I have never been a union member (my father was a 65 year veteran of the local pipefitters union in Detroit), although I have worked with many union trades people in the US. I have however, had to ‘hire union’ on a number of cleanup projects around the country. My experiences have been positive in some respects and negative in others, the most negative is that it is frustrating to work with someone who rigidly defines their job duties and/or are unwilling to accommodate the changes that crop up on all projects.

One good thing about union structure is that you can usually anticipate exactly what you will receive in terms of labor and skill level. I have had more performance problems with non-union tradesmen than union, even though they may be more flexible, cheaper, and accommodating to my changing demands. And although a plumber won’t cover the electrician’s job who won’t cover for the carpenter, if you need a journeyman plumber for a certain task and an apprentice carpenter for another, it is easy to scope and cost the work. You need a bit more planning and effort to allocate resources, but the only time I routinely expect extra difficulty is when the inevitable change order, schedule change, or problem arises.

One of the most difficult aspects of dealing with unions for me has always been their insistence that they be “given” the work, i.e., if I have an equipment operator on site he/she must be union. As the owner of a non-union (open shop) environmental contracting firm I had several occasions when unions would picket my projects, my response to them was if they wanted the work they should form a company, put their house up as collateral in order to secure a bond, bid the work (and win it), then run the project successfully. Then they have earned the project.

Unions have been shrinking at the level of the skilled trades, but have been increasing in the professional fields. Doctors and dentists are seeking to unionize under the burdens imposed by HMO’s, and even college professors have been banding together to balance upper management’s zeal to do ever more work with ever fewer people. The next decade will see some major changes in how organizations interact with their employees, and successful project management or matrix management might help stem the increasingly adversarial situation (between upper management and ‘labor’) that is arising in some sectors of the economy.

Read the above first and post a reply of a paragraph or two to it as well as to other posted replies. Respond to the following statement or to one of your colleagues posted replies.

“Unions play an important and effective role in functional organizations, but can impede effectiveness in project-based or matrix organizations.”