Co-operation between unions and management in companies like General Motors of Canada and Bell Canada has led to fewer strikes and increased prosperity despite sweeping changes facing Canadian industries, says U of T professor Anil Verma.
Over the past two decades factors such as technological change, free trade and globalization have meant dramatic restructuring for Canadian companies. In a new book Contract & Commitment - Employment Relations in the New Economy, Verma and co-editor Richard Chaykowski from Queen's University examine how unions and management at large Canadian companies have coped amid fears these changes would ruin labour-management relations.
"There are days when it seems like we are having a lot of strikes but the evidence shows that, increasingly, we know how to make union-management relations work", says Verma, professor with the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management and the Centre for Industrial Relations. "We have had success at it, and there is a lesson for other companies that are looking to see what they can do to manage change well."
Case studies in the book show that improved co-operation between management and unions in navigating through changes from deregulation to downsizing has in fact led to improved relations.
Verma says that creative solutions such as retraining programs and new business ventures have also allowed companies to prosper and workers to gain skills that will give them a more secure future in the labour market.
More information about the book can be found on the Web site www.mgmt.utoronto.ca/~verma/cc.html.
CONTACT:
Cheryl Sullivan
U of T Public Affairs
416-978-4289
cheryl.sullivan@utoronto.ca