How Contract Negotiations Really Work
The union and the company come together for a series of meetings to reach an agreement on a union contract.
During these meetings, the union is allowed to ask for the things it’s promised you, but it’s also allowed to ask for things the union wants, which are things that you might not care about at all. This could include things like a requirement that you pay dues or fees to the union to keep your job or “super seniority” for a select few employees who are union officials.
And the union can trade away things that you do care about to get what it wants.
Risks of Negotiations
- There is no time limit. Negotiations can take months or years. In fact, the average time to negotiate a first contract in the healthcare industry is 528 days according to Bloomberg Law Analysis of first contracts.
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There are no guarantees.
By law, there’s no guarantee or requirement that a contract ever be reached or that the employer agree to anything that it can’t afford or that doesn’t make sense for its business. -
Everything’s on the table.
Your wages, benefits, vacations and holidays may be traded away by a union negotiator for something the union wants.
Management Rights
Even when a union is present, an employer still has the right to run its business. That is why in almost every labor contract you’ll see language that says the company retains the right to operate and take actions without going to the union, including things like:
allocate its resources, manage its facilities and direct its workforce
hire, promote, transfer, demote, or lay off team members
subcontract or contract out work
establish and modify policies, rules and regulations governing safety, performance, procedures and conduct
Employers can keep their rights to operate their business, union or not.
You could end up with LESS
Collective bargaining is risky. That’s not our opinion, that is a fact. The National Labor Relations Board has stated that:
... collective bargaining is potentially hazardous for employees and that as a result of such negotiations employees might possibly wind up with less after unionization than before."
There are no quick fixes, and when it’s all over, you could even end up with LESS than what you have right now. That could mean you end up with less as a group. But it also means that you could end up worse off as an individual.
For example, a union could negotiate a clause in the contract that allows a more senior employee to bump you out of your job or to a different shift even though you like your job and are performing it well or if your shift allows you to meet personal or family commitments.
A union contract could also require that the priority of vacation time be determined by seniority, meaning less senior employees will get last pick on vacation time.