The Union’s Master Executive Council (MEC) President and the MEC Vice President (VP) who negotiated the contract were impeached. A new union MEC President and board had just been elected and installed. A new company Senior Vice President (SVP) for customer service and VP for Flight Service had recently been appointed. They asked us to help them change the state of the labor-management relationship.
Initial interviews conducted with senior leaders of both groups revealed that civility, objective listening, fairness, and respect were missing and desired. Many unsubstantiated assessments about the integrity of each group existed. Trust was a slippery commodity. Neither group knew how it should proceed. Opinions about the ‘right’ way to move forward differed for both groups. Most everyone indicated the need for a respectful, communicative, and productive relationship and believed that the responsibility for that resided with the ‘other’ team.
In discussions, we discovered one common factor: everyone was happy to tell us the ‘truth’ about the causes for the failed relationship. This encouraged us. Perspectives of the company and labor senior leaders were used as the basis to develop a questionnaire designed to gather information in order to identify a baseline in three areas: trust, hope, and stewardship.
We conducted 29 interviews in hopes of:
- creating a current baseline of trust, hope, and stewardship among the two groups; and
- ascertaining whether or not members off each group were willing to spend two workdays together in a room.
Of the 29 people interviewed, 15 were airline managers and 14 were union leaders. One union leader responded to emails and calls, but did not show up for the scheduled interview. Interview findings were:
- Suspicion, anger, and distrust were the primary moods between the two groups.
- Trust was non-existent across group lines.
- At least one member of each group was distrusted by almost everyone interviewed.
- There was one person in each group that was trusted by 90% of the people interviewed.
- Neither group felt treated as professionals by the other group.
- Confidentiality was leverageable.
