Labor Relations

Changing a history of labor relations

Challenge:

An adversarial management-labor relationship threatened critical UAW contract negotiations and extensive capital investment in new product

Actions:

  • Uncovered front-line issues on trust and understanding of management strategy
  • Developed leadership platform to frame strategy and built leadership alignment
  • Partnered with bargaining committee to develop employee opinion and competitive reality programs
  • Facilitated open management practices throughout organization
  • Drove high-performance culture and employee engagement initiatives
  • Re-established open dialog between executive leaders and front-line employees
  • Counseled executive leadership throughout negotiations

Result:

  • 63% ratified; outcome declared as “win-win” by company, union
  • Secured work rule changes to improve production costs, reduce work force
  • Paved way for approval of $450 million in new product capital

© 2005 Gagen MacDonald LLC