AMERICAN WORKPLACE VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3 MAY 1994 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR _____________________________________________________________ SEEING THROUGH TO CHANGE One of the best examples of union involvement in changing from old ways of working to new occurs in Blacksburg, VA, at the Corning Glass manufacturing plant. The plant was one of hundreds of unionized manufacturing facilities that left workers idle during the dark years of the 1980s. Unlike many idled plants, however, Blacksburg got a second chance when it reopened in 1988. Larry Bankowski, a 40-year union veteran and president of the American Flint Glass Workers Union representing Corning workers, recalls that when Corning and the AFGW reopened the plant, nothing of the old plant was resurrected. The new factory makes a new product--ceramic substrate for automobile catalytic converters--within a new high-performance work system. Some features of that system: a flatter organization, work based on team production, and a "goal-sharing system" for workers to reap benefits of the plant's success. The road to change started when Corning management presented the union with a general outline of the new work process. Implementing that process, however, was left to a steering committee made up of union and management representatives and to work teams. Teamwork is at the heart of Corning Blacksburg's new work system. Teams are responsible for the quality of all the plant's work. They take the lead in ensuring quality-there is no longer an inspection department. Teams also are responsible for product quotas, determining what line to run and the number of pieces to make. According to Bankowski, all the details of the production process have become the teams' responsibility. Today's plant has a team room where employees discuss how work will be performed, when, and by whom. According to Bankowski, "That was new to us, and it was exciting. We had been working with Corning [management] but not to that extent." Along with new responsibilities has come much greater union access to information, information needed to make the right decisions. As Bankowski puts it: "The biggest difference now is the amount of information workers have. They know what is required. They know who the customers are and, in all probability, they have met the customer. [There is] an interchange between Corning management and workers, between workers and customers, and among the teams--they value each other as customers." Assessing the difference between old work and new, Bankowski believes the effects on the union, on workers, and on management have all been positive. One casualty of the change is the boredom inherent in a typical production job, now relieved through an increased sense of control, input, and ownership that Corning workers have secured. But beyond these effects, the primary outcome of the new work system may indeed be the very survival of the plant. Bankowski notes: "I have witnessed, particularly in the past 15 years, so many traditional manufacturing plants close or wither because they became noncompetitive on the world scene.... The only winners are those that work together for the common good." _______________________________________________________________ THE NEW AMERICAN WORKPLACE--UNION STYLE In February, the AFL-CIO Committee on the Evolution of Work released its report, The New American Workplace: A Labor Perspective, charting a course for union action in the 1990s. The report notes that a new system of work organization, defined as a "new American workplace," is needed. It adds that the new workplace will change "in the most basic ways the manner in which work is organized, businesses are managed, and labor and management treat each other." Further, in recognition of the joint interests of labor and management in workplace reform, the report commits the AFL-CIO and its affiliates to helping form partnerships between unions and management to create this new system of work organization. ELEMENTS OF THE NEW WORKPLACE Union management brokered high-performance workplaces, the report concludes, have five central features: They redistribute decision-making authority from management to workers who are often organized into groups or teams. Workers are given both the authority to make decisions previously restricted to management and the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to make these decisions. The new workplace rejects the division between mental and manual labor, in which workers are asked to "check their brains at the door." Jobs in the new workplace call for a greater variety of skills and a greater degree of responsibility. By organizing workers into teams, employees learn not only a particular task but gain an understanding of the complete production or service process. A flatter management structure with a transformed role for the manager replaces authoritarian management control. Managers become leaders and facilitators, rather than dictators. Workers, through their unions, are entitled to a decision-making role at all levels of the enterprise. For example, workers gain a role in strategic decisions about the implementation of new technologies and changes in products and service the company provides. Having a long term interest in their jobs, workers bring a long-term perspective beneficial to the firm. Rewards from the reorganization of work are distributed equitably between labor and management. This implies a negotiated settlement guaranteeing income and employment security, to the extent possible. Increased compensation may come in the form of higher base wages or contingent compensation. In any case, the new wage structure is bargained by the union, not set by management. Such a transformation of the American workplace presents the potential for increased worker representation (both individual and collective), enhanced job satisfaction, and greater workplace democracy--all traditional union goals. At the same time, new work systems may facilitate improvements in quality and efficiency. As such, the new American workplace is "more democratic and more productive," a combination attractive to both labor and management. TRADITION STILL PREVAILS Despite the benefits accruing to workers and employers from this new form of work organization, however, the great majority of workplaces are still organized according to traditional principles. The report argues that management, by itself, does not appear willing to create real change and that active union involvement in the change process is critical. The report cautions that workplace programs unilaterally designed and implemented without a partnership between labor and management otter the appearance, but not the substance of genuine worker involvement. In order to reap the benefits of the high-performance workplace, the report recommends that unions take the initiative in the redesign of work. Rex Hardesty, a spokesman for the AFL-CIO, says of the report: "It throws down the gauntlet to management to join us in giving workers a real voice in workplace redesign." By taking the initiative in the formation of such new work systems, unions can create new and equitable relationships with management, the report concludes. While forming such partnerships is desirable and opens the door for increased union and worker participation, the report cautions that these partnerships are not a substitute for collective bargaining. Workers and employers have, and always will have, both common and conflicting interests, and labor organizations need to recognize the divergent and common interests of workers and employers. Hardesty hopes the report prompts companies to stop seeing the legitimate voice of workers as an "us versus them proposition." Unions can maintain a clear sense of labor's agenda and interests and still move toward partnerships with management that advance the interests of both parties, he believes. The AFL-CIO, in endorsing this document, commits itself to new responsibilities--bringing together unions from different industries and even different countries, to share experiences and insights regarding work reorganization, and identifying methods for achieving success in the area of work redesign. For local unions this implies institutional support for what they have been doing or may want to do in the area of workplace change. According to Hardesty, this report has been issued at a fortuitous time because President Clinton and Secretary Reich provide an opportunity for successfully building workplaces where workers have real voice. For ordering and price information regarding the AFL-CIO report, The New American Workplace: A Labor Perspective, write to the AFL-CIO Department of Reproduction and Mailings, 815 16th St., NW, Washington, DC 20006 Or call (202) 637-5000. _____________________________________________________________ HIGH-PERFORMANCE WORKPLACE CHECKLIST The first step in the process of becoming a high-performance workplace is to identify possible opportunities for improvement in your organization. Look at the checklist below. Are there problems in your business that could be addressed by changing the way work is managed and the skill levels of your employees? Could such problems be brewing? Human Resource Management -- Late Arrivals -- Turnover -- Safety Incidents -- Workers' Comp Claims -- Lost Workdays -- Health Care Costs -- Employee Morale -- Labor-Management Relations -- Communication and Cooperation between Individuals and Units Quality and Productivity -- Waste and Scrap -- Rework and Returns -- Cycle Time -- Plant & Equipment Maintenance -- Output per Worker or Work-Hour -- On-Time Deliveries Business Relationships -- Customer Loyalty -- New Customer Development -- Vendor/Supplier Relations -- Industry Relations -- Community Relations -- Relations with Regulators -- Bank Relations Corporate Performance -- Profit Trends -- Market Share Trends -- Price Trends -- Product Vitality -- Compensation Levels -- Capital -- Stock Value -- Other [Reprinted from The Smart Workplace Developing High-Performance Work Systems, NAM Video Series Workbook. Used with permission of the National Association of Manufacturers. For price and ordering information, contact: FFH Group, PO Box 2053 Princeton, NJ 08543-2053 Toll-free number. (800) 257-5126 Fax. (609) 275-3767] ______________________________________________________________ BUILDING OAW'S BEST-PRACTICE CLEARINGHOUSE How can I build a high-performance work organization? What are the minefields I will encounter as I begin my conversion process? What are the best ways to bring workers into the design process? What are the real-life practices that will lead me there? How have others handled the hurdles we all face? These are a few of the questions being asked by companies, unions, and workers who are putting into daily practice the principles of high-performance work. OAW, through development of a Best-Practice Clearinghouse, is in the process of creating a mechanism to get answers from the experts--other companies, workers, and unions who are daily answering questions like the ones above. When fully operational, the clearinghouse will be a vital resource for professionals embarking on a strategy of change within their organizations. It will provide access to an extensive network of practitioners and resource centers that can lend a hand with their practical experiences. The success of the clearinghouse depends on teams of workers, managers, and union representatives communicating their workplace experiences to the OAW. We urge those committed to building stronger, better workplaces to contact the clearinghouse so that it can reflect a broad spectrum of experiences. Fax or mail a brief description of your high-performance workplace effort and the name and phone number of a contact person to: Best-Practice Clearinghouse Office of the American Workplace, DOL 200 Constitution Ave., NW Room N-5419 Washington, DC 20210 Fax (202) 219-8762 Phone: (202) 219-5769 ________________________________________________________________ WOMEN'S BUREAU TO START NATIONAL CAMPAIGN Today, 58 million women hold paid jobs in America, the largest number in the nation's history. The Women's Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor, is launching a national questionnaire-- Working Women Count!--to find out how working women feel about their jobs and what changes they would like to see in the workplace. To reach as many women as possible, the Women's Bureau is seeking program partners-associations, businesses, labor unions, and other representative groups whose memberships include women workers-to distribute the questionnaire. The results will be sent to the President and Congress. "This questionnaire will get at the pulse of the issues women in the workplace care about," said Karen Nussbaum, Women's Bureau director. "It will shed new light on the critical concerns working women face today." Program partners who help distribute the questionnaire will be invited to take part in a public event in October highlighting questionnaire results. Organizations as varied as Working Women, Essence, Hispanic Reporter, and Self magazines, McDonald's, the YWCA, The Body Shop, and 9to5 have already agreed to distribute the questionnaire. Organizations interested in learning more about program partnerships for the Working Women Count! campaign can contact: Working Women Count! Women's Bureau US. Department of Labor 200 Constitution Ave., NW Washington, DC 20210 Phone. (202) 219-6652 FAX. (202) 219-5529 _______________________________________________________________ ON THE RIGHT TRAINING TRACK FOR SMALL BUSINESS No matter what the business--manufacturing, sales, or service--companies, at one time or another, find they face one of these situations: decreased sales, increased customer complaints, greater error rates, or stiff competition at home or abroad. Upgrading employee skills may help address these problems and improve a company's standing. But which training program is best? And how much will it cost? Small companies can increase their chances of becoming smart buyers with Choosing the Right Training Program: A Guidebook for Small Businesses, published by the Office of the American Workplace and the Department of Education. The booklet takes organizations through a list of seven guidelines to use in analyzing needs and comparing training programs. Included is a list of training resources, many of them low-cost, community- based organizations that can help in making smart training choices. Also included is a reproducible checklist to track a company's training from start to finish. For a single free copy of Choosing the Right Training Program. A Guidebook for Small Businesses, write: Office of the American Workplace U.S. Department of Labor Room 11-5402 200 Constitution Ave., NW Washington, DC 20210 Or fax (202) 219-8762 ________________________________________________________________ SUBSTANCE ABUSE PREVENTION KIT AVAILABLE Studies estimate that more than 20 percent of employees in some industries are substance abusers, adding to health-care costs and increasing absenteeism. As part of a commitment to increased workplace productivity, Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich recently announced the release of a new information kit, Working Partners: Substance Abuse in the Workplace. By investing a small amount up front, Secretary Reich noted, a company can expect to see significant savings down the road--savings from decreases in workers' compensation claims, insurance rates, and absenteeism. "When done right, a substance abuse program can create a profit center within a small business organization," said Reich. The Small Business Administration estimates that every dollar invested in an employee assistance program saves $16 in productivity. Workplace Partners was developed specifically for trade associations and other membership organizations that realize the connection between employee assistance and workplace productivity. The kit contains fact sheets, profiles of small companies with successful substance abuse programs, brochures, payroll stuffers, resource information, and posters. Organizations interested in learning more about the initiative or obtaining a copy of the information kit can contact: Laura Straupenieks of the Working Partners Initiative Phone. (703) 684-5588