Advancing Labor-Management Partnership Initiative

At the Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards, we’re committed to advancing labor-management transparency while ensuring workers have a voice in their workplaces.  

The Advancing Labor-Management Partnership Initiative, or AMP, will help us advance our mission by enabling us to identify examples of labor-management cooperation through collective bargaining and promote collaboration between unions and employers.  

What is a Labor-Management Partnership? 

What do you think of when you hear the word partnership? For some it may invoke an image of a couple who has traveled the world and grown old together. Maybe you picture a law firm, or perhaps even the crime fighting duo from your favorite TV show. Whatever comes to mind, think about the qualities those partners share. Ask yourself “what does it take to create and maintain quality partnerships?” Some words that might come to mind are: 

• Trust 

• Mutual respect 

• Support 

• Common values 

• Loyalty 

Every day millions of America’s workers report to their workplace and feel a sense of partnership with their coworkers and their employers.  For many such employees this is not luck or happenstance.  Some of the most clever companies work with their employees to deliberately foster this sense of communal effort and shared values. These employers enjoy effective labor-management collaborations, commonly referred to as Labor-Management Partnerships, and they reap the benefits that come from treating their employees, and their bargaining representatives, as partners in a shared endeavor. Through an ongoing mutual commitment, Labor-Management Partnerships improve labor-management relationship and help companies grow and prosper. They benefit the employer while providing employees an enhanced workplace experience. 

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which has extensive experience in Labor-Management Partnerships (or Labor-Management Forums) is partnering with us as we stand up this new initiative. 

A new vision for OLMS 

The Advancing Labor-Management Partnership Initiative will feature successful labor-management relationships from a wide range of private and public employers across the United States. We will showcase examples of partnerships that help employers and workers: 

1. Jointly tackle organizational challenges 

2. Improve performance 

3. Enhance the quality of products and services 

4. Increase organizational effectiveness 

The goal is to highlight positive partnerships in today’s workforce and raise awareness of their successes in hopes that these partnerships can serve as a model for others. As an important part of the OLMS mission, this program will help ensure that workers have a voice in the workplace and will highlight the important role unions play in the modern American economy. 

What to expect from AMP at OLMS? 

We will be compiling insights and exclusive content on advancing labor-management partnerships, and how they improve the lives of America’s workers and their places of employment. And next time we ask you to think about “partnerships,” we hope you think about strength and success for you and your employer, achieved through collective bargaining, mutual regard, reciprocal trust, and shared purpose. 

Andrew Hasty is a senior advisor on detail with the Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards. Darnice Marsh is the Labor Management Partnership Coordinator in the Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards.