Routledge Dictionary of Economics, Second Edition
collective bargaining (J5)
Negotiations between a TRADE (LABOR) UNION and a single employer or EMPLOYERS' ASSOCIATION over pay, working conditions and other employment matters. It can only be genuine if the parties are free to initiate discussions and reach a settlement: under INCOMES POLICIES, and in countries where trade unions have little independence from the state, this is not possible. It is usually bilateral, but sometimes other interested parties are at the bargaining table, e.g. in some US teachers’ negotiations where parents are represented. It can take place at different levels—national, industrial, the firm or workplace. The level at which the major decisions are made distinguishes one country’s system sharply from another. In Japan, the enterprise level is very important; in Germany, the industrial level. In the USA, the parties produce a legally enforceable contract; in the UK, a framework for individual employment contracts.
Collective bargaining makes possible the collective provision of workplace ‘public goods’, e.g.
safety, conditions, lighting, heating, speed of the production line, grievance procedures, pension plans. It permits the individual to express his or her own preferences without the danger of being sacked. Also it helps to change the social relations of the workplace, bridging the gap between labour and capital, by making possible the enforcement of labour contracts.
See also: exit-voice
References
Bean, R. (1985) Comparative Industrial Relations: an Introduction to Cross-national Perspectives, London: Croom Helm.
Clegg, H.A. (1976) Trade Unionism under Collective Bargaining. A Theory Based on Comparisons of Six Countries, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Coddington, A. (1968) Theories of the Bargaining Process, London: Allen & Unwin.
Kochan, T.A. (1980) Collective Bargaining and Industrial Relations, Homewood, IL: Irwin.
–—(1986) The Transformation of American Industrial Relations, New York: Basic Books.
Sisson, K. (1987) The Management of Collective Bargaining. An International Comparison, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
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