Kochan calls for new bargaining framework

Collaboration and building effective labor-management relationships can help to improve public services as well as public sector labor-management relations.

This strategy was proposed by Thomas Kochan, co-director of MIT’s Institute for Work and Employment Research, during the Massachusetts Municipal Personnel Association’s Labor Relations Seminar, held in Boxborough on Oct. 31.

By taking a new approach and building partnerships with union leaders, Kochan said, local officials in Massachusetts can avoid the types of labor-management conflicts that arose in Wisconsin, Ohio and New Jersey, for example. He suggests that local officials use innovative collective bargaining strategies that have been successful in schools and the private sector.

“We’re at a crossroads,” Kochan said, adding that Massachusetts should not go down the road of other states that are perceived as not respecting public servants.

Kochan referred to The Boston Foundation report “Toward a New Grand Bargain: Collaborative Approaches to Labor-Management Reform in Massachusetts,” which discusses a new collective bargaining framework he helped to create for public education.

His model suggests that local officials build partnerships with union leaders and collaborate using state-of-the-art tools of labor relations.

Bringing all stakeholders together to create a shared vision and strategy, he said, will enable unions to be seen as partners rather than obstacles in collective bargaining.

Changing the culture and engaging employees in the problem-solving process to improve cost savings and performance is a great way to get people involved in the workplace, he said. Doing so is critical to successful change that endures in organizations over time.

Kochan advises the use of “interest-based bargaining” to improve collective bargaining and day-to-day relationships. The interest-based bargaining process consists of five steps: prepare, bargain over how to bargain, open and explore, focus and agree, and implement and sustain.

Information sharing should be ongoing between unions, municipal officials, employees, and community members. Kochan suggests creating an online network where experiences, issues and new labor relations efforts can be shared.

Creating partnerships and forging collaborations will improve public service performance, which then increases the confidence of taxpayers and the image of public servants. Ultimately, Kochan said, the result can be more revenue for public services.

“People are very pragmatic,” he said, and they will notice changes in behavior when they interact with their local government at city or town hall.

Also at the Labor Relations Seminar, attorney Corey Higgins with the firm Mirick O’Connell discussed the benefits and risks related to the use of social media (such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs) and search engines (e.g., Google, Yahoo! and Bing) by public employers and employees.

Social media offer potential benefits to public employers, such as vetting a prospective employee, monitoring employee productivity, and reviewing social networking posts to see if an applicant would be a good fit.

Employers, however, must weigh the risks and benefits before using social media, since there are potential privacy issues and discrimination concerns.

Employers risk possible violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Store Communications Act, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, and state laws regarding public employees and labor relations (M.G.L. Ch. 150E) and regarding unauthorized access to computer systems (M.G.L. Ch. 266, Sec. 120F), Higgins said. In the realm of social media, he added, there’s also the risk of mistaken identity.

Higgins also discussed issues that arise when employees use social media while off-duty. The conduct of an off-duty employee is generally considered private, but social media bring up gray areas due to the connection of the conduct and the workplace, he said. Public sector employees are held to a higher standard, he said, even when off-duty.

Other workshops at the Labor Relations Seminar covered accidental disability and retirement pensions, with speakers from the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission, and a session on the basics of collective bargaining.

Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Joanne Goldstein provided an update on unemployment insurance reform, and Erica Crystal, the director of the Department of Labor Relations, provided an update from her department.

• A Massachusetts Alternative: Improving Public Services Through Collaborative Labor-Management Relations
• Toward a New Grand Bargain: Collaborative Approaches to Labor-Management Reform in Massachusetts
• Social Media and Public Sector Employment