Fair for Both Sides

By Frank Weber

Copyright ©2025

“The fair and even interpretation and administration of the Labor Agreement, the Company Policies and the Rules of Conduct for BOTH sides”

This was – and still is – my credo and belief in regard to the workplace, Management and Organized Labor. And it’s become so much more.

This was the job description given to me on that early morning, years ago when I was promoted to Manager of Labor Relations.

This was the job description given to me by Mr. Ralph Wright, then Owner, CEO and President.

His is the only name I will give on the matter – and all that I care to discuss here – as he is the man that gave me that credo and my ultimate direction from that day on.

Mr. Wright has since passed on, many years ago now, but his words are still very much alive for me.

He was a Good Man and he was a Bad Man.

He was a Loved Man and he was a Hated Man.

He was a Businessman and at the same time, he was very much a Man for his Employees.

Above all else, he was a FAIR Man…that is one point that most anyone that ever knew him would certainly attest.

I mention him in great detail because it was his FAIR approach to all matters that formed and molded my own personal approach to all that I do.

“fair and even for both sides”

This piece is NOT a condemnation or either Management or Organized Labor.

It is quite the contrary, and if you ever were, are now or plan to be involved in the organized work-world, you should read every last word of it.

At the very beginning of my twenty-year tenure as Manager of Labor Relations, I was given not only my job description, but my directive and, in fact, my frame of view for years to come.

In the beginning, my experience with companies vs unions showed a definite slant toward companies and away from unions. I never really saw – or felt – anything to the contrary.

One of my first forming experiences came about during my first round of contract negotiations.

My oldest daughter was born at that time, and in the first few weeks, she became jaundiced. She required a lot of attention and a visiting nurse. I was quite obviously distracted by the constant worry for my baby girl. The Bargaining Committee President at the time attempted to seize upon that by demanding that negotiations ONLY be held at night and off the clock. He believed that he was going to disrupt my negotiating ability and progress…and he was wrong.

He even went as far as filing an unfair labor charge with the NLRB against me in particular because I voiced the loudest opposition to it. He did this AFTER I told everyone my situation and asked if we could in some way work out something better.

Being in Pennsylvania, the NLRB immediately found for the Local President and went as far as calling me directly to “scold” me for “trying to put my personal WANTS before the Union’s needs”.

They drew a line in the sand that until recently, I believed would cement my view of Organized Labor, but even that didn’t hold.

I understood it was a ploy, so I simply disallowed it to be effective on me and I overcame it – and my daughter improved without another problem.

Point is, I was instantly soured to the tactics of the other side.

Still, I never held a bias against any member of that Local for what happened.

I stayed fair and impartial. It wasn’t always easy, but I stayed fair and impartial.

They rarely agreed with my decisions, but every last one of them knew that I was being fair with them.

That Local President eventually told me that himself as he thanked me for helping with an overtime dispute for one of the guys.

“The fair and even interpretation and administration of the Labor Agreement, the Company Policies and the Rules of Conduct for BOTH sides”

But as time went on and the players changed, that slant began to fade and formed more of a straight connecting line reaching right across the table – straight across between the company and the union.

Both sides were showing the same particular quirks now…greed, self-service, the “oh yeah? What’re you gonna do about it?” attitude and a general disregard for anything fair, no matter what side was doing the talking.

The company worried much, much less about a fair workplace and more about “I’m the boss and I know best” attitude. Sad but true.

The union worried much, much less about its own membership and more about gains for only the elected committee. Sad but true.

But I never lost sight of my directive…

“The fair and even interpretation and administration of the Labor Agreement, the Company Policies and the Rules of Conduct for BOTH sides”

Seems it ended up costing me and no one else.

It is such a bitter pill to swallow to have to admit I was wrong about so much for so long, but I was. But at the same time, I felt more of a calm in knowing that it was never really the “evil union” against the “righteous business owner”…although both sides are packed full of both evil and righteousness. A bitter pill, yes, but very much necessary because there is no longer a clear-cut good guy or bad guy. Each one became the other and so it is.

I’ve been witness to BOTH sides ignoring the wellbeing of the employees.

I’ve seen it through the “I’m the boss and I know best…no one can get hurt” attitude in regard to working conditions that no sane person would force a stray dog to endure.

I’ve seen mandatory 12-hour days and six-day weeks, fought for by a handful of bargaining committee officers clinging desperately to the exorbitant money involved, meanwhile the bosses don’t say a word because of the extra output. And they BOTH do this in spite of the fact that very few of their membership actually wants it or even agrees with it...not to mention the existing Labor Agreement. It’s done in spite of the suffering it exacts on the people that just want to work, get paid, go home and live their lives. I questioned and even protested the practice and I was systematically pushed backwards and negated by BOTH sides.

It’s funny to me that after all these years, I am the one that’s speaking out against those kinds of “injustices” and those very clearly biased attitudes toward other PEOPLE, in particular people in a Union!

Simple disregards from both sides – company and union – the two sides that should EACH be fighting against those very disregards themselves!

This is not the arena for the idea that you should “treat everyone the same – just like shit”.

No…this is truly the arena in which it is so critical to believe and follow Ralph’s directive…“The fair and even interpretation and administration of the Labor Agreement, the Company Policies and the Rules of Conduct for BOTH sides”

I had a boss actually accuse me of “collusion with the union” because I did not immediately agree with and blindly defend his assessment of an obvious and intentional contractual violation. This boss told me that I “was NOT to read into anything”…my ONLY job was to “protect the company against the union”, to which I replied…

“I respectfully disagree. My job is the fair and even interpretation and administration of the Labor Agreement, the Company Policies and the Rules of Conduct for BOTH sides”

It was shortly thereafter that I voluntarily resigned from my office as Manager of Labor Relations. There was no longer any point to it and I am nothing close to anyone’s stooge.

I could not bend that way just to satisfy an over-inflated ego who never once had his hands on the wheel.

I was told by that boss and his cronies that I had no sense of reality and no idea how the real world worked, and when I gave my notice, two days later that boss came in and told me to “Get out!”

After I left, I wrote a book about everything I learned. Rereading it now, it’s more true to Labor Relations and Employee Relations than most of the people I ever met in that arena. There are only a couple of us that, for one reason or another, still believe in the importance and need to be fair. Sadly, I can count all of us on one hand and still have fingers left over. I just never felt the validation that I feel now in rereading it. So much of it DOES apply to the real world.

By the way…this whole thing is NOT a ploy to sell a book…it’s not yet been published.

I don’t claim to be any sort of expert in the field, but I know all that I saw and experienced and I watched it all play out in front of me for so many years….so I DO have a sincere sense of reality and a pretty good idea of just how the real world works.

It all comes down to a few simple words…Always be fair to everyone.

And just one more time because I can hear ol’ Ralph saying it so many years ago…

“The fair and even interpretation and administration of the Labor Agreement, the Company Policies and the Rules of Conduct for BOTH sides”

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