collective bargaining
I see collective bargaining, in its most basic form, as the process by which an organised group of employees, in the form of trade unions, negotiate with employers, their representatives or their associations in relation to any aspect of employment within the employers organisation. The reason that collective bargaining and trade unions are used is the reason cited in the first paragraph; "There's strength in numbers". The individual threat by a single employee to withhold labour is not very great. But when the majority of a workforce in an organisation threaten to strike, or threaten any other form of industrial action this threat becomes altogether more substantial. Collective bargaining gives redress to the imbalance of power between individual workers and employers (Gunnigle et al, 1995). This is the main purpose that collective bargaining is used in industrial relations, and essentially gives collective bargaining a political purpose; the equalisation of power. Once this extra power is attained, collective bargaining is then used for primarily economic purposes. It is only in recent times that social issues have been included in the negotiations in collective bargaining. As this process tends to lead to equal pay for all workers doing the same work, there is as a consequence a social benefit; equality amongst the workforce. While this can have its downside, namely complacency among the employees as there is little incentive to do better in work, this disadvantage has been partly eroded in recent times with the advent of productivity deals, which I will discuss in more detail later in this essay.
Collective bargaining is also a political institution in that it regulates and defines the interaction between trade unions and management. In a social context, the consequences of this is a system for regulating industrial conflict. This can help ensure that any industrial conflict is kept within reasonable bounds, and that in most cases the more militant elements in trade unions are kept under control by virtue of the fact that the majority of the workforce see an alternative avenue of dealing with disputes. I believe that this consequence of collective bargaining contradicts the optimistic Marxist view that trade unions and collective bargaining are a school for socialism and a potential revolutionary force. It does confirm the pessimistic view that it ensures that trade unions will never be any more than trade unions, and that collective bargaining oils the wheels of capitalism. But that's not a bad thing at all, and is one of the great social benefits of collective bargaining. So how exactly does collective bargaining oil the wheels of capitalism?
Collective bargaining provides management with a method for dealing with employees in an equitable way. But not only equitable, but also seen to be equitable. If areas of common interest are maximised, and stressed in the collective bargaining process, this can reinforce a an acceptance of common interest by the workforce (Purcell, 1979). The process of collective bargaining also legitimises trade unions within the company or employing organisation. Purcell also contends that this [next page]