Process

Strike Processes in Play

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Gustavo Frazao/Shutterstock

If you live in Ontario, you may be aware of the current escalating labour dispute between the provincial government and three of the unions (ETFO, OSSTF, and OECTA) representing English elementary and secondary school teachers in the province. As of January 2020, it appears that negotiations at the bargaining table have stalled, the teacher unions have implemented a series of rotating strikes across the province, and the government has not offered any public statements about a possible resolution to this dispute being in sight.

What is common to all of the parties, at this point in time, is that they seem to be caught in a classically entrenched, positional struggle. This means that nobody is willing to make the first move out of their position, or stance, to get back to the bargaining table to negotiate a resolution. Instead of being focused on negotiations with each other, the parties are focusing on the process of escalation, in order to find leverage to use as a pressure tactic against one another.

From a labour relations process, this dispute is unfolding as it should be. How it may end, is explored by Global News in this recent video post and written analysis.

As noted by Global News, there are options which all of the involved parties—unions and government—need to consider as they try to find their way out of the current conflict.

Which option the parties choose to take will be determined by their need to either maintain a positional stance and keep the escalation of pressure mounting, or they may find a need to relieve that pressure and make a move out of position, back to the bargaining table to re-start negotiated discussions. Either approach will provide a resolution.

Continued escalation may result in prolonged strikes, back-to-work legislation, and/or an arbitrated decision that forces a resolution onto all of the parties. A negotiated settlement, however, means that the parties themselves must come up with solutions that they can all agree upon, and live with for the duration of a renewed collective agreement. In both approaches, the end result will be a resolution of the dispute.

The degree to which the parties will be satisfied with the results, and the means of resolution used to get there, will be entirely up to them, and the constituents that they serve.

Discussion Questions:

  1. If you were representing the government, would you prefer to have a negotiated settlement, or a settlement achieved through an arbitrated decision? Explain your rationale.
  2. What is the leverage that unions hope to achieve through the escalation of strike action?
  3. According to the article and video, what are the issues for each of the parties involved in this dispute?
  4. How would you propose to resolve this dispute? Explain your rationale.

Time is the Answer

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Hands holding clocks
Source: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

The question is, how do we, as Human Resources professionals, make the recruitment process successful for both parties?

Time can be our best friend or our worst enemy, especially as it is one of the key components of any recruitment strategy.   In a recent LinkedIn post, Scott Case states that we need to ‘get real’ with candidates about the actual skills, culture, and work environment that are involved in any interview process.  More importantly, he identifies how quickly we expect the interview process to proceed and the pressure that is in place to make the hiring decision as soon as possible.

Click Here to Read the Article

Making sure that the interview process is transparent, however, does not just happen.  A commitment to transparency about the types of skills, culture and work environment that the organization really wants, comes from a well-planned, and well-timed end-to-end strategic recruitment process.  It is true that the candidate really does need to understand what the potential workplace is like.  After all, the employment decision is not just on the side of the employer.  The candidate too has to make the big decision whether or not this particular job, with this particular employer, is the right fit for them based on their own personal values and workplace experiences.

When we think about making the big decisions in our own lives, most of us need lots of time to think about the pros and cons of that decision. When decision-making is rushed, the end result often does not work out well for anyone involved.  When hiring decisions go wrong, the impact has significant negative ripple effects on all of the parties involved.  As Human Resources professionals, we need to ensure that the hiring decision goes the right way, by allowing everyone involved to have the time to make the decisions they need to make, based on well planned, thoughtful, and transparent processes along the way.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Thinking about your own approach to decision making, what steps do you follow to make the ‘right’ decision for you?
  2. After going through a recruitment process as a candidate, have you ever decided that the position you were interested in was not the right one for you? What happened during the process that helped you make that decision?
  3. As a Human Resources Professional, identify how much time is needed for an end-to-end successful recruitment process.
  4. Why is it important to ensure that candidates have a clear understanding of the required skills, work culture, and the environment involved for any position in any organization?

Good Faith vs. Bad Faith

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Nothing seems to drive a collective bargaining process into the ground more than the perception that one of the parties is not playing by the rules.  A key principle, that is enshrined in the legal process of collective bargaining, is the concept of bargaining in good faith.

It is, in fact, more than just a concept.

When parties agree to bargain in good faith, they agree to honour the rules that they make with each other before the bargaining process even begins.  These mutually agreed upon rules include items such as how communication will happen to each of the parties’ respective constituencies and, in the case of public sector bargaining, how information will be communicated to the public at large.  The setting of the ground rules between the parties is as serious as the content and the issues that are discussed at the bargaining table.  Setting the ground rules for bargaining is part of the legal environment and processes that enable fair, honest, and open negotiations to take place.

As with all kinds of rule based settings, when one of the parties appears to be breaking the rules or does not seem to be playing by the rules, the other party gets upset.  When this happens, the other party typically reacts in a negative way, which is not a surprise!  Suddenly, the issues at the table take second place, as the negotiations process stalls and hostile allegations of bad faith bargaining start to take hold.

This seems to be the case as the collective bargaining process continues to unfold in the education sector in Ontario.

Click here to read the article.

What makes this particular bargaining process more complex is that there are three parties at bargaining table: the government, the union, and the provincial association representing public school boards.  Resolutions to these types of allegations and bargaining processes are never easy.  Hopefully, all of the parties will be able to see their way through the layers of complexity and conflict in order to find a way to negotiate and to honour the bargaining process between them.

Discussion questions

  1. What was the agreed upon rule that appears to have been broken?
  2. What are the possible implications of filing a claim of bad faith with the Labour Board?
  3. Why is the issue of communication so important to each of the parties in this process?
  4. As a member of one of the bargaining teams, what steps would you take to resolve these allegations?

Learning the Rules and Language of Labour Relations

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The world of Labour Relations (LR) can often be an intimidating place for Human Resources (HR) Professionals.  The intimidation stems from many HR Professionals not yet being exposed to the process nor the language of LR.

The Government of New Brunswick has provided a great overview of what they call Industrial Relations (IR). You will see, in Canada, IR and LR are used synonymously to represent a unionized workplace.

It takes a novice HR Professional through the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about LR such as:

  • Certification process
  • Collective agreements
  • Grievances and arbitration
  • The role of the provincial labour boards

Click here to read the full resource.

Of course this is a brief review, but it is a great starting point.

Once an HR Professional has learned the basics of the LR process they can turn their attention to the Language of LR.  Luckily the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has developed another excellent resource.

Click here to read the CUPE Glossary of LR terms. 

All HR Professionals should familiarize themselves with the basic process and the terms of LR.  This is a fantastic starting point in understanding the complex world of LR.

Discussion Questions

  1. Why would knowing LR terms be beneficial to a new HR Professional?
  2. If you had to give a 5 minute presentation on the LR terms where would you start?
  3. What terms would you prioritize?