List Honors Labor-Management Partnerships

by James Parks, Sep 8, 2008

While the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and some of its corporate members have launched a vicious anti-union campaign to stop workers from making the free choice to join a union, other employers work together with their union employees to create profitable, successful enterprises.

In observance of Labor Day, the American Rights at Work Education Fund released its fourth annual Labor Day List: Partnerships that Work. By fairly compensating employees and sharing decision making responsibility with them through unions, the employers on the list prove that embracing such a forward-thinking business model is a smart, ethical and successful strategy. Click here to see the Labor Day List.

Says American Rights at Work Education Fund Executive Director Mary Beth Maxwell:

While job outsourcing, corporate bankruptcies, layoffs and unfair negotiations are rampant, this year’s Labor Day List employers and their employees’ unions tell another story. They are proving that tumultuous labor relations are a thing of the past, not the future. These companies buck the trend and showcase the strength that comes when workers and management create long-lasting productive partnerships. Economic success does not have to come at the expense of workers’ rights.

One of this year’s honorees, Gamesa USA, fought the trend to send jobs overseas by opening up domestic operations in Pennsylvania building wind turbines to provide good green jobs of the future. Its 1,200 employees are represented by the United Steelworkers (USW). (See video.)

Another company, Alabama Power, a utility serving millions of residents in the South, has a longstanding collaboration with the Electrical Workers (IBEW), which has resulted in one of the lowest turnover rates in the industry and exemplary on-the-job safety accomplishments.

Other Labor Day List employers include the Washington (D.C.) National Opera, A. Zahner Co. (Kansas City, Mo.), Delta Construction Corp. (Kapolei, Hawaii), DMAX-LTD. (Moraine, Ohio), Justice Clothing (Bangor, Maine), Maimonides Medical Center (Brooklyn, N.Y.), the State of Kansas and Team Industries (Kaukauna, Wis.).

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