Sharing stuff out between team members is better when a proper pipeline is introduced and you wouldnt have had that problem. You could try this in future:

1) create all model geometry and uvs under one file.
2) create new scene and reference the model to test shaders and textures save this scene as your textured scene.
3) reference the reference textured model to a new scene and rig it.


Any changes needed to the uvs or model would be done on the original geo model (step 1), after saving your changes everything filters thru to the other referenced models leaving it pretty much hassle free. Thats how our pipeline worked at cinesite and also Windmill

Jay