How Labor-Management Partnerships Can Deliver Outsized Results

When most business leaders think about working with unions, they tend to focus exclusively on the collective bargaining agreement as the be-all and end-all of the relationship. Once the contract is signed, labor often goes on the back burner — until the next negotiation two or three years later. Frontline workers are closer than management to daily operations and know quite well where and why problems start and how to solve them. Yet, all too often, management persists in believing it knows best, or, even worse, sees low-wage workers as replaceable commodities.