HUMAN Capital - Fall 2016 - 23

It is a sunny day in June 2008, and in the Calgary office of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), a gathering of senior managers of ENMAX Power Corporation and members of IBEW Local 254 is getting animated. The lively discussion centres on the hot-button topic of discipline: when should managers invoke it and how can it be made fair and transparent? The discussion falls along party lines, and neither the managers nor the union members hold back. JOINT UNION-MANAGEMENT TRAINING IS UNUSUAL IN NORTH AMERICA, AND IT'S NOT HARD TO FIGURE OUT WHY. ON THE CONTINUUM OF UNION-MANAGEMENT RELATIONS...A GREAT MANY RELATIONSHIPS SIT ON THE CANTANKEROUS SIDE. AND FOR THE FEW JOINT TRAINING PROGRAMS THAT SPROUT AS PROMISING SHOOTS, MANY ARE SOON CUT DOWN BECAUSE UNION MEMBERS PERCEIVE THAT THEIR LEADERSHIP IS TOO COZY WITH MANAGEMENT AND NOT LOOKING AFTER WORKER INTERESTS. In the midst of it all, John Briegel, Kirstan Jewell and Mark Taylor watch the proceedings with a mixture of satisfaction and relief. It was their unorthodox idea to put managers and shop stewards together as part of a three-day Joint Leadership and Excellence training program. For Briegel, business manager for IBEW Local 254; Jewell, formerly ENMAX's director of employee relations; and Taylor, ENMAX's manager of civil works, the no-holds-barred, yet respectful debate over worker discipline, showed that the participants were taking the training program seriously, and actually getting into the spirit of learning. "I was surprised by how engaged the people were," Jewell says, thinking back to that first session. "I thought we were delivering something of value, but I wasn't sure how we would be perceived by participants or the organization. The folks were highly participatory. The feedback was that we needed more. It's a big time commitment, so for the program to be supported is really positive." Since the June 2008 session, ENMAX Power has run two more three-day programs for some 15 IBEW leaders and shop stewards, ENMAX directors and line managers. Beating some long odds, joint training looks to be growing roots in the Alberta electricity provider. Joint union-management training is unusual in North America, and it's not hard to figure out why. On the continuum of union-management relations-from confrontation through armed truce, working harmony and cooperation-a great many relationships sit on the cantankerous side. And for the few joint training programs that sprout as promising shoots, many are soon cut down because union members perceive that their leadership is too cozy with management and not looking after worker interests. On the other hand, the benefits of jointly training managers and shop stewards are tantalizing. The promise lies in increasing boundary-spanning knowledge, reducing the friction that can lead to high grievance costs or work stoppages, and finding shared ways of meeting change head on. Candidates for Collaboration Based on its recent history, ENMAX Power was a prime candidate for joint union-management training. The organization is a subsidiary of ENMAX Corporation, which, in turn, is owned by the City of Calgary. Its first experience with collective bargaining with the IBEW in 2001 was "brutal", says Briegel. "The changed world of the electric utility in Calgary had created a significant level of concern among the workers and what was now in many respects a new management group that had yet to develop a labour relations philosophy. There were 280 separate proposals for change at that negotiation. It became somewhat of a marathon." For the next agreement, though, there was a new management bargaining team in place, and the two sides agreed to participate in facilitated mutual gains bargaining. "It was from this negotiation that we created the Employee Relation's Council," Briegel says, "and the ability to work collaboratively solving problems as they arose, rather than saving them up for the next negotiation." When they wrapped-up the 2007 collective bargaining session, Briegel invited Jewell and Taylor to the IBEW union hall to watch a video conference featuring the union's American president talking HUMAN CAPITAL | FALL 2016 | 23

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