Whether your workplace is newly unionized or whether there has been a union representing your employees for some time, you will by now have had a variety of experiences on how it has been to deal with a union.

Your experiences may have been good, not so good, or it may have been (or presently is) a very nasty and difficult experience. Believe it or not, each of these situations can be the reality.

In many ways, as an Employer you can determine what kind of relationship you have with your union(s). How you conduct yourself, and the position you take on everyday issues usually forms the basis for how the Union and its' representatives will conduct themselves towards you.

Some Employers take an adversarial approach on every issue that comes up and choose to take every issue to arbitration. Often the justification for arbitrating the issue is deemed a "a matter of principle". Not only is this approach costly, it also empowers the union to challenge the Employer resulting in the perception by their members - your employees - that their union is clearly needed and working hard for them. Frequently when an Employer takes this attitude on every issue, they are often found by a third party, (arbitrator) to be wrong, and the union right. As a result, the perception that the union is necessary is reinforced in your employees' minds.

Then, when the Employer becomes frustrated with the cost of arbitration cases, the investment of time, and has a disgruntled work force, they may take a position to cave on all matters that are raised and give in to the Union's requests, whether reasonable or not. This approach has all sorts of consequences to it, and they are mostly negative.

Newsome & Dheilly offers a Labour Relations Service where we either handle all union dealings, often for a pre-determined fixed cost, or where we teach your managers and supervisors how to deal with Unions in a variety of strategic and common sense ways. Either service is not only cost-effective, and it allows our Clients to continue with business as usual, while effectively managing within a Unionized environment.

We are always available for a free consultation to help you determine how we could assist you.