Getting America on the Economic High Road

Successful union-management partnerships in the public sector are demonstrating results and getting recognition. Here are two examples.

In Phoenix, Arizona, the city’s water services department estimates it has saved over $77 million in five years as a result of a joint labor-management cooperative initiative between union workers represented by AFSCME 2384 and the water services department.

The innovative public sector initiative, a formal labor-management partnership called Participative Association of Labor and Management (PALM), guides a reengineering program that is credited with improving efficiency and water quality and also keeping water rates low. Earlier this year, when the department asked for a rate increase, the city council was receptive, at least partly because of the success of the joint labor-management initiative.

“When we started the PALM program in Phoenix, we knew the economic downturn would come, and because of the downturn, we knew legislators would be hesitant to approve needed water rate increases,” said Phoenix City Councilman Dave Siebert. “But because there are documented efficiencies in the Water Department in Phoenix, the water rate increase passed City Council, 8 to 1.”

Labor and management in Phoenix have been successful in adapting new technologies to improve the work process with the full participation and cooperation of union workers. One of the most innovative projects is to change the classification system for operations and maintenance. Under the new system, responsibilities are broader and opportunities for pay increases greater. No union member has lost a job as a result of these efforts, and participation in employer-provided training has increased.

In Toledo, Ohio. a long-time partnership between union and management in the city’s school system has resulted in national recognition of The Toledo Plan, a pioneer peer review process that has greatly improved teaching in public schools over the past three decades.

Earlier this year, The Toledo Plan won the Innovations in American Government Award, one of the nation’s most prestigious public service awards. The award comes with a $100,000 grant from the Institute for Government Innovation at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

“Over the last 30 years, the peer review program has transformed the culture of teaching and teacher’s attitudes of teachers about their competence and responsibility,” said Francine Lawrence, president of the Toledo Federation of Teachers (TFT). “As a result of the Toledo Plan, union and management work together to uphold high teaching standards, with our most accomplished teachers providing one-on-one guidance, support and evaluation of their peers.”

The brainchild of Dal Lawrence, former TFT president, the Toledo Plan was implemented in 1981 as a cooperative union-management teacher evaluation program. The program uses outstanding teachers who mentor and evaluate beginning and struggling veteran teachers. The Toledo Plan requires all new teachers to take part in an intern program.

“The Toledo Plan demonstrates what can be accomplished when the expertise and credibility that reside within the union and its members is recognized by school management,” said Sandra Feldman, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “Management could not have done this alone.”

Since the plan’s inception, there has not been a single labor-management dispute over a teacher dismissal and the program has been the impetus for several other collaborative efforts. Because of Toledo’s success, peer review programs are now commonplace throughout the country, and other Ohio school districts, including Columbus, Cincinnati and Berea, have replicated the program.

For more information on innovative labor management programs, contact the Public Sector Labor Management Committee at the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute at 202-974-8100, by e-mail at info@workingforamerica.org or visit WAI’s Website at www.workingforamerica.org. The work of the Public Sector Labor Management Committee is made possible through the support of the Ford Foundation, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and the Working for America Institute.

Back to Connections