Collective bargaining 2011

Collective Bargaining Xaviera Wilson-Lowery Strayer University PAD 530 Pamela H. Lewis November 27, 2011

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Collective bargaining 2011

Abstract

Collective bargaining is a way for employers and unions to come together with an agreement. Union members and other worker covered by collective agreements get on average a wage markup over their nonunionized counter parts. Unions tend to equalize the income distribution mainly between skilled and unskilled workers. The welfare loss with unions is small and no more than 0.2 to 0.5 of the Gross domestic product (GDP). There are four challenges that management
and union officials face during the collective bargaining process. I researched several peer-reviewed and academic sources.

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Collective Bargaining Collective bargaining is a process of negotiations between employers and the representatives of a unit of employees aimed at reaching that regulate working conditions. Collectives agreements usually set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs. The union negotiates with a single employer or a group of businesses. This depends on the country or the industry wide agreement. A collective agreement acts as a labor contract between the employer and one or more unions. It consists of the process of negotiation between representatives of a union and employers in respect of the terms and the conditions of the employment of employees. The terms consist of wages, hours of work, working conditions, and grievance procedures and about the rights and responsibilities of trade unions. So the results of the negotiations are known as a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) or as a collective employment agreement (CEA). The term collective bargaining was first used in 1891 by economic theorist Sidney Webb Wilson (2011). But the act of collective negotiations has been going on since the rise of trade unions during the 19th nineteenth century. The latest phi delta kappa/Gallup poll is the proverbial canary in the Cole mine. It states that when 47 percent of the general public says that unions hurt public education when something goes wrong or when something is not working. Collective bargaining needs to change with the times Wilson, 2011. The old school way of doing things is not working for the public anymore. 21 first centuries collective bargaining needs to be student-centered. There needs to be an expanded scope of bargaining. They need to use the wisdom of teachers and education professionals.

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The mandatory subjects of bargaining are not limited to just a few things. Both parties need not to bargain over every little thing but they have to bargain in good faith and over the mandatory subjects. Reason being is that the mandatory subjects are very broad and courts over the years have attempted to set standards for determining whether a specific topic is mandatory. The mandatory subjects are wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment.

The four challenges that management and union officials face during the collective bargaining process is:

1. Interfering, restraining, or coercing employees who are trying to exercise their collective bargaining rights under law. Threatening to fire or transfer workers who participate in union activities is an unfair labor practices. 2. Dominating, obstructing, or assisting in the formation, existence, or administration of any employee organization. Employers who try to Create: company unions or to put their people into union leadership positions are engaging in an unfair labor practice. 3. Encouraging or discouraging membership in any employee organization. Discriminatory personnel practices such as not hiring, promoting, or offering training opportunities to union members are unfair labor practices. 4. Discouraging or discriminating against any employee because he or she has joined a union or filed a grievance under the collective bargaining agreement. Actions such as those by management constitute unfair labor practices. The employer may not refuse to bargain over certain subjects with the employees

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Evaluate whether privatization or contracting out is advantageous for public management as a way of breaking public employee unions. Ever since 1980 there has been a wave of privatization by public enterprises sweeping over the whole world. The main motivation behind this move is to enhance the efficiency of public enterprises that have undergone poor performance. The tide has inspired both

theoretic and empirical research studies on the economic effects of privatization jiang (2006). As Birdsall and nellis (2003) pointed out that privatization has been perceived by the public to worsen the distribution of income and to be fundamentally unfair. The Reagan Administration created political space for privatization to launch a movement. School vouchers, private prisons, and outsourcing of many kinds were propelled into serious propositions by fruitful alliances of those advocates and businesses marketing their claims to be able to perform various public functions; where tax limitation achieved success by the ballot. Privatization advanced by lobbying. Legislatures, school boards, city councils, and county boards have been subjected to lobbying in all its forms. This comes from the legitimate to the corrupt. This progress has been uneven and gaining momentum during times of fiscal stress by taking big unpredicted steps when office holders ideologically committed to it have held sway.

Privatization is not only supported by the republicans. The Chicago Skyway was privatized By Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) before the Indiana Toll Road was leased by Gov. Mitchell Daniels (R). The Federal Activities Inventory Reform Act was passed by a Republican Congress, but signed into law and initially administered by Pres. Bill Clinton. But its Ideological support is almost entirely a Republican matter, epitomized by the wish of Republican strategist Grover Norquist to "cut government in half in 25 years, to get it down
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to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." Collective bargaining as it applies to public or government employees: there has been a debate of collective bargaining that date back to the 1930s. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a supporter of collective bargaining rights for employees in the private sector. He noted his opposition to such agreements for government or public employment unions in a 1937 letter to the national federation of federal employees. He said that all employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining could not be transferred into public service (1937).

In conclusion, collective bargaining has been around forever. But, the term itself has only been used since 1981 by Sidney Webb.

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References

Jiang, L. (2006). WELFARE ANALYSIS OF PRIVATIZATION IN A MIXED MARKET WITH BARGAINING. Contemporary Economic Policy, 24(3), 395-406. doi:10.1093/cep/byj029 Wilson, j. (2011). COLLECTIVE BARGAINING FOR THE 21ST CENTURY. Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/john_wilson_unleashed/2011/11/collective_bargaining McEntee, G. W. (2006). The New Crisis of Public Service Employment. Public Personnel Management, 35(4), 343-346. Nigro, L, Nigro F., & Kellough, J. E. (2007). The new public personnel administration (6th Ed.). Belmont, CA: ThomsonWadsworthCengage Learning. Roosevelt, franklin D., LETTER ON THE RESOLUTION OF FEDERATION EMPLOYEES AGAINST STRIKES IN FEDERAL SERVICE retrieved from http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php , 16th august 1937, the American presidency project retrieved on November 27, 2011

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