Even though the term “collective bargaining” was first coined in 1891, this practice has existed in some form since the rise of trade unions during the 18th century.
In this article, we discuss collective bargaining agreements in greater depth, discussing the type of information they convey. Towards the end of the article, we offer our final thoughts on the future of legal agreements more generally.
What is Collective Bargaining?
Collective bargaining is the negotiation that occurs between management and workers. This is usually done through representatives to make the process more efficient.
Collective bargaining provides legal protection for all parties involved should a dispute arise. Furthermore, this kind of bargaining tries to prevent most disputes from even arising by getting both employers and workers on the same page from the get-go.
The formal agreement that comes from this kind of bargaining is called a collective bargaining agreement. These are usually long pieces of writing with many sections.
The scope of the agreement will vary depending on the nature of the work and the preferences of the parties involved. For example, an agreement might go in depth about wage expectations while only superficially addressing issues regarding vacation time. Alternatively, some agreements might discuss every issue in-depth, leaving no room for ambiguity.
Generally speaking, the more detailed a collective bargaining agreement is, the more beneficial these documents are. Agreements that are ambiguous create loopholes that can lead to inevitable conflict.
Collective bargaining agreements are slightly different than employment contracts, which are often personalized for each individual being hired. Collective bargaining agreements are more general documents that protect the rights of all the workers in a union.
What Information is Conveyed?
Most collective bargaining agreements discuss how conflict is to be resolved should it arise. Many agreements include arbitration agreements that avoid the negative consequences of litigation. Arbitration agreements allow disputes to be settled in a conference room without expensive court costs and lawyer fees.
Furthermore, arbitration agreements might specify who will arbitrate and what disputes will necessitate arbitration. It might be the case that the employers or workers want some disputes to be always decided by a specific arbitrator.
For example, a collective bargaining agreement might be forged for a professional sports league. This document could require that all disputes related to athletes’ public statements be settled by a former professional athlete. This might lead to a desirable outcome for a player if conflict is stemming from some public statement he released. In the same vein, this could lead to an undesirable outcome for the owners in the sports league, as the arbitrator is more likely to side with the players based on his past employment history.
Collective bargaining agreements also specify the various working conditions that employers and workers can expect. This includes such considerations as working hours, overtime payments, holidays, vacations, and health care benefits.
These agreements also specify the environmental conditions that workers will endure while on the job. This is an especially important part of the agreement, especially if you are working in an industry that requires exposure to potentially dangerous conditions.
The Benefits of Collective Bargaining Agreements
The main benefit of a collective bargaining agreement is that they can prevent a messy, lengthy litigation process if conflicts arise between workers and employers.
The modern form of collective bargaining was outlined in 1935 by the National Labor Relations Act. What’s significant about this act is that it required parties to confer “in good faith”. This language means that both parties must actively participate in negotiations with the intent of finding common ground.
In this sense, collective bargaining agreements encourage parties in a relationship to be peaceful rather than immediately contentious. This goes a long way when it comes to negotiating, as having the right intentions makes a huge difference.
It’s usually evident if one party is stubbornly not cooperating during negotiation. Collective bargaining agreements attempt to put both employers and workers on a more level playing field so that power dynamics don’t govern the nature of the compromise.
Leveling the Playing Field
Collective bargaining agreements don’t necessarily favor one party over another. Instead, they seek a solution that has the maximum benefit for all parties involved. In this sense, they can be comprehensive documents that anticipate every possible cause of conflict. This would be ideal if many parties are involved, as individual agreements between every party would be practically unfeasible. Collective bargaining agreements apply to large groups of people, which could expedite the process of compromise.
Even though collective bargaining agreements don’t technically favor one side over another, they tend to empower workers who have been historically overpowered by large corporations. Collective bargaining agreements provide a voice to each individual worker through whatever representative speaks on their behalf. While this is not an ideal way of expressing your preferences, it’s certainly more efficient than having each worker attempt to contact top-level management.
Collective bargaining agreements act as a system of system of checks and balances that prevents any one party from getting too much power. This is desirable in some industries in which too much power could lead to undesirable consequences.
For example, a collective bargaining agreement between owners and athletes in a professional sports league might place a limit on how much money owners can be paid. This would cause any extra funds to be redistributed to players, which would lead to higher paychecks for them. Mainly, this would prevent an imbalanced payment system in which the owners get extremely rich while the players are underpaid.
The Drawbacks of Collective Bargaining Agreements
Even though there are many benefits of collective bargaining agreements, there are also some potential drawbacks that are worth noting.
First, the National Labor Relations act that determined how these agreements are currently forged includes lots of ambiguous languages that could lead to manipulative interpretations. For example, the “good faith” that is expected during negotiations could be construed in a way that actually divides parties rather than unites them.
For example, workers might be extremely bitter over unjust wages and consider it “good faith” that they refuse to even meet with employers. This could complicate negotiations and lead to years of headaches.
In fact, the National Labor Relations Act doesn’t even require that a resolution is reached. It might be the case that the conflict is not resolved and that workers decide to stop working or engage in a passionate protest. Alternatively, employers might decide to lock out workers.
In this sense, collective bargaining agreements might totally fail and lead to dramatic disputes that must be settled in court rather than arbitrated. In this sense, engaging in them at all might be a waste of time when the dispute could have just gone directly to the court. Some parties spend months engaging in negotiations to renew some collective bargaining agreement only to eventually defer to a judge’s opinion.
The Possibility of Manipulation
Additionally, collective bargaining agreements are usually lengthy documents that cover many different issues.
This comprehensive nature could actually be viewed as a drawback. This is because some collective bargaining agreements could be alienating, preventing workers from reading them thoroughly and thus questioning some of their policies. This could be used by employers as a way of bypassing the checks and balances system of the agreement, allowing them to still control employees.
For example, an employer might use esoteric language that requires a specialized lawyer to interpret. This might force the union representing the workers to hire a specific representative who can make sense of the terms proposed. Ultimately, this could make it difficult for workers to seek more rights. While this lawyer might be able to decipher arcane legal terminology, the lawyer might not be perfect when it comes to representing the needs and desires of the workers.
Thus, the flexible nature of collective bargaining agreements opens the door for some forms of conflict down the road. In this sense, these documents can actually be counterintuitive, used as a way of generating disputes rather than nipping them in the bud. Indeed, some parties might prefer a deadlock because it avoids them from having to make certain changes.
Our Final Thoughts on Collective Bargaining Agreements
We think collective bargaining agreements will likely be replaced in the future by more individual bargaining agreements.
Currently, most individuals are not legally savvy enough to bargain their own agreements. This is why collective agreements are established on behalf of all workers. Yet, no two workers are the same, even if they desire similar outcomes.
We think future technology will make it easier for individuals to draft their own agreements. This technology will help individuals use various legal concepts and formatting to stand up for their rights.
We also think artificial intelligence will likely be used as a proxy for company executives that don’t have time to convene with each individual employee. In this sense, when you negotiate your working conditions in the future, you might be talking to a robot instead of a person.
Furthermore, we think future collective bargaining agreements will transcend words and will be represented by any form of art. For example, we can imagine a future in which workers use virtual reality technology to interact with the details of their agreement on a more personal level.
Instead of reading the terms of some section, we think future workers will be able to literally feel whatever meaning is trying to be conveyed. This would make negotiation more familiar and physical than ever before, as you would literally be able to pick up a line in your contract and observe it from every angle rather than merely reading it in a document.
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