“Being Part of the Solution”
by Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, LERA President
LERA President Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld
In this year’s Labor Day address, delivered in Cincinnati, President Obama addressed the role of labor in our economy, reaffirming his view that “in good economic times and bad, labor is not part of the problem. Labor is part of the solution.” What are the implications for LERA? Clearly we are more than “labor” since we also encompass management, government, neutrals and academic scholars. At the same time, we are the leading association focused on advancing labor and employment relations and we do need to ask ourselves how we can ensure that “labor” (broadly defined) is part of the solution.
Certainly the programs at our Annual Meetings, at the National Policy Forum, at LERA sessions at the FMCS National Labor-Management Conference, and in local chapter meetings around the country all help to advance theory, practice and policy in important ways. For example, NPF Video footage from the National Policy Forum, which is now available at the LERA website, is testimony to the valuable ways we are advancing knowledge in the field on topics ranging from health care, to the auto industry, to executive compensation, to workforce development, to public sector employment, to green jobs and other pressing topics. Similarly, the LERA publications such as Perspectives on Work, the annual volumes, the newsletter and others, all present state-of-the art information on labor and employment relations. So LERA is already part of the solution in the important programming and publications that we produce.
But we must do more. There were just under twenty U.S. scholars among the 900 delegates at the World Congress of the International Industrial Relations Association (IIRA), held in Sydney, Australia. While in Sydney, we learned a great deal about how workplace fairness has been linked to enterprise performance and elevated to be the centerpiece of Australia’s national economic policies. We also saw evidence of many other nations placing labor and employment relations at the center of their economic agendas, all of which is described on a brief document prepared under Tom Kochan’s leadership and now available at LERA’s blog forum. In the U.S., we have not yet had a full national dialogue aimed at aligning labor policy, economic policy, and daily workplace realities. In this regard there is much more work to be done if labor (and employment relations) are to be part of the solution.
It will be of interest to LERA members that the leadership of the International Industrial Relations Association voted at the 2009 World Congress to change the name of the association from IIRA to the International Labor and Employment Relations Association. (ILERA).This decision was made for reasons similar to our own name change – to fully signal a focus encompassing all aspects of employment relations. Certainly, the nature of work today and issues such as the future of the American Dream can’t be understood without attention to individual employment rights and worker relations with employers in nonunion settings. Interestingly, at the same time that we much attend to the full range work arrangements, the long-standing domain of union-management relations is re-emerging as having increased importance. LERA has been contacted by employers, unions and government officials – all indicating that traditional labor relations skills are in short supply. It is increasingly hard to find people who know how to handle grievances, negotiate collective bargaining agreements, operate labor-management committees, and generally build constructive labor-management relations. It is in response to this demand that LERA is in the process of launching a major initiative to coordinate training and skill certification for labor relations.
While there will be much more information on the LERA certification initiative in coming issues of the newsletter and extensive discussion at the January 2010 membership meeting in Atlanta, discussions to date point to the following model:
- LERA will develop the overall skills standards and certification process
- Actual skills training can be delivered by a broad range of providers, including universities, local LERA chapters, unions, employers, government agencies, and others – all based on the LERA curriculum standards
- Individuals will achieve different levels of certification based on a combination of tests and demonstrated proficiency coordinated by LERA
Content expertise will come from a blue ribbon panel of LERA members. Fees from the initiative (and we hope additional external support for launch) will enable LERA to provide the needed staff support. Thus, we build on the foundation of our programming and publications. Then, we must also elevate national policy debates and build needed labor relations capabilities. Taken together, LERA will indeed be helping to ensure that labor is part of the solution to the great economic and social challenges facing the U.S. and the global economy.
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