City’s ‘Revolutionary’ Union Agreement
The City of Hamilton today [Jan. 23] announced it has signed a “revolutionary” Collective Bargaining Agreement for its management group with the Bermuda Public Services Union.
Making the announcement, Hamilton Mayor Charles Gosling. Mayor Gosling stated, “The negotiation for the management group at the City of Hamilton was a revolutionary agreement for the City and indeed, Bermuda.
“It is not the norm for a management team, in the private sector or in a municipality, to have union representation. This is local government following in the footsteps of national Government, in recognising the important role a union has in representing and protecting executive management and senior management staff while creating an environment that has a positive impact on morale, security, efficiencies and effectiveness within the workplace.”
Mr. Gosling added, “The negotiation process comprised five meetings, between November 30, 2011 and December 14, 2011. Both parties were fair, flexible and focused on a resolution; enabling negotiations to be concluded within two weeks, which must be a record for a maiden agreement.
“The negotiations were intensive and highly productive. In order to survive economically we must do things differently. The old ways of negotiating and reaching agreements are no longer appropriate in our changing environment. Management and unions must work together, side by side, not necessarily think outside the box, as it is my belief the box has been moved somewhere else and collectively we waste too much time trying to replace its missing structure with collapsed dogma of prior years.
Martin Law, Mayor Gosling, Kevin Grant, Ed Ball, Golinda Fox, Earl Francis, Danilee Trott:
“This Agreement is a good example of recognizing change, determining our surroundings, setting an agreed upon course and moving forward together.”
The Mayor concluded, “During my time in office and with the full support of the City’s Aldermen and Councillors, we have strived for good governance. Upon taking Office, one of the immediate actions we undertook was to completely separate the Board from the day-to-day operations, thus protecting staff from interference in their jobs.
“This, with other measures, is incorporated in the Members’ Code of Conduct that each Board Member signs when taking office.
“The City is proud of its Code of Conduct and was very pleased when the union agreed the management group would be guided by the same Code. The union also approved specific wording and reference from the Code that would be included in the agreement.
“Similarly, our well-developed, up to date and progressive Employee Handbook was also embraced by the union and is referred to in large measure in the agreement.”
Let us see if they can pull off the same revolution with the line workers^^
Greame the issue is some unions are real business partners and when two groups are focused on the solution all the energy around the table is working with rather than against each other.
Something the members of the board during your tenure should have done,as demonstrated by the news you generated at the time.
Any agreement is simple when you sign off on your own terms and conditions.
Now if only the Banks would follow suit. That would be something.
Let’s get real. These are the same managers that fought so hard to keep the BIU from representing the workers!!
This is clearly an example of self preservation. With the looming election under a broader franchise, it appears that the managers have simply chosen to protect themselves. It will be interesting to see if they try to decertify the Union if the current Mayor etc get re elected.
Vote for Me – PAID BLOGGER -You know they should have said that anyone who works in the city has a vote – or at least keep some business vote – after all it is their tax that pays for the services, in addition to the residents
@ Jim Bean
I am not sure about the point you are trying to make with the PAID BLOGGER comment. My post is to state that these same managers recently fought ‘tooth and nail’ to keep the BIU from representing their workers.
It appears that they now believe their individual jobs may be impacted by the imminent elaections. Surely the public gets the irony of the once ‘secretive management team’ seeking shelter under the umbrella of a trade union!!
Not sure what role Martin Law played in the negotiations but his presence adds to the irony of the picture.
@ Vote for Me. Not one of those managers were at the Corporation when the BIU was recognised as the bargaining agent. Nice try.
I can say with complete certainty that not one of the current management team was in the management of the CoH when the issue of union certification was disputed. This sort of comment is typical of someone who only looks backwards and is oblivious that the world around them has moved on as have the players.in fact if you actually checked you would find that during the period in question most of the issues were a direct result of board members involved. Something the code of conduct prevents from reoccurring.