SEIU head Andy Stern writes:
what excited me most was listening to SEIU members talk about our partnership approach in the public sector, called Innovation and Quality (IQ). Learning from the efforts of the firefighters, our new locals in Chandler, Tempe, and Pima County have reoriented themselves to work with management to improving the quality of public services. Tom, an SEIU member who drove me from Phoenix to Tucson, said he is experimenting with changing the names of Stewards, who serve as union representatives in the workplace, to “Resolutions Specialists.” The reason, he said, is that they are trying to resolve issues to improve quality services, and management looks at those efforts as a positive approach, as opposed to an approach that creates new problems.
When I talk about the need to re-empower workers to advocate for their interests against corporations, the end point can often be assumed hostile -- a world of strikes and sit-downs, firings and lawsuits. But it needn't be that way. Part of worker power is simply assuring that employees, who have a ground's eye view of their business, get a seat and a voice at management's table, and can argue not only for their direct interests, but for what they see as their company's interests.
The employer's success is, after all, crucial to the employee, and he can often have a better, or different, idea than the management consultants and executives as to what's missing from the everyday operations. It wasn't that long ago that Walter Reuther, head of the United Auto Workers, begged GM and Ford to move towards smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, and not cede that ground to the Japanese -- he even offered union concessions to aid in the transition process. He was ignored, and both his union and the automakers are the poorer for it.