What employers can learn about managing a union shop.
This episode of the Left of Boom show features Phil Wilson’s discussion with LRI Senior Consultant Dave Sapenoff discussing what employer need to know about effectively managing a union shop.
Why Contracts Erode One Decision at a Time
Union contracts rarely unravel at the bargaining table. More often, it happens one supervisor decision at a time.
An attendance exception gets handled differently on the night shift. A steward’s interpretation goes unchallenged because nobody checks the language. Management in a department informally adopts and follows a work practice inconsistent with the contract language.
By the time the parties exchange proposals, years of those decisions have shaped the relationship.
On a recent episode of LRI’s Left of Boom podcast, Phil Wilson talked with LRI Senior Consultant Dave Sapenoff about managing a union shop between contracts.
Sapenoff knows both sides of the table. He spent seven years as a Teamsters organizer before moving into management, where he was responsible for 12,000 bargaining unit employees working under 35 agreements in 18 states.
His advice is straightforward. Following it consistently is the hard part.
Firm Beats Hostile: Enforcing the Agreement As Written
Once employees are represented, hostility toward the union is usually not viable. You have to develop a working relationship.
That does not mean management should agree with the union on everything or soften every position. A productive labor relationship is not singing kumbaya. Management still needs to be firm. It also needs to be responsible and predictable.
Turning routine contract disputes into political contests may win an argument today while making the relationship more expensive tomorrow.
Sapenoff’s advice is simpler: “Do what the contract says, not what you think is fair.”
Supervisors cannot replace negotiated language with personal judgment because they dislike the result. The agreement governs the relationship, including the parts management may not particularly enjoy.
Credibility matters too. If management screws up, admit the error and move on. Defending a bad position wastes time and costs the company credibility over the long run.
Why Admitting Mistakes Protects Credibility
Most contract administration does not happen in the labor relations office. The work typically happens on the shop floor and is managed daily by your frontline supervisors. They need training to do this effectively.
Handing a supervisor a 60-page agreement and saying, “Manage it,” is not training. It is how employers create what Sapenoff calls a grievance machine.
Supervisors do not need to memorize the agreement. They need to understand the provisions they use regularly, know the difference between a gripe and a contractual grievance, and recognize when to ask for help.
When someone alleges a violation, reach for the agreement. The steward may be right. The steward may be wrong. Either way, management should read the language and check the facts before responding.
Consistency across supervisors matters just as much. If two managers handle the same issue differently, the union will lean into that, and employees have a reason to question management. Too many exceptions can also fuel a past-practice argument.
Labor relations should be a regular management conversation, not something dusted off when a grievance reaches arbitration, or the contract is about to expire.
The Three Parties in Every Union Relationship
Collective bargaining is usually described as management versus the union. Sapenoff sees three parties in the relationship: management, union leadership, and the employees the union represents.
The union and its members are not always on the same page.
Union leaders must manage expectations, internal politics, and pressure to produce results. Employers that ignore that reality can leave union leaders with no face-saving option except escalation.
That does not mean giving away the store. It means management does not have to win every disagreement to manage the relationship effectively.
It also means continuing to communicate with employees. Representation changes some legal boundaries, but it does not end management’s responsibility to talk about safety, customer expectations, business conditions, and operational challenges.
If leadership says nothing until bargaining begins, employees will fill in the blanks. Their version probably will not make negotiations easier.
Do the Work Before Bargaining
Employers should understand what a strike or other job action would mean before bargaining begins. They should also know whether supervisors can administer the agreement, whether grievance patterns point to larger problems, and where outside help may be needed.
Most mid-market employers will never have a full-time labor relations department. They still need labor relations capability. Fractional labor relations support can fill the gaps through assisting with supervisor training, grievance advice, arbitration preparation, and bargaining strategy.
The art of negotiation is not confined to the table. It is practiced every day on the shop floor, often by supervisors who do not realize they are helping to set the tone for the next contract.
Employers that understand that arrive at bargaining with something more valuable than a stack of proposals. They arrive at the table with a relationship built on consistency and credibility.
Listen to the Conversation
Watch or listen to Phil Wilson’s complete interview with Dave Sapenoff on Left of Boom: Managing the Union Shop.
