Rick Adkins
Rick Adkins is a member of the Canadian Auto Workers (C.A.W.) union. Born and raised in northern British Columbia, he has worked in the forestry, pulp and paper, mining, and construction industries, and during that time was a member of a number of unions.
In 1986 Rick moved to Ontario to work for General Motors and became a member of the C.A.W. During his time with the union, he was an elected skilled trades representative for 12 years and served six years as chairperson. It was at the skilled trades chairperson’s position that Rick became proficient at negotiations, dispute resolution, change management, and team implementation. Rick was a leader of change in the workplace, designing, training, implementing, and supporting an employee workgroup process that was negotiated into the collective bargaining agreement. Rick has negotiated collective bargaining agreements, Memorandums of Understanding, and in-plant overtime agreements. Most of these agreements were negotiated using a mix of traditional bargaining and interest-focused bargaining.
Rick has been on the teaching team of the Queen's IRC Negotiation Skills program since 2001. He also runs a consulting business that specializes in joint union/management training in the public and private sector. |
