"We Can't, 'Cause the Union" and Other Excuses to Reconciliation and EDI

"We Can't, 'Cause the Union" and Other Excuses to Reconciliation and EDI

Embarking on a journey of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples and improving equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) cannot happen without the commitment from the very top of the organization.?

However, if:

• operational and functional managers do not implement action plans, and?
• mid-level leaders do not give precise direction for giving life to that commitment,?

broken promises will result, with nothing changing.?

Leaders Talk

• A city's mayor and councillors champion reconciliation. They also commit to promoting EDI.
• A CEO signs a reconciliation statement. The same CEO also signs an EDI policy commitment.
• An umbrella union organization develops a 2-inch thick binder discussing EDI.
• A company engages in a massive social media campaign, touting its social procurement and diversity hiring practices.

Comms folks push the commitment statements to social media channels

Communications personnel reduce these to 280-character blurbs. They present these blurbs as evidence that the organization has reached a moral high ground.

They declare the organization is with the times and, thus, worthy of social license and our adoration.?

What Usually Happens?

• The same mayor and councillors' human resource departments push back against the inclusion of trained members of underrepresented groups, citing that the union contract prohibits such efforts. The city's procurement department set up systems preventing Indigenous companies from participating in contracted work.
• Operations and human resource personnel hold up the collective agreement as a bar to inviting new employees from First Nation and Metis communities even though the project resides on the communities' traditional territory.
• Local unions disregard the overarching commitments toward EDI espoused by their international leaders, rejecting proposals during bargaining for language to put EDI and reconciliation objectives into action.
• The company celebrating social procurement online doesn't behave the same way while away from the spotlight. They beat down the prices and commercial conditions of the frail sub-contractors and hire marginalized workers at less than market wages, treating them as a captive workforce.

The Reality

Much to the chagrin of senior leadership, if it were as simple as issuing a proclamation, the world would be reconciled, and outcomes and opportunities for different groups would reflect the representation in the population.?

Reconciliation is not simple.?

Improving EDI is exceptionally complex.?

It takes rooting out causes, acknowledging history, atoning, alleviating harms, removing barriers, repairing connections and investing in relationships.

It requires:

• confronting biases, conscious and unconscious biases,
• scrutinizing systems and processes, and
• seeking and eradicating factors that perpetuate systemic discrimination.

What Can Happen?

• Before pushing the commitment statement out to social media, ensure a copy signed by the most senior leader is hanging in every manager's and supervisor's office.?
• Talk to unions and employees all the time about reconciliation and EDI, not just during contract renewals. Don't wait for collective agreement language to change; take each reconciliation and EDI issue and opportunity to the union. Be relentless; even if the answer was "no" last week, ask again. Don't allow a union's unwillingness to improve EDI and reconciliation outcomes to become your excuse; keep it where it is and needs to be, the union's failure (until they participate in resolving it).
• Review procurement policies and outcomes. It takes work to review and qualify new contractors. Procurement departments need to do the work. Tell procurement teams that if they don't clean up their act, you will clean it up for them.
• Build mechanisms in collective agreements and contracts to satisfy socio-economic commitments, especially for Indigenous communities on whose traditional territory you operate.
• Unions and companies need to start an ongoing conversation with members and employees to explain what happened, what is going to happen and why it will happen. Seek to increase understanding and remove fear and division.
• Remove leaders who take advantage of frail contractors and marginalized groups to secure unfair commercial and employment terms and conditions.
• Evaluate all systems and processes to improve and remove biases.
• Value and invest in relationships, engage in outreach and create partnerships.

Excuses cannot stay excuses. They need to become your next conquest in your effort to improve EDI outcomes and walk reconciliation journeys.

We are grateful for your tireless efforts in this regard; keep doing what you do.

Respectfully submitted,

Sam Kemble

Executive Operating Officer, Workforce Delivery Inc.

www.workforcedelivery.com

#Diversity #Reconciliation #EDI #Indigenous #humanresources