DOCSLIB.ORG

19 Deregulation and Attacks Against Collective Bargaining Have

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
19 Deregulation and Attacks Against Collective Bargaining Have global worker | special report Text: Jenny Holdcroft Deregulation and attacks against collective bargaining have contributed to a huge rise in global inequality. Harnessing union power for achieving industry level agreements is crucial in the fight for living wages and against precarious work. 1 19 global worker | special report Industry bargaining under attack Market fundamentalism, that destructive ideology which still dominates policy A typical pair of jeans made making despite its role in causing the in Bangladesh retails for global economic crisis, remains the major driver of labour market deregulation and anywhere between US$30 decentralization of collective bargaining. and US$50, or more for These policies have led directly to the a prestige brand. But the decrease in collective bargaining coverage, and the consequent increase in income worker who makes them only inequality. receives 10 cents. A 2013 report by the European Commission found that bargaining with multiple employers was the best guarantee to Portugal and other European countries of broad bargaining coverage. It also found in economic difficulty. In May 2014, a overwhelming evidence of a trend towards report by the European Foundation for decentralization of collective bargaining, the Improvement of Living and Working beginning in the 1980s and accelerating Conditions (Eurofound) found that in during the economic crisis. the countries hardest hit by the crisis (Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain) the decentralization of collective bargaining 2 was accelerated. Massive declines in collective bargaining Today the world’s richest one per cent coverage have been witnessed in the UK, own 50 per cent of the world’s wealth. Australia and New Zealand where right- Staggeringly, the richest 85 people in the wing governments introduced legislation world possess the same amount of wealth designed to curb union power by as the world’s poorest 50 per cent. dismantling industry bargaining. After the introduction of the Employment Since 1990, the share of GDP (gross Contract Act in New Zealand in 1991, domestic product) from wages has fallen 3 multi-employer agreements fell from 77 steadily across the world. Workers are per cent to 20 per cent of all agreements. being squeezed while global corporations By 2000, multi-employer bargaining had chase bigger and bigger profits. Apple The advice given by the International collapsed. Bargaining coverage decreased recently announced the highest-ever Monetary Fund (IMF) to Greece, Portugal from 61 per cent in 1990 to 18 per cent quarterly profit by a public company – and Spain during the economic crisis in 2010. Wherever industry bargaining US$18 billion. It is sitting on cash reserves was to allow employers to opt out of is replaced by enterprise bargaining, of US$142 billion. Meanwhile workers are sectoral collective agreements and to coverage nosedives as employers take the paid only US$7 for making an iPhone that decentralize collective bargaining to opportunity to avoid bargaining and unions will sell for hundreds of dollars. the level of the individual enterprise. It completely. The widening gap between productivity reinforced this advice by making labour and wage growth is highlighted in the market deregulation a condition of its loans ILO Global Wages Report 2014/15 and is directly linked to a decline in collective bargaining. Workers worldwide are being denied access to the mechanism that was expressly designed to promote social stability by enabling unions to negotiate a fairer distribution of the wealth generated by their members. The International Labour Organization (ILO) has found that countries with a large proportion of workers covered by collective agreements have lower wage inequality. But the impact depends on the level of centralization of the collective bargaining system. Under decentralized systems, such as that of the United States, collective agreement coverage is lower and wage differentials are higher. The reverse is true in systems with more industry agreements that cover more workers. 4 20 global worker | special report negotiations one factory at a time – in Bangladesh alone there are more than 4,500 factories producing for the export industry. Particularly in supply chain industries like garments and electronics, bargaining at the level of individual factories will never be enough to drive up pay and conditions when demands by multinational corporations (MNCs) for ever lower labour costs suppress wages and conditions in a race to the bottom. There are limits to how far an individual factory or business can step ahead of its competitors and unscrupulous MNCs will simply move to suppliers with lower standards and lower labour costs. Likewise, efforts by individual MNCs to raise standards, particularly when these do not include reform of purchasing practices, will meet with opposition in their supplier factories which have to compete with other factories on labour costs. Industry-wide agreements, particularly those with extension provisions, make it very difficult for employers to escape their obligations. They effectively take labour 5 costs out of the competition by creating a level playing field that enables conditions Protecting more workers Living wages in supply chains to improve for all workers in an industry, regardless of who they work for. Negotiating and reaching an agreement In a world of global supply chains, industry with a single employer continues to be bargaining is more important than ever. an important part of trade union work. It South African textile and garment union In many garment producing countries, enables productivity and efficiency gains SACTWU organizes over 80 per cent of collective bargaining structures are weak made by workers to be shared and can textile and garment workers in the country. or absent, and levels of unionization are regulate a whole range of employment The fight for living wages is at the core of low. Over 90 per cent of workers in the conditions that are specific to the enterprise. global garment industry have no possibility SACTWU’s work and the union prioritizes But if not underpinned by an industry-wide to negotiate on their wages and conditions centralized bargaining as the mechanism floor, individual employers will continue - and cannot claim their fair share of the to achieve the best wage outcomes for to avoid trade unions and bargaining to value they generate. workers. SACTWU negotiates in three undercut wages and conditions. national bargaining councils for the A typical pair of jeans made in Bangladesh Company agreements tend to cover only a clothing, textiles and leather sectors and retails for anywhere between US$30 and small percentage of non-unionized workers the outcomes affect over 100,000 workers. US$50, or more for a prestige brand. But (7 per cent on average). Under industry In 2014 sectoral wage increases were the worker who makes them only receives agreements, this rises to over 40 per cent, above inflation. But this well-functioning 10 cents. And this can’t be explained by providing much needed protection to differences in the cost of living. Garment system is under threat. The corporate- workers who do not have the possibility to sector minimum wages in Bangladesh sponsored Free Market Foundation join a union. are currently US$68 a month, unions say is challenging the constitutionality of However, according to the ILO, countries they need to increase wages to at least extending collective agreements to non- with multi-employer bargaining systems US$120 for workers to be able to support parties in court. If the case is successful, and mechanisms that allow collective themselves and their families adequately. workers whose employers are not agreements to be extended to cover members of the bargaining council will be The almost total absence of industry wage additional workers and employers, have left out in the cold. bargaining in the garment industry has higher collective bargaining coverage rates. left workers reliant on ineffective minimum In countries such as Austria, Belgium, wage mechanisms for any pay increases. Denmark, France, Finland, Italy and While minimum wage fixing at least Portugal, multi-employer bargaining and establishes a common floor, the wages that 1 90,000 workers, including IndustriALL UK affiliates, march in support of the TUC campaign the extension of collective agreements result are well below the level of a living to increase the minimum wage. UNITE mean that more non-unionized workers wage in most major garment producing 2 Georgian unions rally for decent work on the than union members are covered, so countries like Cambodia and Bangladesh. World Day for Decent Work (WDDW). IndustriALL ensuring that the most vulnerable workers Where bargaining does take place in the 3 Iraqi unions rally for better jobs on the WDDW. GFIW are able to benefit from wage increases garment industry, it is primarily conducted that they would not otherwise have the 4 Swiss union, UNIA, campaigning for a national at the level of the individual factory. This minimum wage. UNIA industrial strength to negotiate in their puts an enormous burden on unions that workplaces. 5 Filipino union MWAP rallies on the WDDW. MWAP lack strength and resources to conduct 21 global worker | special report Protecting precarious workers Negotiating Security Negotiating Security Trade union bargaining strategies Increasingly, a worker’s employment against precarious work Trade union bargain strategies against precarious work conditions are no longer
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Reconciling Collective Bargaining with Employee Supervision of Management
    University of Pennsylvania Law Review FOUNDED 1852 Formerly American Law Register VOL. 137 NOVEMBER 1988 No. 1 ARTICLES RECONCILING COLLECTIVE BARGAINING WITH EMPLOYEE SUPERVISION OF MANAGEMENT MICHAEL C. HARPERt I. INTRODUCTION A. The Challenge of Industrial Democracy The realities of economic organization in modern industrial states pose a critical dilemma for all who care about democratic ideals. Tech- nological developments and attendant complicated divisions of work have enabled these states to transform their citizens' standards of living; such developments have also, however, brought hierarchical economic organizations' that are unresponsive to the influence of most individual employees. A society that claims to be democratic cannot ignore this t Professor of Law, Boston University. The author wishes to thank participants in faculty workshops at Boston University and Northeastern University law schools, as well as Thomas Kohler, for their comments on an earlier draft of this Article. I also wish to thank Lori Bauer for her research assistance. I I See M. WEBER, THE THEORY OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION 245-48 (T. Parsons ed. 1947). 2 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 137:1 condition.' Enhancing individuals' control over their own lives requires institutions that will facilitate democratic decisionmaking about eco- nomic production as well as governmental authority. This Article contributes to thought about such institutions by inte- grating two potentially conflicting strategies to mitigate modern hierar- chical
    [Show full text]
  • GLOSSARY of COLLECTIVE BARGAINING TERMS and SELECTED LABOR TOPICS
    GLOSSARY of COLLECTIVE BARGAINING TERMS and SELECTED LABOR TOPICS ABEYANCE – The placement of a pending grievance (or motion) by mutual agreement of the parties, outside the specified time limits until a later date when it may be taken up and processed. ACTION - Direct action occurs when any group of union members engage in an action, such as a protest, that directly exposes a problem, or a possible solution to a contractual and/or societal issue. Union members engage in such actions to spotlight an injustice with the goal of correcting it. It further mobilizes the membership to work in concerted fashion for their own good and improvement. ACCRETION – The addition or consolidation of new employees or a new bargaining unit to or with an existing bargaining unit. ACROSS THE BOARD INCREASE - A general wage increase that covers all the members of a bargaining unit, regardless of classification, grade or step level. Such an increase may be in terms of a percentage or dollar amount. ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE – An agent of the National Labor Relations Board or the public sector commission appointed to docket, hear, settle and decide unfair labor practice cases nationwide or statewide in the public sector. They also conduct and preside over formal hearings/trials on an unfair labor practice complaint or a representation case. AFL-CIO - The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations is the national federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of fifty-six national and international unions, together representing more than 12 million active and retired workers.
    [Show full text]
  • The Legal and Political Implications of Placing Paid Union Organizers in the Employer's Workplace Victor J
    Hofstra Labor and Employment Law Journal Volume 16 | Issue 1 Article 1 1998 Salting the Mines: the Legal and Political Implications of Placing Paid Union Organizers in the Employer's Workplace Victor J. Van Bourg Ellyn Moscowitz Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/hlelj Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Van Bourg, Victor J. and Moscowitz, Ellyn (1998) "Salting the Mines: the Legal and Political Implications of Placing Paid Union Organizers in the Employer's Workplace," Hofstra Labor and Employment Law Journal: Vol. 16: Iss. 1, Article 1. Available at: http://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/hlelj/vol16/iss1/1 This document is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarly Commons at Hofstra Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hofstra Labor and Employment Law Journal by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons at Hofstra Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Van Bourg and Moscowitz: Salting the Mines: the Legal and Political Implications of Placin HOFSTRA LABOR & EMPLOYMENT LAW JOURNAL Volume 16, No. 1 Fall 1998 ARTICLES SALTING THE MINES: THE LEGAL AND POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF PLACING PAID UNION ORGANIZERS IN THE EMPLOYER'S WORKPLACE* Victor J. Van Bourg** Ellyn Moscowitz*** Mr. Chairman .... Thank you for Mr. Chairman, I rise to strongly the opportunity to speak today. I oppose H.R. 3246, mistakenly am here to discuss the serious called the Fairness for Small Busi- * This article was made possible, in part, by a summer research grant from Chapman Uni- versity School of Law, while Ellyn Moscowitz was an Associate Professor of Law there.
    [Show full text]
  • Negotiating the Crisis? Collective Bargaining in Europe During the Economic Downturn
    Working Paper No. 10 International Labour Office Geneva Negotiating the crisis? Collective bargaining in Europe during the economic downturn Vera Glassner Maarten Keune With support from the European Union March 2010 Industrial and Employment Relations Department (DIALOGUE) Working Paper No. 10 Negotiating the crisis? Collective bargaining in Europe during the economic downturn Vera Glassner and Maarten Keune Industrial and Employment Relations Department International Labour Office • Geneva March 2010 Copyright © International Labour Organization 2010 First published 2010 Publications of the International Labour Office enjoy copyright under Protocol 2 of the Universal Copyright Convention. Nevertheless, short excerpts from them may be reproduced without authorization, on condition that the source is indicated. For rights of reproduction or translation, application should be made to ILO Publications (Rights and Permissions), International Labour Office, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland, or by email: [email protected]. The International Labour Office welcomes such applications. Libraries, institutions and other users registered in the United Kingdom with the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP [Fax: (+44) (0)20 7631 5500; email: [email protected]], in the United States with the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 [Fax: (+1) (978) 750 4470; email: [email protected]] or in other countries with associated Reproduction Rights Organizations, may make photocopies in accordance with the licences issued to them for this purpose. __________________________________________________________________________________________ ILO Cataloguing in Publication Data Glassner, Vera; Keune, Maarten Negotiating the crisis? collective bargaining in Europe during the economic downturn / Vera Glassner and Maarten Keune ; International Labour Office. - Geneva: ILO, 2010 1 v.
    [Show full text]
  • In the Matter of United States of America BEFORE the FEDERAL
    United States of America BEFORE THE FEDERAL SERVICE IMPASSES PANEL In the Matter of UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION, ATLANTA, GA And Case No. 19 FSIP 056 AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, LOCAL 2883 ❑ECISION AND ORDER This case, filed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Ga.(Agency or Management) on July 2, 2019, concerns a dispute over 3 articles in the parties' successor collective-bargaining agreement(CBA) and was filed pursuant to 5 U.S.C. §7119 of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute. The American Federation of Government Employees, Local 2883(Union) represents approximately 350 employees in medical and non-medical positions. The mission of the Agency is to protect public health and safety through the control and prevention of disease, injury, and disability in the United States and internationally. The American Federation of Government Employees, Local 2883(Union) represents approximately 2,000 bargaining-unit employees in a variety of positions at the Agency's Atlanta and Miami facilities. The parties are signatory to a collective bargaining agreement(CBA) that expired on July 17, 2017. The agreement rolls over on an annual basis. The Federal Service Impasses Panel (Panel) asserted jurisdiction over this dispute in the manner discussed below. BARGAINING AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY The parties had seven weeks of bilateral negotiations between October 2017 and November 2018. They received the assistance of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services(FMCS) for 3 days in January 2019. During this time, the Union alleged that five of Management's articles contained permissive topics of negotiations that the Union had no obligation to bargain over.
    [Show full text]
  • Precarious Work and Human Rights
    International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations 8 Rampe du Pont Rouge, Petit Lancy, CH-1213 Geneva, Switzerland Tel : +41 22 793 22 33 ; Fax : +41 22 793 22 38 ; e-mail :[email protected]; www.iuf.org Precarious Work: Undermining Human Rights Any meaningful investigation of the relationship between business and human rights must address the rights impact of the accelerating dissolution of what the ILO and others refer to as the "standard employment relationship" (i.e. direct, permanent employment) and the rise of precarious work. This note does not attempt to account for the role of institutions like the World Bank and the OECD in pushing for even more precarious work relations, rewarding and rating countries for their efforts to abolish direct employment. Agriculture, which still has the world's largest work force, is almost entirely built on precarious labour, and there is a vital connection between this and the fact that agricultural workers who help to feed the world are often among the most food insecure. The relationship between poverty and deepening inequality, and the growth of precarious work in rich and poor countries alike, has been well documented. The purpose here is to highlight a phenomenon which has not received the attention it requires, i.e. the increasingly widespread use of indirect, precarious employment relations to weaken trade union organization and bargaining power. It is in this context that precarious work emerges as a fundamental human rights issue demanding a strong response rooted in a comprehensive human rights framework. The ILO defines the standard employment relationship in these terms: The traditional pattern of the employment relationship, or standard employment relationship, has for many years been that of full time work, under a contract of employment for unlimited duration, with a single employer, and protected against unjustified dismissal.
    [Show full text]
  • Excerpts from Employee Discipline Text by Van Keating, Esq
    Excerpts from Employee Discipline Text by Van Keating, Esq. Introduction This book assumes that the reader’s workplace is unionized. Grievance and arbitration provisions are standard parts of the collective bargaining agreements. Before every disciplinary action, management should review carefully not only the rule violation or other infraction provision, but also the grievance and arbitration procedures. It is a good practice to keep the contract immediately available for reference. The organization of the material is chronological, from the concept of management rights to arbitration, but each section can stand on its own. One need not read the entire manual, but rather can focus on the most relevant portions. The rights of management Statutory framework Public sector collective bargaining is codified in Ohio Revised Code Sections (RC) 4117 et seq. RC 4117.08 addresses subjects appropriate for collective bargaining. RC 4117.08(C) reads: “The employer is not required to bargain on subjects reserved to the management and discretion of the governmental unit except as affect wages, hours, terms and conditions of employment, and the continuation, modification, or deletion of an existing provision of a collective bargaining agreement.” RC 4117.08(C)(5) reads: It is a management right of the employer to “… suspend, discipline, demote or discharge for just cause, or lay off, transfer, assign, schedule, promote or retain employees.” Management rights Management rights are often referred to as “reserved rights.” Management, possessing the right to manage, reserves its right to do so unless it limits its right by some specific provision of the collective bargaining agreement. Unions may argue that the rights of management are not so broad.
    [Show full text]
  • Black Trade Unions, Workplace Forums, and the Struggle for Democracy in South Africa
    THE RIGHT OF REVOLUTION: BLACK TRADE UNIONS, WORKPLACE FORUMS, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY IN SOUTH AFRICA C. Matthew Smith* We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Martin Luther King, Jr.' I. INTRODUCTION In many ways, the story of labor relations in South Africa has run lockstep with the story of apartheid.2 The earliest of its labor laws were enacted for the benefit of white laborers only-and worked to the detriment of black laborers The Mines and Works Act of 1911, for example, established quotas for black and white workers4 and reserved certain better paying jobs in the mines for whites only.' That would only be the beginning. The Industrial Conciliation Act of 1924 followed the bloody Rand Revolt,6 a three-month strike to protest the lowering * J.D. 2000, University of Georgia. 'MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., LETTER FROM THE BIRMINGHAM CITY JAIL 8 (Harper Collins 1994) (1963). 2 See Stephen H. Jacobson, Comment, Collective Bargainingin Undemocratic Regimes: FrancoistSpain and ContemporarySouth Africa, 12 COMP. LAB. L.J. 214, 225 (1991); Karon M. Coleman, Comment, South Africa: The UnfairLabor Practiceand the IndustrialCourt, 12 COMP. LAB. L.J. 178, 178 (1991); Bob Hepple, Trade Unions and Democracy in Transitional Societies: Reflections on Russia andSouth Africa, in HUMAN RIGHTS AND LABOR LAW: ESSAYS FOR PAUL O'HIGGINS 56, 56 (K.D. Ewing et al. eds., 1994); Mark Mitchell & Dave Russell, Black Unions and Political Change in South Africa, in CAN SOUTH AFRICA SURVIvE?: FIvE MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT 231,231 (John D.
    [Show full text]
  • Trade Unions, Employer Organisations, and Collective Bargaining in OECD Countries
    Trade unions, employer organisations, and collective bargaining in OECD countries In all OECD and accession countries, workers and employers can associate to express their interests and concerns and negotiate the terms and conditions of employment. This process of collective representation, negotiation and decision making is a key labour market institution and a fundamental principle and right at work as well as a key pillar of social dialogue at national level. However, since the 1980s, this process of collective representation and negotiation has faced a series of major challenges resulting from, technological and organisational changes, policy reforms, globalisation, the decline of the manufacturing sector, new forms of work and population ageing. Building on a rich set of survey and administrative data and using detailed information collected through new OECD policy questionnaires that were addressed to Labour Ministries and social partners, the 2017 edition of the OECD Employment Outlook provides a rich overview of collective bargaining institutions and practices, as they function today in OECD countries and a selected group of emerging economies. Trade union membership declined by half since 1985 On average across OECD countries, 30% of workers These averages mask huge variations across were members of a union in 1985. The corresponding countries – only 4.5% of workers are unionised in figure today is only 17%. Union members tend to be Estonia and about 6% in Turkey, while about 65% are predominantly male, middle-aged (between 25 and 54 union members in Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, and years old), working with medium or high skills in medium or 92% in Iceland.
    [Show full text]
  • Total (Security) Recall: Labor Board Returns to Historical Precedent and Allows Discipline of Newly Organized Union Members Insights 6.26.20
    Total (Security) Recall: Labor Board Returns To Historical Precedent And Allows Discipline Of Newly Organized Union Members Insights 6.26.20 The National Labor Relations Board restored its longstanding precedent involving an employer’s duty to bargain over discipline in a newly certified bargaining unit, ruling that employers have no obligation to negotiate with newly formed unions over disciplining workers before the initial collective bargaining agreement is finalized. The June 23 decision in 800 River Road Operating Company, LLC d/b/a CareOne at New Milford marked a return to 80 years of established NLRB precedent. With Fisher Phillips attorneys representing CareOne at New Milford, the NLRB overturned Total Security Management Illinois 1, LLC, a controversial decision from the Obama era. In its 3-0 decision, the NLRB made clear employers have no statutory obligation to bargain before imposing discretionary discipline. In doing so, it relieved employers of a great deal of uncertainty surrounding their ability to impose “serious discipline” — including suspension, demotion, or discharge — under their existing disciplinary policies. Background: Total Security And The Duty To Bargain In its 1962 seminal decision, NLRB v. Katz, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) prohibited an employer from making unilateral changes to employees’ terms and conditions of employment following the commencement of a bargaining relationship. Should an employer decide to make any such material changes to the “status quo,” it must first give the union notice and the opportunity to bargain. However, the NLRB has long recognized this status quo is “dynamic” and that an employer does not violate the Act when it takes actions consistent with its regular past practice.
    [Show full text]
  • Collective Bargaining for Public-Sector Firefighters, Police and Teachers in Each State
    March 2014 Regulation of Public Sector Collective Bargaining in the States By Milla Sanes and John Schmitt* Center for Economic and Policy Research 1611 Connecticut Ave. NW tel: 202-293-5380 Suite 400 fax: 202-588-1356 Washington, DC 20009 www.cepr.net * Milla Sanes is a Program Assistant at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington D.C. John Schmitt is a Senior Economist at CEPR. Contents Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3 Right to Collective Bargaining ........................................................................................................... 4 Wage Negotiations .............................................................................................................................. 7 Right to Strike ...................................................................................................................................... 8 Observations, Anomalies, and Ambiguities ..................................................................................... 9 References .......................................................................................................................................... 11 Appendix ............................................................................................................................................ 12 Acknowledgements We thank Dean Baker and Nicole Woo for helpful comments and the Ford Foundation and Public Welfare Foundation
    [Show full text]
  • Collective Bargaining 101
    COLLECTIVE BARGAINING 101 What is collective bargaining? • Collective bargaining is the formal process of negotiation between an employer and a group of employees – often with their union representative – that sets the terms and conditions of work. • Collective bargaining results in a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), a legally binding agreement that lays out policies agreed to by management and labor. Because of its role in governing the actions of both management and labor, a CBA is often referred to as the “law” of the workplace. While each agreement is unique to a given labor- management relationship, most CBAs include provisions that address compensation, scheduling, promotions, discipline and job standards. CBAs also usually contain a grievance procedure, which provides a process for resolving disputes between management and labor over interpretation of the contract and in the event of employee discipline or termination. When does collective bargaining occur? • Employees and employers engage in collective bargaining to negotiate new contracts and renegotiate existing contracts that have expired. In 2015 alone, an estimated five million men and women are engaged in the collective bargaining process.1 By one measure, more than 21,000 labor-management relationships engaged in collective bargaining during the 2014 fiscal year.2 Despite the amount of bargaining that occurs every year, only 7.4 percent of private sector employees and 39.2 percent of public sector employees are covered by a contract.3 Who can collectively bargain? • The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) grants most private sector employees the right to organize unions and collectively bargain. The Railway Labor Act (RLA) provides railway and airline employees the right to form unions and engage in collective bargaining.
    [Show full text]