Collective Bargaining Tactics

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 826.

Collective bargaining tactics are actions taken by either labour or management to pressure the other side in a collective bargaining situation. There are labour tactics and management tactics.

Labour tactics are actions taken by unions in an attempt to influence management to adopt the union viewpoint in a collective bargaining situation. The most important labour tactics (industrial action) are strikes, picketing, go-slows, work-to-rules and boycotting.

A strike, or walkout, is a temporary stoppage of work by employees which lasts until management accepts union demands. The strike is probably the most influential labour tactics available to unions. Unions pay workers from strike funds during the work stoppage and hope that management will decide that a halt in production will be more harmful to the company than the acceptance of the union demands. Picketing is a labour tactic generally used in conjunction with a strike. Picketing involves positioning one or more union members at the entrance of a struck workplace to stop or make difficult any entry to the workplace. Picketers inform the public that a strike exists, make deliveries to the workplace difficult or impossible, and discourage other people from working their jobs. Boycotting is a tactic wherein union members refuse to purchase products from companies that are giving a union difficult times. Obviously, the purchasing power of unions can be a very influential labour tactic. In fact, the use of boycotting as a modern labour tactic is on the rise. A go-slow (GB) or slowdown (US) is a deliberate reduction in the rate of production as a protest. Working-to-rule is deliberately obeying every regulation in an organization, which severely disrupts normal operations.

Management tactics are actions taken by management in an attempt to influence unions to adopt the management viewpoint in a collective bargaining situation. The most important management tactics are lockouts, injunctions and associations.

A lockout is a refusal by management to allow workers to work by keeping them out of the workplace. Actually, a lockout is a sort of strike called by management. Through a lockout management hopes to create financial pressures for the union which will eventually influence the union to adopt management's viewpoint. Although not commonly used by management, the lockout can be an extremely effective tactic. An injunction is a court order prohibiting or requiring action on the part of someone. In the past employers commonly used injunctions to prohibit various union-related activities within organizations. Today injunctions are primarily used to restrict such actions as violence and physical damage to company property. Injunctions can also be used to force striking public employees back to work when such strikes are illegal. Certain associations are organizations formed by employers to help neutralize the influence of unions. Like employees, employers have found added strength in bargaining as a unit rather than individually. Assume, for example, that a group of employers offered a union a maximum wage increase, as opposed to individual employers offering the same increase. It would be much harder for the union to apply pressure and strike against all the employers collectively than against one lone employer. In addition, such associations can provide negotiators for employers, and unions may in the future find themselves facing a better and more experienced negotiator than in the past.