Cynthia E. Burton joined ECR Associates in 1980 and is president of the firm today. She has extensive experience helping many different kinds of organizations successfully make change. She also has extensive experience in the union-management arena working on everything from the union-management relationship itself to strategic union-management partnerships; from basic cooperative activities to joint design of new work systems; and from non-traditional dispute resolution to new forms of collective bargaining. She has worked in most industries and with non-profit organizations and small businesses. She is the consultant to the UAW-Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Partnership and facilitates the Union-Management Action Committee at the system level. She was a consultant to the American Productivity and Quality Center on continuous improvement processes for knowledge workers. She facilitated and consulted to the Joint National Quality Council of the I.R.S. and did non-traditional dispute resolution there as well. She was the liaison to organized labor while at the Maryland Center for Quality and Productivity. Ms. Burton directed an economic development agency in Washington, D.C. which was an incubator for inner city small businesses. In the 1970’s she was Assistant to the President of a research and development subsidiary of Cargill Corporation. She graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. from Western Michigan University. cburton@inna.net

Edward Cohen-Rosenthal founded ECR Associates in 1979 and was Principal Partner in the firm until his death in 2002. He did extensive work throughout the world to create more positive union-management relationships. He served as the Assistant to the President of the Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen and Associate Director of American Center for the Quality of Work Life. When he died, he was Director of the Work and Environment Initiative at Cornell University in Ithaca New York and a faculty member at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Ed and Cynthia co-authored Mutual Gains: A Guide to Union-Management Cooperation (2nd edition, ILR Press, 1993).

Both Cynthia and Ed contributed to Unions, Management and Quality: Opportunities for Innovation and Excellence (Irwin, 1995).

They also authored numerous articles on ways to enhance the union-management relationship.