Collective bargaining

What is collective bargaining?

Collective bargaining is the process by which organized labor negotiates deals for everyone who works for the same employer.  When a deal has been reached, the employer is contractually obligated to provide certain things to its workers (such as wages, working hours, working conditions, etc.) In this way, workers do not have to represent themselves to their bosses individually. Rather, they can come together and argue for a baseline of benefits for all the employees at a given workplace.

What’s the significance?

Collective bargaining has become a means for workers to be granted more privileges in the work place. Rather than being separated, they can work together to achieve what is better for all of them. It is also something that has had to be protected by law over time; it is not a given condition. Businesses have historically tried to prevent workers from bargaining with them collectively. Recently, conservative governors and legislatures, centered in Wisconsin but also in a number of others states, have been attempting to strip public workers of their right to collectively bargain.

Who’s talking about it?

Frank L. Cocozzelli reminds us of the event that brought about an emphasis on the need for collective bargaining and the consequences of current efforts to get rid of it… Barbara Arnwine defends the necessity of collective bargaining rights for gender equality in the workplace… Roosevelt Institute Fellow Mike Konczal places the battle for collective bargaining rights in the greater context of a struggle for the left to maintain its agenda against that of the right… Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow David Woolner explains the role that FDR played in expanding workers rights and thepositive impact it had on the average person’s life…  Wisconsin workers filed a claim against the new bill that prevents their collective bargaining rights that demonstrates how the bill is politicized and violates their first amendment rights.

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Posted by New Deal 2.0 on Jul 19 2011. Filed under New Deal 2.0, the reading room. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry