WER 401 - Collective Bargaining

Cliff Donn

Guide to reading

This handout is designed to provide you with some guidance on how to read the assigned articles from the Clark, Delaney and Frost book and a few of the more important reserve readings in the course. In each case, you are expected to read the entire article (or the assigned chapters) and to be familiar with the broad outline of how collective bargaining is conducted in that particular industry. However, in terms of specific information as opposed to general concepts, you should concentrate on that part of the article which relates to the subject heading under which that article is assigned. Accordingly, since the article on trucking is assigned under the topic of the legal framework of bargaining, it is the legal framework of trucking bargaining on which you should focus your attention. The rest of this handout provides more specific guidance as to which aspects of each of the assigned articles need the most detailed attention.

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR, edited by Paul F. Clark, John T. Delaney, and Ann C. Frost

Private Sector Collective Bargaining: How has the balance of power been changing in bargaining and how appropriate is the legal framework of private sector bargaining?

Autos: The competitive environment from 1946-79 and subsequent changes.

Trucking: Nature of deregulation in the industry, Motor Carrier Act of 1980, subsequent areas of federal regulation and the impacts of all of these. Impact of NAFTA on the industry.

Health Care: Traditional bargaining structures in health care and exceptions to those structures. Differences in bargaining structures between hospitals and long-term care facilities/nursing homes.

Hotels and Casinos: Elements of cooperation and conflict in bargaining.

Telecommunications: The CWA mobilization strategy, its origins and development over time. The nature of the CWA-Verizon partnership and the SBC-CWA partnership.

Newspapers: Impact of the 1975 Washington Post strike. Changes in the pattern and impact of newspaper strikes since the late 1970s including factors that enable newspapers to continue to operate during strikes. Issues and outcome of the 1995 Detroit newspaper strike.

Professional Sports: Issues related to the rights of players to change teams. Unique ways in which pay issues are addressed in this industry.

Airlines: Differences between the Railway Labor Act and the NLRA including differences in representation procedures.

RESERVE READINGS

Dunlop (Wage Determination Under Trade Unions) and Ross (Trade Union Wage Policy): These should be read together.  Dunlop and Ross were involved in a debate and had different views on virtually every point below.  Concentrate on the central objective of the trade union in wage bargaining, the most suitable general model of the trade union for analytical purposes, the way in which unions formulate their demands in wage bargaining and whether union officers worry if the achievement of their wage demands will reduce employment.  One of these books takes the position that unions should be analyzed from an economic perspective while the other argues in favor of a political perspective.  You should be aware of which is which and what are the implications of each position.

Fisher and Ury (Getting to Yes): Be aware of the four basic points or elements to what they call "principled negotiations."  Also note the problems in bargaining over positions.

Goffman (The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life): Note the differences between front and back audiences.  Be aware of the different types of secrets.  Also, remember the two basic components of the relationship shared by members of the same team.

Skinner and Herman ("The Importance of Costing Labor Contracts"): Note the costing problems associated with behavioral modifications and be able to explain the time dimension problem associated with contract costing.

Walton and McKersie (A Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations): Note the subprocesses of bargaining and the common attribute of distributive and integrative bargaining.

Martin, "Agriculture," in Paula Voos, Contemporary Collective Bargaining in the Private Sector, The unique aspects of unionism and the legal environment of bargaining in the industry as well as the impact of the unusual economic environment of collective bargaining and the role of labor contractors in agriculture.  Also, be aware of the assumptions that led the law generally to ignore hired farm workers.