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Unit 8: Collective Bargaining

body then with a heterogeneous mass of divided individuals. While it is not for the management Notes
to interfere with union activities, or choose the union leadership, its action and attitude with go
a long way towards developing the right type of union leadership "Management gets the union
it deserves" is not just an empty phrase. If management has through its actions and dealing,
established a reputation for fair but firm dealing. If it has persistently followed a labour policy
based on the three principles of justice. Sympathy and firmness and if it has made it clear that it
believes in the growth of healthy and strong trade unionism, soon the right type of leadership
will develop.

8.7.1 Preparation for Negotiation

The third and the most important part of the pre-negotiation phase is that of preparation for
negotiations. The success of Collective Bargaining is directly proportional to the thoroughness
of the preparations made by the parties involved in negotiations. Preparation is second only to
actual negotiations in importance. The nature of preparation will vary considerably in terms of
the size and importance of the bargaining relationship. In a multi-employer and multi-union
bargaining set-up, or in bargaining by the employers' association, negotiations require a great
deal of preparation from both sides. But if it is customary in a particular relationship to use a
pattern set by an industry leader as a policy guide in negotiations, only some amount of advance
preparation may be necessary. But when bargaining involves more than simple acceptance of a
standard agreement, there will normally be much preparation on both sides. Further, many
bargaining relationship do not differ greatly from what they were some fifteen or twenty years
ago, and involve comparatively uncomplicated bargaining issues. In such situations, negotiations
do not call for advance preparations.
In general, however, most employers and unions do a great deal of factual spadework and
opinion seeking when preparing for negotiations. The larger industrial unions have a rather
elaborate apparatus for obtaining accurate information on rank-and-file demands and pressures.
They are also adept in the use of modern public relations techniques for creating' membership
enthusiasm for future contract demands regarded as critical by the leadership.

Negotiations may commence at the instance of either party – of either labour or of management.
While some management hide their time till trade unions put forward their proposals, others
resort to what is known as positive bargaining by submitting their own proposals for
consideration by labour representatives. Many contracts specifically lay down that either party
proposing changes in the existing agreement should notify the other party of the nature and
extent of such changes before the termination of the contract.
Both employees and employers devote a great deal of time to the preparations for negotiation.
The necessary data have to be collected on a large number of issues - on wages and salaries, on
seniority, over-time allowance, the cost of living, the policies of trade unions and of management,
productivity trends in a company, retirement and fringe benefits, hours of work and other
pertinent information on area-cum-industry practices as well as on the nature of agreements in
other companies, the patterns of these agreements, controls and regulations, and a variety of
related subjects.
Information on these items collected by management from their associations and central
organisations, from the government and by surveyers, conducted by their research staff. At the
same time, the personnel department of the company examines and analyses the public statements
of trade union leaders, the proceedings of union conventions and conferences, and the Collective
Bargaining trends which have developed all over the country. The trade unions, however,
gather the data they require from their own central organisations and research staff by an
analysis of labour contracts in force elsewhere in the country, from pronouncements of employers,

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