Why Should We Care About Collective Bargaining?

A question that has frequently been ask over the years is, " Why should we care about collective bargaining? ". The thing that has been missing from the collective bargaining discussion is a real explanation and understanding of the concept. Collective bargaining has been described as a process when employees and their representatives form a united front, known as a union, to negotiate with their employers. These negotiations are usually over things like pay rates and salary amounts, benefits, and conditions at the workplace , among other issues. The principles of collective bargaining and unions come from the idea that employees as a group have far more bargaining power than individual employees trying to negotiate with their employer. Since collective bargaining has a basis in collaboration it is considered a very democratic process. The members of the employee union choose the issues to be bargained over and vote on if the agree to the contract proposed by their representatives and management.

There are many different subjects besides compensation that can be negotiated. These issues include a fairway to evaluate employee performance, protection for those who file grievances, proper training, opportunity for advancement, holding employers accountable, and safe work conditions among other things.

Early in American history during colonial times and into the middle of the 19th centry, relations between employers and those whom they employed were many times hostile and adversarial. Sometimes these disagreements between employee and employer would explode into violent confrontations. Workers wether skilled or not would fight with management over improved/safer working conditions, fair pay, long exhausting hours by uniting and form...

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...t with the common ideals of all basic human rights.

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