvement also implies that someone has already decided (they’ve defined improvement) what the goal is, while in bargaining both sides come to the table with different goals that they want to achieve.
"Joint decision-making" or "partnership" are also sometimes used instead of “bargaining” to describe the relationship between labor and management. These both carry with them a feeling of equality and equal power which rarely if ever exists. Sometimes they are even called "true" or "equal" partnerships. Using these words only serves to lull people into a false sense of security. We might want to ask: “If management is offering to be our partner, are they willing to take the Management Rights Clause out of the contract?” In addition to the examples above, there is literally a whole new language that comes with the involvement movement, including words like paradigm, empowerment, coaches, Self-Directed Work Teams, etc. Why do consultants use a new language to discuss the labor-management interaction? In addition to moving unions folks outside a bargaining context, speaking in a new "language" tends to make people feel lost, dis-empowered and separated from their own sense of reality. People who have been to a country where they don't speak the language will recognize the feelings. They welcome any guidance about how to get around in the new land and are apt to be more trusting of an "expert" who can “translate” for them. In labor-management programs, the expert just happens to be a managementpaid consultant. There are two categories of words that are used in involvement programs that carry with them specific powers to confuse. We call these smile words and frown words. Smile Words Words like quality, improvement, etc. are what might be called smile words. These are words that have a positive feel to them (that make you smile), but that often have a negative meaning (for the workforce or the union) as they are implemented in the workplace. We all, for example, believe in improvement. But in the workplace, for management, continuous improvement really means continuous speed-up, and continuously fewer workers - which aren’t good for us. The power of the smile words should not be underestimated. Salespeople are taught the importance of always asking a question so that the customer can answer yes. The positive feeling of saying yes flows over into the big question: Do you want to buy this? Frown Words Frown words are the opposite of smile words. They are words that carry with them an automatic negative feel. Waste is a good example. We all think that waste is a bad thing, right? But when we look underneath the surface, we find that waste is specifically defined as any time or activity that isn’t “adding value” to the product (meaning making money for management). This means that
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Union Approach to Health and Safety
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Activity Handout: Goals for Workpla
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Activity Worksheet: Planning for a
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3. Why did this problem get correct
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Activity Handout: Impacts of Workpl
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Page 18 and 19: References Aiken, L.H., Clarke, S.P
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Page 36 and 37: Introduction In 1993, the USWA init
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Activity Handout COLOR-CODE FOR WOR
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To create a body map, you need the
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A set of “sticky dots” in 6 dif
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Example of Life Map in Progress Ask
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Activity Handout COLOR-CODE FOR WOR
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4. Why did you choose this particul
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STEP #1: IDENTIFY THE SURVEY TOPIC
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those being surveyed care about ano
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time, and so on. These are consider
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Access to Exposure and Medical Reco
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• The names of chemical hazards i
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Sample Request Letter to Employer f
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Workers and/or unions who request i
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There can be a charge for these cop
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equired to provide the union with i
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• The NLRB usually defers to the
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Calling For An Inspection If you wa
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equires it. In practice, most emplo
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OSHA Citations OSHA may choose to i
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desire to participate in any formal
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you with OSHA. Separate or private
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OSHA has 15 days to grant or deny t
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What Injuries/Illnesses Must The Em
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Privacy and Recording Injuries and
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USES AND LIMITATIONS OF OSHA 300 LO
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594 Miscellaneous Shopping Goods St
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3. How could you go about getting t
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2. Number of labor and management r
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7. Preparing for joint labor-manage
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Who Serves on Local Union Health an
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Identifying and communicating with
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work on improving safety and health
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Some joint labor-management health
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in member-involving ways, using uni
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e. If not, what additional training
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. If you answered “Yes” to 6.a.
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a. Review your responses to questio
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Meetings should be at least two hou
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assessing potential health or safet
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9. Action planning for improving th
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hazardous conditions as the key pro
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involves regular union-only meeting
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protective equipment. Management ap
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This list is a draft that can be ad
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894 DECISIONS OF THE NATIONAL LABOR
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Place an arrowhead going toward the
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Questions To Answer Regarding Commu
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a. For the one agenda item that you
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4. Making a strategic plan for the
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III. Formulating Proposal/Demands:
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5. Information Gathering: a. What a
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9. Building Leverage: a. Come up wi
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WHY DO STRATEGIC PLANNING? Most uni
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Who: Someone needs to be assigned t
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