Weekly Column: The Role of Unions Reloaded

In the past, I wrote a column in which I explored the role of public service unions (if you go back and re-read that column, make sure you read the comments, and then read this response). In the face of some lingering uncertainty of their role, it seemed to me that the most effective way for me to receive communication from, learn about, and be able to influence decision-making in the union was to get involved. So I decided to set out to add "shop steward" to my CV.


Context

The training was 2 and 1/2 days; paid in full by the union (which really means paid for by my own – and probably some of your - monthly dues). The sessions were geared towards teaching us how to be a shop steward and how to use/interpret the collective agreement (CA).


Quick Recommendation

I would recommend that all public servants take a course of this nature. Not so much to be a shop steward, but to help familiarize yourself with your CA. Should an issue arise, knowing your rights and recourse is important, especially in the absence of solid and enterprise-wide HR solutions, standards, and consistency. I can honestly say I learned more about my rights (esp. regarding leave and harassment) during my training with my union than I did during my departmental or public service-wide orientation session.


Shocked by the Tone

The session started well enough. The Labour Relations Officer (LRO) encouraged us to seek informal resolutions prior to involving the union. However, it quickly descended into the simplistic “management bad – union good” discussion. The adversarial tone of the entire experience was rather shocking and detracted from what was otherwise valuable information.

The conversation also quickly drifted away from the actual training, and towards more substantive questions: ‘how is the union dealing with this? How can we change that? What if we have an issue with this?’ and in every case the answer seemed to be to delegate those decisions to the union executive - that is what they are there for. While participation is supposed to be a founding principle of organized labour, the union’s approach, namely defer any and all matters to labour relations officers, just doesn’t sit well with someone like me.


Making an Exit

By the end of the 2 and ½ days, I could no longer tolerate the adversarial tone that framed the entire experience. In the end, I lost control and I left the room with this little diatribe:

I have some serious reservations about the unionization of knowledge workers in a knowledge economy. Generally speaking, given today’s demographic pressures, I think the relevance of unions will continue to decline.

New labour market entrants (e.g. youth) have no historical connection to organized labour. I have worked in unionized environments for about 10 of my 14 years in the labour force. Yet, I have no deep connection to the movement because I have never had to fight to establish any of my rights, nor have I ever had to resort to filing a grievance to uphold those rights. Work relationships should be managed actively, by all parties, in a manner that renders grievances moot in all but the most terrible of situations.

Furthermore, by 2017, 1 in 5 Canadians will be a visible minority, many of them recent arrivals to Canada, and 96% of them settling in large urban centres, and accounting for 100% of the labour force growth. Their views on unions are likely to be as diverse as their educational, cultural and geographical backgrounds.

Further still, Canada's Aboriginal population, a population with little affinity for the federal government, let alone its unions, is Canada’s fastest growing population segment and represents an enormous pool for potential labour.

Couple all of that with the fact that most public service unions are still communicating via bulletin boards by elevator bays or in lunch rooms, and I would hazard a guess about the pickle that public service unions will find themselves in if they don’t start to do what is required to make themselves continually relevant.

Oh, and in my three years in government I have only worked with a current collective agreement for 2 months, and it was legislated, not bargained.


Conclusion

Mike and I have discussed this issue multiple times and there are a whole host of issues here: legacy, untapped potential, communication, transparency, etc. What happens next? Well we can either sit back and watch, or stand up and get involved, and for once, I am not certain doing the latter will make a difference… there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of interest among my contemporaries (in mind and attitude, not age) coming-together around the issue, at least not yet.

Update Reloaded: Deck from Career Bootcamp 2009 and Thanks for all the Retweets

My Deck

I just wanted to share the deck I used during my talk at Career Bootcamp 2009 with all of you. Here it is below. Keep in mind that some of the slides have animation, etc. So if it looks a touch confusing on slideshare it is because it looks awesome in person.

Social Media and Tools For Public Servants, Ottawa, April 17

View more presentations from Nicholas Charney.

UPDATE: Here is the audio. Note I couldn't sync up the audio and slides so you will have to navigate them at your own.

Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io

If you were there then you know that I recorded the audio from my talk (as I do w/all my presentations). If there is demand then I can create an audio cast to accompany the slides. Leave me a comment or tweet me to signal interest... I don't think I said anything too controversial.

Did I?

My Thanks

Last week's column - How I use Twitter to be a Better Public Servant - got a fair bit of retweets (RT) on twitter, and a number of retweets outside my initial network (including some other tweets without the RT @nickcharney). I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who read it and found it useful. I think it demonstrated how to create value from twitter even without having an account (by pairing advanced searches and RSS readers to find information). If you haven't read it, scroll down or click here.

Reloaded CPSRenewal.ca Weekly: A Good Ol' Fashioned Barn Raising

[ncharney: Sorry about the issue with the links, apparently blogger doesn't like me. I have fixed all the links in the post. Happy reading (and weekend!)]

First let me explain what I mean when I invoke the term "barn raising." I first heard it at a wiki workshop at NRCAN. They have a team of people there who provide the support needed by other units and/or divisions to use their wiki. They do all the support work; they set up the scaffolds (wiki-speak for templates).

They effectively raise the barn and then leave the group to manage how exactly to use it.

I think the idea of “barn raising” has huge potential outside of the narrow use outlined above. What if people have expertise they want to share that isn’t necessarily part of his or her official duties? It doesn't make his or her expertise less valuable, just harder to access. So, why not make it easier?

For example, I personally have what I think is a good amount of experience leading a youth group and representing that group to senior managers. The combination of my unofficial work as a youth organizer and my official duties within ADM's office uniquely positioned me to offer some rather unique advice to who?. But how do people get it? Well, someone I met along the way simply asked me to come speak to her fledgling youth group (which I did happily, and from which I received positive feedback). But if she didn't already know me, she likely wouldn't have known where to turn and even more likely wouldn’t have known to turn to me.

Social media behind the government firewall could easily step up and fill the void. In the absence of a full-fledged facebook.gc.ca or linkedin.gc.ca we can easily turn to our GCPEDIA profiles or even GCPEDIA itself. I would encourage you all to set up a subheading in your profile that lists what other expertise (e.g. those not related to your official duties) you have and are willing to share. In short, what barns you can help to raise.

My GCPEDIA profile now includes barns a subheading that references barns that I think I can help raise. I also created a central hub for barn raisers across the Government of Canada. Please add to it and share your expertise. I've already included a couple of categories but feel free to add to and expand them as you see fit. Or if you think the page should be organized along different lines please feel free to re-construct it in a manner that you think makes the most sense.

Please understand that by adding your information you are inviting others to contact you and partake in your expertise.

GCPEDIA provides us the space and the structure to allow us to build this database of expertise but it is also up to us to start shifting the culture towards one that encourages us all to share in this way.

Ps - we thank you very much for the two conversations that this blog has seen via the comments in the last week or so. We always welcome your feedback and participation.

In case you missed the link above, CLICK HERE to raise a barn!

Reloaded: Daily Round-Up

We are experimenting with the format of how we deliver information. We are going to try posting links (possibly with comments) rather then posting complete articles hosted elsewhere.

Let us know what you think.


Media Search

Not much in the media today:

1. Beefed-up rules put lobbying aspirations on hold
2. Some will be working hard, some will be hardly working

Blogs

Etienne Laliberté published this piece on his blog last week.

CSPS

There is an upcoming armchair discussion (web re-broadcast) on July 3rd entitled Digital Disorder: The Internet and the Public Sector.


Conference Board of Canada

I got an email this morning from the Conference Board with a link to its Report Card on Canada


Ps - Have a good Canada Day tomorrow.

Reloaded - CPSRENEWAL.CA Weekly: Tell Us How

[Update June 16 - We appreciate and welcome your comments.

The message we were trying to convey with this post is NOT that we should sit back and wait it out, but that is it insufficient to repeatedly deliver the renewal imperative without ever giving direction on how one can actually get involved.

The final statement of this column suggested that perhaps someone with the authority and the resources (i.e. the centre) should move to provide us with a public service wide Web 2.0 platform, as suggested in David Eaves Column (to which we linked).

We are already involved, in many of the informal renewal channels alluded to by the comments, however we have had to rally most of our efforts on our own accord, without the benefit of being pointed in the right direction. The simple example of the PS wide web 2.0 platform would be an easy way to draw in participation from people who want to participate but cannot find an avenue for their creative energy.

We hope this clarifies our column. Thanks for your feedback.]


Original Column Below:

Background

Kevin Lynch, the Clerk of the Privy Council, presented a deck on Public Service Renewal at the 2008 APEX Conference.

[Editorial Note: The Clerk’s deck is suggested pre-reading for what follows. The commentary below responds to his presentation. We would also recommend this deck presented by Max Valiquette, President of Youthography Inc. as it provides additional context.]

Column

The first half of the Clerk’s presentation was an explanation of why Public Service Renewal matters. It contained all of the latest demographic data and used it to hammer home the importance of the Renewal imperative.

Here’s the rub.

We here at CPSRenewal.ca (contributors and patrons alike) already know Public Service Renewal matters; we already know why it matters. Surely Public Service executives already know why Renewal matters. We’re fairly certain that those of us who are genuinely interested in Renewal want to hear less ‘why’ and more ‘how’. The commentary below is therefore aimed not Clerk’s “Demographic Imperative” but on the issue of communication and engagement.

The Clerk’s deck closes with a slide on Key Public Service Renewal Messages, only one of which we want to touch on here. Specifically, the Clerk’s final point (our questions there to in parenthesis):

Communications and your engagement are key to renewal:

• Get Involved! (How? When? During NPSW?)
• Speak up! (Where? Can we be critical, or does that contravene PS values & ethics?)
• Make suggestions! (To whom?)
• Become part of renewal! (We want to, tell us how?)
• Be proud...you make a difference! (It doesn't feel that way to us... not yet.)

If we have truly found the key for renewal then we must have some inclination of where the lock is?

Don’t we? No? Not yet?

The underlying question is a recurrent and imperative one – tell us how!?

Tell Us How to Participate in the Renewal Process

Should we step outside the Public Service and start a website dedicated to Public Service Renewal like others have? Only to eventually be brought back into it after proving your mettle? Are our contributions undermined because we have to preface them with disclaimers and tread lightly for fear of reprisal? While the above comments are somewhat tongue in cheek, the underlying point is that there are ways to get involved within the existing Public Service framework, but they are often informal undertakings, spread by word of mouth, and subject to sharp declines in interest due to the mobility of labour within the Public Service.

If the Public Service wants to engage youth in the renewal process it needs to provide opportunities to participate and provide feedback, and it should be done in a manner that allows for both the productive use of the latest technologies and face-to-face interactions. Moreover, these opportunities need to be easy to find, properly resourced, and actively championed by Senior Management. That being said, engagement at all levels and across all demographics is important.

We think there is an opportunity here for strong leadership from the centre on creating a mechanism that would facilitate both communication and engagement – the key to renewal.