How can you build a professional relationship with your union representative?

Building a strong professional relationship with a union representative involves: 1. Open Communication: Initiate regular, respectful communication to discuss concerns and objectives. 2. Active Listening: Hear their perspectives and understand the union's goals and priorities. 3. Transparency: Be transparent about company policies, changes, and challenges. 5. Respect Boundaries: Understand the union's role and respect their responsibilities. 6. Trust and Integrity: Build trust through honesty and integrity in interactions. By fostering open communication, mutual respect, and a collaborative approach, you can establish a positive and constructive relationship with a union representative.

If you do not know your enemy, you are never going to be able to make peace or defeat them. It does not matter if you’re in management or you are the union; You have to understand each other.

I am extremely agains Union or Bargaining Agency as they are just brokers and nothing else. Usually, the role of Union is negative.

Assuming the battle to recognize the union in question as a legitimate representative of your workforce (not always obvious), you have to realize the union rep is a real person, not just a figurehead. In his world, he has been as successful as you are by virtue of his position (usually elected). So, treat him as an equal. Remember: if you view him as an enemy, he was always be an enemy. You both are charged by your superiors to act in the best interests of the company -- yours to please management, his to please the workers. Both of you want to happy, pleasing workforce on your way to a profitable company.

Get off your high horse and try to form a labor-management partnership. If you do not, it will always be an us against them mentality in your workplace. If you do not know who your union representatives are, you may stick your foot in your mouth when telling somebody, “ You come to me, not your shop steward,” when, in fact, you are talking to the shop steward. This has happened to me in real life as a shop steward, and it's a ULP

Working and managing a union workplace is a two-way street. If management causes the problems, the union should make the attempt to help fix them. The same would go for the union causing difficulties; management should find out the best way to address the issue so both parties can come to a mutual settlement. Many times, both management and union leadership would prefer in-house discipline as opposed to human resources permanency. Know your shop, know your people work together.

If you do not work together, there will always be an adversarial relationship that can blow up in everyone’s face. It is not personal, and if you genuinely want to fire a bad employee, they will fire themselves as long as you do not make it personal once you make it personal. You cannot take it out on the member or their representative because the representative is doing their job as quasi-legal counsel protecting their member. Working together can be less stressful for a manager if they can work with the union, especially when dealing with small disciplines that could be easily corrected in-house.

For anyone with writing ability, contributing to Union Magazine from your field of knowledge will enrich the magazine and contribute to the individual's personal development. This will make the individual an invaluable team member and elevate the representatives' work.

“Be honest, clear, and respectful, and avoid gossip or complaint,” is the most important part of the advice here. You must be 100% honest with you, Represenative, or they cannot represent you effectively.

Do not become friends. No matter what happens, keep a professional relationship and your distance. This goes for the union representative and the management employee. There is a hierarchy of control and leadership that should always be respected. Never owe each other favors that you will constantly be repaying.

Do not celebrate at only the corporate headquarters and expect balloons and parades every time you go out to the field, especially if you’re operating staff is so valuable that you cannot afford to promote them. Because you may be building unseen animosity that will explode someday if the workplace seems like it’s a Lord-peasant relationship. You need to reevaluate your celebration structures because you may be creating unseen animosity that will explode eventually.

Avoid unions to begin with! training and communication with employees is the key. If unions come, fight for your business! It will be the end of the way you are doing business, and the end of business in some cases. Think out of the box! In most cases employees don't understand what is unions, and how unions will effect their job. If help is available take it. If you are small business, union don't belong!

I think it’s important that the union leads in building relationships, communicating effectively & organizing members. Leadership at the union level is critical to increase & retain members.