International Workers’ Day is May 1, a public holiday in many parts of the world that’s equivalent to Labor Day in the U.S. and Canada. In recognition of May Day, I spoke with Judy Marks, chair, CEO, and president of Otis Worldwide Corp. At Otis, which makes, installs, services, and modernizes elevators and escalators, 64% of its U.S. employees are governed by collective bargaining agreements, and much of its international workforce are also under union contracts. For Marks, those agreements provide certainty at a time when much of the business landscape is in flux.
“As a CEO, I would love predictability in everything we do, but it’s especially [valuable] in labor, which is so critical for us,” she says. Otis has 72,000 total employees; 45,000 are frontline workers doing installations, repairs, and maintenance.
