Canadian Police Association Executive Leadership Program

Facilitator

Elaine Bernard is a Senior Research Associate and the former Executive Director of the Labor and Worklife Program and the Harvard Trade Union Program at Harvard Law School.  The Labor and Worklife Program (LWP) is Harvard University’s forum for research and teaching on the world of work and its implications for society.

Before being recruited by Harvard in 1989, Bernard was the Director of Labour Programs at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia.  Born in Trenton, Ontario and raised in Ottawa, Bernard received a BA from University of Alberta, MA from University of British Columbia and a Ph.D. from Simon Fraser University.  She has conducted courses on a wide variety of topics for unions, community groups, universities and government departments in Canada, U.S., U.K. and Australia.  Her current research and teaching interests in union leadership and democratic governance.

Recognizing the division among police labour organizations in the U.S. and the need for labour education and networking opportunities for police unions, Bernard worked with police union leaders to establish an annual police union leaders’ seminar in the U.S.  Bernard is a member of the recently established Management Advisory Board for the RCMP with a mandate to provide the Commissioner with outside expertise and advice on transformation, human resources, modern management practices, information technology and other specialized fields.

Facilitator

Bill Cole has represented labour unions in the public and private sectors for almost four decades. His practice has focused on collective bargaining, interest arbitration and organizational development. His clients include police, firefighters, airline pilots, health care workers, steelworkers, and many others in the public and private sectors. He has represented unions in more than one hundred and fifty interest arbitrations as spokesperson or nominee. For negotiations he has assisted clients with a full range of services including advanced training, strategy development, negotiator coaching or being the voice at the table.

Bill is a Senior Research Associate at Harvard’s Center for Labor and a Just Economy where his research includes negotiations and organizational development. He is a regular speaker at Harvard’s Trade Union Program.

He is the co-author of The Art of Collective Bargaining.

Responding to the widely held concerns among union leaders about member disengagement, Bill began examining this question at the doctoral level. His research examines the relationship between leaders and followers, with an emphasis on members’ commitment and participation in their unions. He speaks widely on this topic and works with unions on renewal strategies to build member engagement.

Bill is a “goalie-dad” who spends a lot of time in a lot of hockey rinks.