By the end of the week, you will be better positioned to:

• Respond to the changing face of labour law and legal issues
• Design effective approaches to conflict resolution
• Ensure successful grievance mediation
• Research and prepare for an arbitration hearing investigation process
• Carry out a successful investigation process
• Prepare for collective bargaining and negotiate an agreement

a) Grievance Mediation From the Ground Up

Our leaders take you through the nuts and bolts of the grievance mediation process. You will learn the advantages of this process and the issues most appropriate to resolve via mediation. And you will be taught the key factors that ensure success.

b) Walking the Grievance Arbitration Beat

Follow your leader through the grievance arbitration process and progressive discipline essentials. He will review the legal framework and key procedural aspects and principles. What are the perennial problem areas? What are the emerging issues and directions?

Participants break into small workshop groups to discuss and prepare selected cases illustrating the basic principles of the arbitration process. This experiential component of the week features:

• Case presentations
• Chairman's critique and commentary
• General forum discussion

c) The View Beyond The Barricade: The Union Perspective

This is a program highlight: hear from one of Canada's leading labour advocates about the most significant trends facing organized labour and the resulting challenges and opportunities for Canadian unions. Prepare to be challenged.

d) Canadian Labour Law at the Crossroads

Change is the rule rather than the exception in the arena of labour law. One of Canada's preeminent experts in the field discusses important trends such as:

• The direct and indirect application of the Charter to the workplace
• The growing influence of human rights requirements
• The duty to accommodate
• The crucial role of arbitrators

e) Two Tough Ds: Discipline and Discharge

What are the grounds for discipline? What factors influence disciplinary action? Learn the answers to these vexing questions and how to determine appropriate penalties and the most effective procedures for dealing with innocent absenteeism, insubordination, sexual harassment, and termination.

f) Investigation Techniques

In preparing for an arbitration case, you may have to do some fact-finding on the complainant's allegations. We give you a step- by-step process for building your plan and winning techniques for interviewing the right people and identifying the key records to be examined. Learn how to interview all parties in an objective manner and assess the investigation results.

g) The Collective Bargaining Process

It is a mystery to some, intimidating to others. You are in good hands as your leader takes you through the negotiation process.

Learn to:

• Prepare for negotiations
• Negotiate pre-agreements
• Negotiate the issues
• Conclude agreements

h) Simulated Collective Bargaining Game

We call it a game but you will quickly learn to take this simulation seriously. Your team will meet in the evening to develop a bargaining strategy, assess priorities and interests and develop an opening statement. Then the team will meet again to negotiate all outstanding issues. Experienced coaches are on the sidelines to observe and offer feedback on the effectiveness of bargaining strategy, skills, and style.

i) LR's Role: Creating a Higher Performance Culture

Before we send you on your way, we invite you to look at the big picture, and where you fit in that picture. Gain insight into LR's role in cultural change and learn lessons from past change efforts at CN.

Interactive learning

Some may call it a game but you will quickly learn to take this collective bargaining simulation seriously. During evening meetings your team will develop a bargaining strategy, assess priorities and interests and develop an opening statement. Then you will negotiate all outstanding issues in front of world-wise coaches who offer immediate feedback.

Takeaways

• Negotiating template
• Interest-based resolution exercises
• “Establishing Credibility” Checklist
• Mini-casebook on grievance arbitration

Organizational benefits

• Stronger labour management relations to enhance competitive capabilities
• Aligned labour relations systems that promote high performance
• Reduced grievance arbitration costs
• Better understanding of how labour relations practitioners shape the union-management dynamic

This program is designed for managers, supervisors, union officials, and labour relations and human resources professionals responsible for employee relations.

• Manager of Employee Relations, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador
• Human Resources Consultant, Ontario Power Generation
• Executive Officer, Ontario Public Service Employees Union
• Employee Relations Advisor, Ministry of Government and Consumer Services
• Portfolio Manager, Municipal Affairs and Housing
• HR Specialist Labour Relations, AltaSteel Ltd.
• IR Generalist, Labatt Breweries
• Human Resources Consultant, Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing
• Human Resources Coordinator, NewPage Port Hawkesbury Ltd.
• Human Resources Generalist, Brockville General Hospital
• Assistant Consultant, Ontario Hospital Association
• Manager, Kerry's Place Autism Services
• Human Resources Manager, CTV Television Inc. CTV Ottawa, CJOH-TV
• Employee Relations Manager, Sun Media Corporation
• Human Resource Advisor, Sudbury Regional Hospital
• Human Resource Manager, Tyco Thermal Controls
• Chief Training Officer, Mississauga Fire & Emergency Services
• Director Corporate and Human Services, Granny's Poultry
• Human Resource Consultant, Ministry of Government and Consumer Services
• Labour Relations Officer, Canada Post Corporation
• Director Central Region, ICS Courier
• Employee Relations Consultant, SaskPower
• Manager, Training and Development, Lehigh Inland Cement Limited
• Director of Creative Planning, Stratford Shakespeare Festival
• District Manager, Waste Management
• Lawyer, Corrs Chambers Westgarth Lawyers
• Manager of Civil Works, ENMAX Power Corporation
• Senior Advisor Human Resources Projects, Petro Canada

Judi Clarkson

Judi Clarkson is a director of Mediated Solutions, a company that provides a broad spectrum of dispute resolution interventions such as mediation, arbitration; consulting & systems design; and education & training. Her present practice involves customized training, individual coaching, harassment/discrimination issues, fact-findings/investigations, ombuds advice, and facilitations of poisoned/dysfunctional work environments.

Judi was a Registered Nurse, has a B.A. in sociology and an LL.B. She practiced labour law and industrial relations in the healthcare area, acute and long term care, and was the Assistant General Counsel, Employment Law Section, Ontario Hydro. She was a Director of Personnel and Labour Relations at a teaching hospital in Toronto. She has mediation, arbitration and negotiation training and has completed certificates in the partnering and ombuds areas. more...

Henry Dinsdale

Henry Dinsdale has been representing employers in labour and employment law matters for more than 20 years. He works closely with both federally and provincially regulated employers to provide effective and practical advice ranging from strategic labour relations planning and collective bargaining to contract interpretation and employee terminations. He represents employers as spokesperson in collective bargaining and as counsel appearing regularly on behalf of management in a broad range of forums, including before arbitrators, tribunals, labour relations boards and courts.

Henry has taught labour law at the University of Toronto Law School and Osgoode Hall Law School's Masters of Labour Law program and is on faculty at Queen's University's Industrial Relations Centre. He speaks regularly on labour law issues and industrial relations policy and has authored, co-authored and assisted in the research and writing of several scholarly articles and books. Henry was awarded both a Masters and Doctoral degree in law from Stanford University Law School, the latter after defending a doctoral dissertation critically analyzing the use of section 10(j) injunctions under the U.S. National Labor Relations Act. more...

Anne Grant

Anne Grant has practised as a full time mediator and conflict resolution professional since 1994. She is president of her own firm, AEG Dispute Resolutions Services Inc., and also practises under the name Mediated Solutions. Anne's dispute resolution practice includes extensive mediation of labour and civil disputes. She specializes in the assessment and restoration of poisoned work environments as well as conducting a range of workplace investigations.

In the area of labour relations, Anne has facilitated the development of collective bargaining mandates, assisted workplace parties to implement comprehensive bumping processes, facilitated union management forums for the Workers Safety and Insurance Board and has facilitated interprovincial trade agreements to address the labour mobility of various professional groups.

Anne is qualified in nursing, law, mediation and labour relations. She holds the national designation of Chartered Mediator and obtained her Masters-in-Law in ADR from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1997. In 2007, she was awarded the Ontario Bar Association's annual Award of Excellence in ADR. more...

Peter Edwards

Peter Edwards completed his undergraduate and Master of Industrial Relations degrees at Queen's University. He began his career with Abitibi-Price and worked with the organization across Canada. In 1989, he was recruited by Labatt Breweries / Interbrew and held successively more senior positions that encompassed the human resources and labour relations portfolio.

In 1999, Peter agreed to join CN, where he created a culture road map for the organization where he took a leadership position in moving it towards the empower/engaged corporation. In his former role as vice-president, Human Resources, culture change and the high performance organization were part of Peter's mandate. From working on critically praised books on managing a changing railway (How We Work and Why and Change, Leadership, Mud and Why) to establishing individual employee performance scorecards for every one of the 18,500 unionized employees, Peter uses the gamut of OD, HR and LR to continuously re-invent the organizations. more...

Gary Furlong

Gary Furlong has extensive experience in mediation, mediation training, alternative dispute resolution, organizational facilitation, negotiation, and conflict resolution. Gary is past president of the ADR Institute of Ontario, is a Chartered Mediator (C. Med.) and holds his Master of Laws (ADR) from Osgoode Hall Law School. Gary is the author of The Conflict Resolution Toolbox, (John Wiley and Sons, 2005), and the co-author of The Construction Dispute Resolution Handbook, (Butterworths, 2004). Gary was awarded the McGowan Award of Excellence in ADR in 2005.

As a mediator, Gary has worked in the areas of commercial, personal injury, estates, construction, shareholder, insurance, wrongful dismissal, real estate, and workplace conflicts, and specializes in intervening in difficult organizational and workplace disputes. Gary was regularly called in to the court-annexed ADR Centre in Toronto for the first three years, and is now appointed a roster mediator, Ontario Mandatory Mediation Program, Toronto. Gary has mediated personal injury, insurance and long-term disability claims ranging from $30,000 to over $1 million dollars. Estates files include multi-party claims ranging in size from $200,000 to well over a million dollars. Contract and tort claim files have ranged from $10,000 to $2 million dollars. Gary was a regular mediator and fact-finder with the Education Relations Commission, and was also appointed a provincial facilitator and mediator with the Education Improvement Commission, assisting with the financial reorganization and amalgamation of school boards in Ontario. Gary has also been on the Law Society of Upper Canada's complaint mediation panel, and the Teachers College of Ontario mediation panel. Gary has conducted fact-finding and investigations for the past 6 years. more...

Ken Kaiser

Ken Kaiser manages a labour relations consulting practice providing expertise to employers in collective bargaining, workplace adjudication, training and strategies aimed at improving union-management dynamics.

Ken is a former faculty member in the School of Business at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, where he taught in the areas of Labour Relations, Organizational Behaviour, and HRM. Ken has recently published an article which examines attraction-retention strategies in unionized organizations, and is presently conducting research aimed at identifying whether Gen Y workplace values change as they meet less favourable economic circumstances. more...

David Law

David Law is a partner in the Employment and Labour Law group in Ottawa, and a member of the Occupational Health and Safety National Practice Group. He provides advice, education and advocacy for organizations dealing with labour, employment, occupational safety, workers’ compensation and related matters.

David has appeared before Boards of Arbitration, the Canada Industrial Relations Board, the Ontario Labour Relations Board, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal, the Ontario Provincial Court, the former Divisional Court of Ontario, the Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Court of Appeal. In 2006, Mr. Law was successful in a major labour law matter before the Supreme Court of Canada.

A member of the Queen’s University Faculty of Law, David has lectured at the Rotman and Sprott Schools of Business, the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. David Law is on the Board of community associations in Ottawa, Ontario and Ivry-sur-le-Lac, Quebec and is a Director of the Ottawa Food Bank. He is the former Chair of Government Relations for the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario and the Canadian Council of Human Resources Associations. more...

Elaine Newman

Elaine Newman, Ba, LL.B., LL.M., was called to the bar in Ontario in 1979.

Elaine is a very experienced full-time arbitrator and mediator, specializing in labour relations, employment, and human rights matters. She is a teacher, an author, and frequent speaker on labour, employment and human rights issues.

Elaine served as Associate Director of the LLM program in Labour Relations and Employment Law at Osgoode Hall Law School 2002 to 2008. more...

Rick Russell

Rick Russell has been working full time in the dispute resolution field for 23 years, first as the Ombudsman to McMaster University in Hamilton, then as a commercial mediator. In 1993, he co-founded Agree, a full service conflict management firm.

Rick has a busy mediation and facilitation practice specializing in commercial, construction and workplace issues, as well as conflict management training, arbitration and partnering. He also works frequently in the area of workplace investigation and fact-finding, workplace assessment and restoration, conflict coaching and advanced conflict management training. Rick serves on the faculty of highly regarded programs at both University of Waterloo's Conrad Grebel University College and Queen's University's Industrial Relations Centre (IRC).

Rick has held leadership positions at the Ontario Bar Association ADR Section, and at the ADR Institute of Ontario. Rick's speaking, training and facilitation practice includes international engagements in the USA, Barbados and Ethiopia. more...

Victoria: Hotel Grand Pacific (Jun 04-08, 2012)

Queen's University IRC is pleased to present this session at the Hotel Grand Pacific, located at 463 Belleville Street, in picturesque downtown Victoria. For more information, please visit the venue’s website at http://www.hotelgrandpacific.com/.  Hotel rooms are available to participants at a special rate until one month prior to the program.  After completing your registration, please call the hotel at 1-800-663-7550.  Please identify yourself as a participant in a Queen’s IRC program.

Kingston: Four Points (Sep 23-28, 2012)

Queen's University IRC is proud to hold this session at Four Points by Sheraton Hotel, located at 285 King Street East, in historic downtown Kingston. Hotel rooms are available to participants at a special rate until one month prior to the program. Following your registration for the program, we will provide you with an unique link for hotel reservations. For more information on the hotel visit http://www.fourpointskingston.com/.