Cal Berkley Offers Course for Management to Learn How to Embrace Unions

University of California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business – yes, the university system that just had the largest higher education strike in history – is offering a course designed for managers to embrace unions, work collaboratively with unions, and focused on educating students that, in the words of the professor, “leaders don’t need to see unions as adversarial.”

Just as it takes two to dance, it takes two to be adversarial. In the United States, unions do not exist to help management.

In a recent interview, the professor referenced the Starbucks organizing drive. He said the employees care about the company. They want it to thrive. They like the company’s values.

Then why, I ask, are they going on strike? Why are they purposefully trying to harm the company?

Some interesting nuggets from an interview with the professor:

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE COMPONENTS THAT YOU’LL BE HITTING ON?
We’re going to talk about things like the history of labor in the United States – a rich history that people hardly ever talk about. We’re going to talk about what workers want.

We’re talking about different forms of labor organizing [because] there are many other forms of labor organizing that students deserve to understand. And we’ll talk about how companies respond, and how they should respond.

WHAT SKILLS DO MANAGERS NEED FOR ORGANIZED ENVIRONMENTS?
There’s one core skill, which is [understanding] how power works in the workplace. When they start their career, a lot of people assume that whoever has the bigger title always has the power. And it’s just not necessarily the case. It’s really about trying to figure out, where does the power really lie? And why? Who ought to have the power in different situations?

Those aren’t concepts and words of a mutually beneficial process. Talking about “what workers want.” Lecturing on how companies “should respond” to union organizing. Exploring “who has the power” in a working relationship.

Maybe his class will have a different dynamic than the one he describes above. Maybe…