My name is Jim Holmes and I'm a National Representative for the Canadian Union of Public Employees (C.U.P.E.). I've been doing that for eighteen years now. C.U.P.E. is the largest union in Canada and it represents people in the public sector, in school boards, municipalities, health care institutions, libraries, day cares - the whole range of public services.

[Job Description:]

Mainly what I do is negotiate collective agreements for employees (try and set their working conditions down in a contract between them and their employer) and then help people when they have problems in the interpretation or application of that contract. So part of that's relatively informal meetings with employers and occasionally it ends up being a more formal process in front of a tribunal like a labour relations board or an arbitration board.

[Decision To Enter This Occupation:]

I was working at the University of Regina in the library where C.U.P.E. had a local. I became involved in the union with my co-workers and started out as a shop steward (helping people with their problems and contract disputes). I had been there about a year and there was a strike vote and I ended up being one of the co-chairs of the strike committee. So, it's kind of trail by fire.

[Job Qualifications:]

I think the requirement for the job, the main one, is a real desire to work with people. That's probably the key thing. Things are very democratic and you have to be prepared to deal with the ebb and flow and the decision making, reaching consensus with people, and trying to find positions that people are comfortable with and are willing to commit to and work towards. So, that's a big part of it. Almost all of it is people skills.

[Type Of Education:]

The education (the training for this job) is almost entirely on the job. It's by experience. There are some formal courses the union puts on and I attended a few of those. Since I've been in this job we've had some formal training I think almost every year on various parts of the job. But the key parts you learn by doing, you learn by experience, by being in there.

[Decision Making:]

Almost everything in the union is done by committees. So, the big part of it is to get those committees to develop their positions, one that everyone feels comfortable with, one that everyone's had input into making. Then to go through a whole series of decision making with those committees, particularly negotiations: (what are we going to) what positions are we going to advance, which ones are we prepared to withdraw, which compromises can we make.

So, it's always a process of consensus building. Some of that both internally; it's important within the union committee, but then also you have to reach a consensus with management which is sometimes more complicated, more tricky. But that's the process, try to find ground that everyone can agree upon.

[Teamwork Skills & Positive Attitude:]

Teamwork's essential in the job - that's the real key. A positive attitude is essential but it's sometimes difficult. It can be very frustrating. There are real basic conflicts between employers and their employees. Their interests are not always the same. So, it can be very frustrating trying to achieve your goals.

You need a real deep commitment that democratic decision making is important, that what people feel they need is important, respect people's desires and then to work at trying to carry those through.

There's a whole range of problem solving in the job. The easier, the more schedulable, or the more organizable part is putting together negotiation proposals - and there's some form and precedence for that. So, that's simpler although a lot of it again is in the give and take of the negotiation process, trying to see where there might be common ground, where there might be room for a compromise or consensus.

[Problem Solving Activities Involved:]

Probably the more difficult problem solving is dealing with workplace problems. Some of them are fairly straight forward. Some of them are simple conflicts over (you know) what the procedures are at work, what people's entitlements are to compensation in the agreement. But a lot of it tends to be personal conflict, questions about supervisors' attitudes, sometimes conflicts between employees. Those are by far the most difficult, trying to find, sit down and figure out what the real problem is and then what might be an acceptable solution.

[Typical Work Day:]

A typical day on the job - there are probably a couple. One of them would be a day in the office which today was. So, a day in the office would typically be:

returning phone calls
various problems that have turned up
discussions with members, committees and sometimes with employers about problems and solutions
preparation - getting ready for negotiations
bringing together proposals
summarizing the results of the last negotiation session
preparing counter-proposals or maybe just recording areas where there were agreement.

So that would be a part of that process.

A big part of the job in this province is travel. I've probably pretty consistently put on about 40,000 kilometers a year for C.U.P.E. on the job - travelling from various meetings. So that's a big part of the job, is just driving across the prairie.

Another typical part of the day would be meeting with committees and preparation for meeting with management. So we would be:

sitting down and reviewing our position - trying to fine tune and hone some of that.
meeting with an employer often in negotiations - trying to listen carefully to their positions and then trying to develop counter-proposals (again in areas of compromise or consensus) that we can move forward on.

So, it's hard to say; there is not a typical job and there's not a typical days I guess.

[Most Challenging Aspect:]

I think the most challenging part of the job has always been to listen; to try and be honest and accurate with what people are telling us to make sure that the proposals that I may be writing up for people are really addressing the problems that they've raised with me; trying to listen to employers to try and understand what their problems and constraints are and then to try and develop proposals that meet those. So, I think the biggest part of the job would be just listening, just trying to understand what's going on out there.

The other one I guess is to try and get people to work co-operatively and together, particularly the union committee because that's the prerequisite. If there's no unity in the union committee, then there's no way we can put a unified or logical position to the employer.

[Most Satisfying Aspect:]

The most satisfying part is that you can actually resolve a problem. Some of the problems are big ones, some of them are negotiating collective agreements, making some breakthroughs, making some changes in terms of where people work, making some real progress in terms of people (sort of) democracy in the workplace. So that's the most satisfying part.

[Advice For Someone Entering This Field Of Work:]

If I were giving advice to someone coming into this career, it would be to get as much theoretical or as much knowledge as you could about the job and in as many different parts. You know, to learn about occupational health and safety, learn about pensions, to learn about grievance procedures. But most of that are things that you can only make sense of if you're doing it. There's so much paperwork or background that you have to be doing it to absorb it. You can't just sort of sit down and read the various acts or laws that cover this and say, "Now I understand it." It's a real flow - you've got to be integrating your theoretical knowledge with your practical knowledge all the way through. So, the more theory you know, the more it helps, but you're only going to retain it if you're using it. I think you just have to get in there and do it.