Labor-Management Cooperation—City of Portland, Maine

Abstract

Portland, Maine had a traditional bargaining relationship. It now has one of the most complete programs of service-focused labor management cooperation of any place in the country. A broad range of city services, including an emerging effort in public safety are now run this way, with workers and their union leaders, managers and elected officials all benefitting from and praising the new relationship. Portland made this radical transformation without a crisis of fiscal pressure. New leadership in the city manager's office and responsive leadership in key bargaining units led to an experiment on the building of Hadlock Field. A partnership between the department head and the president of the AFSCME local led the project. Instead of contracting out to meet a short deadline and employ skills that didn't seem to exist, the parties worked out a special set of arrangements and via cross-training, teamwork and dedication completed the stadium in seven months, millions under the expected budget. From the pride and satisfaction of this joint effort, Portland, AFSCME and other key units worked to create a new participative relationship across the full range of city services. The effort has produced major cost savings and service improvements, has strengthened both the management and the union and has produced a far less adversarial bargaining relationship. In one innovation, separate services were split up and reorganized into district teams, providing customer-oriented public works services in areas that match city council districts. Cross training and new responsibilities have resulted in new opportunities and pay raises, yet have saved time and money. The piece, co-authored by union and management leaders from Portland, illustrates the breadth and depth of what they have achieved without a crisis as the initiating factor.