By Guy Snyder

EAST LANSING - In the words of Mark Breslin, the secret of winning back market share for unionized construction in Michigan is pretty basic. It's convincing project owners and non-union contractors that "unions are trustworthy, highly ethical organizations that you can enter into a business relationship with."

Winning acceptance of this truth is the hard part, however, because decades of falsehoods, poor communication, and adversarial conflict must first be washed away.

The nationally recognized speaker, trainer, and facilitator addressed 275 representatives of the state's unionized construction industry on March 21 at Michigan State University's Kellogg Center. His venue was a special labor-management forum organized by the Mid-Michigan Construction Alliance (MMCA), which includes unions and union contractor associations. The next day he followed up with an even more focused workshop for union business agents on specific marketing methods.

The conference picked up where the MMCA's first Michigan Construction Industry Labor-Management Economic Summit left off last Nov. 8. Breslin reprised some of his thoughts but added far more detail.

With more hours this time around, Breslin provided many ideas for the drafting and implementation of a professional business development plan for Michigan's construction industry. It's a concept that for months has been garnering considerable discussion among many of its skilled trade unions.

Stripped to essentials, Breslin said the plan seeks to reverse a disturbing trend toward inferior quality by bringing the competition up to union levels of superior service and value. Crucial for achieving this is to break away from old fashioned and ill-conceived adversarial relationships between unions and contractors. Instead, he said both labor and management need to combine forces "to build a business plan that drives the market to where we are, rather than having us trying to drive ourselves to the market."

Adversarial relationships may have been necessary 50 years ago. But market conditions have radically changed. Today it's a vitally important philosophy buttressing valuable market development tools.

Return on investment.

Focusing on his audience, primarily drawn from union business agents, Breslin said the first step of a professional business plan must focus on market development that achieves an appropriate return on investment, or ROI.

To achieve it, he said Michigan's construction industry must develop the right marketing materials that communicate an accurate image of union professionalism and skill. Union representatives, Breslin said, must dress and conduct themselves in a highly professional manner, like business people, deliberately avoiding anything that could evoke a negative stereotype.

And, rather than trying to expand construction unions by working from the rank and file level on up - trying to organize workers in the traditional, adversarial way against the "boss" - Breslin said unions need to reverse direction. They have to start working from top levels on down, recognizing that the future will be found in convincing the management of non-union companies that greater profitability and more effective company operation comes as a tangible benefit of unionization.

Selling this idea even means unions must be prepared to work with project owners and non-union contractors that have kicked unions out due to past bad experiences.

Breslin said some unions in the past, indeed, projected an air of arrogance and cost-ineffectiveness that spawned enemies. However that era has now gone the way of the dinosaur. Today's construction unions are far more focused, responsible, and professional in conduct. And that's the true message that needs to be delivered, even though up to this point it's been very difficult to get it out.

How can unions improve their reception?

According to Breslin: "You do this by selling the union program in a way that never has been sold to business before." As he identified it, unions must prove their commitment to "profits, productivity, and value." Otherwise "going union" makes no business sense.

To achieve this requires a major change in labor/management marketing strategy. Everything within the unionized construction industry, he said, has to be re-designed to improve market share. "Market share is what drives our business," Breslin said, "It's the key." Without improved market share the organized labor movement - and its unionized employers - will find their futures to be extremely tough, he added.

Rank and file role.

One barrier affecting today's construction unions has been erected by members of the rank and file who sport negative work attitudes. These can be "problem" workers. But workers who possess relatively good work skills may also showcase negative images to anyone within view or earshot, for a variety of reasons.

This negativity can be expressed in improper dress - such as work shirts with bad or profane messages - inappropriate jokes that demean unions, people, or institutions - and improper on-the-job speech and conduct.

Breslin argued that today's unions need to do a much better job prescreening apprenticeship applicants to prevent people with bad work attitudes from ever entering a skilled trade. He said the professional construction industry really has no room for juvenile mentalities. He noted that police and fire departments use personality screening tests to identify unsuitable job candidates. He recommended their use by union training centers

It's not an attempt to infringe on a worker's individual liberties and rights, Breslin said. But unions need to enlist their rank and file into doing their part to "sell union." This can be done through professionalism, workmanship, and displays of union pride, to enhance the project owner's purchasing decision.

"The rank and file plays a crucial role for either success or the failure of our professional business plan," Breslin said. Members of the rank and file need to enjoy coming to work and doing their jobs. Otherwise their bad feelings will be quickly picked up by project owners, to the detriment of all of the skilled trade unions they've engaged.

As a second point of the plan, Breslin said job stewards should be identifying and assisting workers who aren't finding their jobs fulfilling and rewarding. As a practical concern, the stewards need to prevent them from "messing up our relationship with employers." But there are many humane reasons as well.

Sometimes these negative workers can be turned around when given opportunities to upgrade or improve their skills. Their negativity may also be temporary because it's a reflection of personal problems - problems that unions may be able offer help in resolving. Counseling and guidance may beneficial. Whatever the case, these workers have to be re-committed to union goals, or guided toward a profession that's better suited for them.

Unions as problem solvers.

The remainder of Breslin's presentation was made up of more extensive discussions of the above, augmented by several case histories. He said union representatives need to knock on doors and use the telephone more, developing helpful relationships with contractors and project owners. They need to increase union involvement in business organizations, particularly local Chambers of Commerce, to further build these relationships, both on and off the job.

Unions can also engage in more public relations and advertising activity. But this, Breslin said, should be designed to enhance relationships, not just showcase positive images that have little or nothing to do with business concerns. Understanding business clients and getting them to know and understand construction unions is of primary importance for the confirmation of project decisions. "Unions Yes!" on a bumper stick may make a union feel warm about itself, but "Unions Enhance Your Profits" is a message that's much more on target.

None of this is rocket science, Breslin emphasized. It's merely applying professional business development plans that have been successfully implemented in other industries.

"All we're doing is stealing ideas from those who have already done it," Breslin said. "We have to redefine the image of the union as problem-bringer to that of problem-solver."

(Mr. Snyder is editor of MichiganConstructionNews.com)