Was reading about management in Germany whereby a union leader is a member of the board, and is able to vote on operational issues (link at bottom). Apparently, it allows employees and management to work more synergistically and reduces instances of conflict. I'm wondering if anyone's hospitals has adopted this concept.

http://coto2.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/consider-the-germans-co-determination-and-works-councils/

Was reading about management in Germany whereby a union leader is a member of the board, and is able to vote on operational issues (link at bottom). Apparently, it allows employees and management to work more synergistically and reduces instances of conflict. I'm wondering if anyone's hospitals has adopted this concept.

http://coto2.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/consider-the-germans-co-determination-and-works-councils/

The whole thought process of German employment is very different than here. The attitude of cooperation appears to cut both ways there - employers try to treat their workers decently and unions try to cooperate with the company. For such a system to work, the attitude has to come from both sides. In the US, the employer considers it their duty and god-given right to grind the workers to the max to maximize profit, so that pretty much forces the union into an adversarial relationship to try to defend the workers. In places in the US where unions have tried to enter into "labor-management partnerships" it has usually not worked out well for the workers.

The closes example you could find in health care in the US would be the labor-management partnership at Kaiser. It covers most of the non-RN workers there. You can get very widely divergent opinions on how well that has worked.