Download Bargaining Structure

Bargaining Structure
The structure of bargaining is a
broad concept referring to the
group or groups of employees and
employers who help determine or
are affected by a collective
agreement.
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Bargaining Structure
Bargaining structure can be thought of
as consisting of FOUR COMPONENTS
which are not necessarily distinct:
Informal Work Group
Election Unit
Negotiations Unit
Unit of Direct Impact
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Informal Work Group
Workers that would have a tendency to
have a common view of their work
environment.
It may consist of workers in one or
more occupations that come into
frequent contact with each other
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Election Unit
A group or groups of workers that the
NLRB feels is an appropriate one for the
purpose of collective bargaining.
It is the certified bargaining unit, and it
may consist of one or more informal
work groups
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Election Unit
There are three categories of Election
Units:

Single-employer, Single-location

Single-employer, Multi-location

Multi-employer
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Negotiations Unit
The Negotiations Unit can be the
same as the Election Unit, but if
both parties agree to a broader
bargaining unit the Negotiations
Unit can include more than one
Election Unit.
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Negotiations Unit
Negotiations Units may encompass
multiple Election Units in a single
plant, several plants of the same
employer, or among more than one
employer.
Typically such units involve workers
organized by the same union.
Coalition bargaining is an exception.
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Unit of Direct Impact
Extends beyond the boundaries of
negotiations units. It may cover
more than one industry, as when
settlements by auto companies have
a direct impact on auto parts
companies.
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The Appropriate Bargaining Unit
Before a unit can be elected and
certified as a representative of a
group of employees, the NLRB must
determine the appropriate bargaining
unit that the union is to represent.
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The Appropriate Bargaining Unit
If the union and employer can agree
on which employees should be in the
Election Unit, the board will run the
election in that unit.
Absent that agreement the
responsibility for selecting the
appropriate unit rest entirely with the
board.
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Unit Determination Standards
Since the law provides few guidelines
for unit determination, the board has
developed its own:
 Mutuality or community of interests
 Geography or physical proximity
 Employers’ administrative /
territorial division
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Unit Determination Standards






Functional integration
Interchange of employees
Bargaining history
Employee desires
Extent of organization
Other guidelines may be considered
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Board Limitations on Certifications
The only limitation on the board’s
authority with respect to its unit
certification powers relates specifically
to Professional, Craft, and Guard
employees.
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Professional Employees
The board is not allowed to include
both professional and
nonprofessional employees in the
same unit unless a majority of such
professional employees vote for
inclusion in such unit.
14
Craft Employees
The board is prohibited from deciding
that any craft unit is inappropriate for
such purposes on the ground that a
different unit has been established by
a prior board determination.
15
Guards
The board is not permitted to
certify guards in the same unit as
nonguards.
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Additional Observation on
Certifications
The board is not required to seek
and certify the “most appropriate or
optimal unit”
The board certifies units based on
the “jobs” or “job classifications”
and not on specific individuals
employed in these classifications.
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Additional Observation on
Certifications
And
(to be somewhat redundant)
Membership in the unit and in the
union are not necessarily the same.
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The Craft Bargaining Unit
The NLRB has defined a true craft
unit as a distinct and homogeneous
group of skilled journeymen,
craftsmen, working as such, together
with apprentices and/or helpers.
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The Craft Bargaining Unit
From the point of view of Industrial
Unions, it is not desirable to permit
craft workers separate representations.
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The Craft Bargaining Unit
However,
The bargaining status of craft
employees within a firm depends on
the nature of the craft, type of industry,
collective bargaining history in the
industry, and, most important, on the
policies and practices of the NLRB.
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The Craft Bargaining Unit
Employers have a general bias toward
bargaining with as few unions as
possible.
Bargaining with multiple units
increases costs and makes it more
difficult to plan reliable production and
marketing schedules.
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The NLRB and Craft Bargaining
Craft bargaining unit cases can be
divided into two broad categories:
Initial Certification
Severance Cases
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The NLRB and Craft Bargaining
In both instances, the NLRB has to
decide whether the craft satisfies the
appropriate criteria for certification.
It should be noted, however, that it is
easier for a craft to gain separate
certification rights when there is no
successful history of collective
bargaining within the context of a larger
unit.
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Craft Certification Criteria

The craft employees are unrepresented.
They are engaged in traditional craft
work that is performed in a separate and
distinct location apart from other
employees.
They have a separate community of
interests and do not interchange with
other employees.
The union seeking recognition is a craft
union traditionally representing the craft
in question.

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Craft Certification Criteria
The board, confronted with the dilemma
between the right of self-determination of
craft employees and a potential threat to
stability in industrial relations, will
typically opt for stability.
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Significance of Board Certification
Decisions
The certification not only acts as a
catalyst to collective bargaining, but it
also influences collective bargaining
outcomes.
Although the parties are free to expand
bargaining beyond the unit selected by
the board this initial selection by the
board establishes the required basis for
bargaining.
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Significance of Board Certification
Decisions
A union considers several factors when
deciding on its desired unit:
The predominant factor seems to be its
ability to win and election.
Sometimes it’s agreeing to the employers
desired unit in order to get a quick election
A third set of factors involves attempts to
maximize the unit’s potential bargaining power. 28
Significance of Board Certification
Decisions
Employers favor election units in which it
would be difficult for a union to organize
and obtain a majority.
Employers usually favor large election units
primarily because it is more difficult for unions
to win elections in such units.
There is less solidarity in large units, and
Management has more staffing flexibility when
all of its employees are in one large unit.
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Significance of Board Certification
Decisions
In the end, which side has the upper
hand in determining size of
bargaining units may depend on the
boards political coloration at the
moment.
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The Structure of Collective
Bargaining in the United States
Two thirds (66.6%) of employees
covered by collective bargaining
agreements in the United States are
in situations where the actual
negotiation area, represented by the
people sitting at the bargaining table,
is different from the area covered by
the NLRB Certification.
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Bargaining Structure
Union and Management Interests
Union bargaining interest is
described as being either narrow,
as in a craft union representing
workers with a narrow group of
skills, or broad, as in an
industrial union representing all
employees in an industry.
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Bargaining Structure
Union and Management Interests
Management interests are either
centralized, as in multiemployer
or single-employer multiplant
negotiations, or decentralized, as
in single-employer, single-plant
bargaining.
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Determinants of Bargaining Structure
The term bargaining structure
denotes a multiplicity of units
tied together in a complicated
network of relationships by
social, legal, administrative and
economic factors.
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Market Factors
Both employers and unions take into
account the market context when devising
the dimensions of bargaining structures.
Under conditions of sever product market
competition, some employers have opted
for multiemployer bargaining to reduce at
least one aspect of competitive pressure.
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Bargaining Issues and Structures
Bargaining issues can be classified as:
Market-wide - (wages)
Company-wide - (benefits)
Local - (plant rules)
Current tend is toward more decentralized
bargaining - more emphasis on
productivity and job security.
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Representational Factors
Individual firms and unions are
sometimes willing to enter into
comprehensive alliances in order
to increase their bargaining
power.
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The Impact of Government
The bargaining unit decisions of
the NLRB undoubtedly shape and
influence the characteristics and
nature of the present bargaining
structure.
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Power Tactics
Each party seeks to develop bargaining
structures that would maximize their
bargaining power.
Multiplant employers engaged in the production
of the same product in a number of plants,
would typically opt for a structure that consists
of individual single-plant bargaining units.
Vertically integrated production units would
incline the employer in the opposite direction.
And of course the union would object.
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Individual Employee Influence
Individual influence is perhaps
greatest in narrow, decentralized
bargaining units where the union
represents only one occupation
and negotiations are with a
single employer, perhaps at the
plant level.
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The Multiemployer Bargaining Unit
When a number of employers join forces for
purposes of collective bargaining, the unit
structure is described as a multiemployer
bargaining unit.
Sometimes agreements negotiated by a few
large employers are also signed by smaller
employers, who may agree to essentially the
same terms as those approved by a larger
employer.
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The Multiemployer Bargaining Unit
The primary form of bargaining in the
Transportation,
Food Products and,
Apparel Industries
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Effects of Multiemployer Bargaining
Competitive pressures are the
dominant force encouraging both
unions and employers to enter
into multiemployer or industrywide bargaining relationships.
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Effects of Multiemployer Bargaining
Small employers in highly
competitive and labor-intense
fields may find it easier to
operate with uniformity of labor
costs.
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Effects of Multiemployer Bargaining
The multiemployer unit is
particularly advantageous to both
sides in industries composed of
many small, financially weak
employers.
(Neutralize the cost of benefits.)
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Effects of Multiemployer Bargaining
Multiemployer bargaining provides
both unions and management with
significant cost savings in
negotiation of labor agreements.
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Effects of Multiemployer Bargaining
On the down side, multiemployer
bargaining may overlook the
needs of various employee
groups, and ignore particular
requirements of individual
employers.
(causing high levels of internal stress)
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Effects of Multiemployer Bargaining
It should also be noted that
multiemployer agreements are
much more difficult to conclude
than the single-employer contracts.
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Effects of Multiemployer Bargaining
In some multiemployer units,
master contracts cover only items
such as wages and major benefits,
with other issues negotiated at the
local level.
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Bargaining Power in the
Multiemployer Unit
There are a number of reasons for
employers’ forming multiemployer
units:
Some give up power to lessen
competition in the product market,
or to achieve industrial peace and
greater stability in labor relations.
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Bargaining Power in the
Multiemployer Unit
Some employers have a need for a
countervailing power in the face of
strong unions.
Some unions also favor
mutiemployer bargaining as means
of increasing their power.
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Bargaining Power in the
Multiemployer Unit
In some instances, the bargaining
power of a union may decline under
industry-wide bargaining.
And in some instances it may be in the
interest of the union to give up some of its
power as a means of satisfying its other
objectives. The survival of the firm.
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The Pros and Cons of
Multiemployer Bargaining
One consequence of
multiemployer bargaining is
uniformity of contract terms.
There is opposition to such
standardization on the grounds
that it may be detrimental to the
public interest.
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The Pros and Cons of
Multiemployer Bargaining
One of the major counters to this
criticism is that this type of bargaining
has reduced the frequency of strikes and
produced more stable and mature labor
relations.
Additionally, the level of expertise and
sophistication of negotiators on both
sides is considerably higher.
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The Law and Mutiemployer
Bargaining
Although establishment of multiemployer
bargaining is done on a consensual
basis, the NLRB does impose some
constraints on union and management
behavior.
Under Supreme Court law, either side
may withdraw at any time before
negotiations actually begin as long as
notice is given to the other side.
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The Future of Multiemployer
Bargaining
The number of employers and workers
covered by multiemployer labor
contracts have significantly declined
over the past 15 years.
The nature of the external environment is
changing the focus of negotiations from
industry stability to international
competitiveness.
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The Future of Multiemployer
Bargaining
If the key issues continue to be
those best addressed at the firm
or plant level, such as
productivity, job classifications,
work rules, performance-based
pay, and job security, the trend
toward decentralization of
bargaining may be expected.
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Coordinated or Coalition
Bargaining
These terms refer to two or more
unions seeking to negotiate
similar terms with an employer.
In its strong form, one master
agreement might be signed
covering all employees of all
unions.
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Coordinated or Coalition
Bargaining
The unions target of coordinated
bargaining is the large multiplant
corporation with an objective of
increasing their bargaining power.
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Coordinated or Coalition
Bargaining
Some National unions suffer a lack
of power when they compete.
One way to improve their position
and to achieve a greater uniformity
of terms in an industry is to
employ coordination.
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Coordinated or Coalition
Bargaining
The main reason some employers
have opposed coordinated
bargaining is potential loss of
bargaining power.
Employer consent is generally
withheld in most large multiplant
employer environments.
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Pattern Bargaining
An informal means of spreading
the terms and conditions of
employment negotiated on one
formal bargaining structure to
another.
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