Collective Bargaining and U.S. Unions

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how employees' unions have traditionally sought fairer wages and working hours and more humane working conditions through the formal process called collective bargaining between a union and the employer. It discusses how under federal labor laws, most private sector workers have the right to collective bargaining but not to those who work for state governments and institutions. Policemen and firefighters are exceptions. It looks at how in recent years, however, public-sector employees have slowly gained the right to collective bargaining by forming coalitions and only after quasi-collective bargaining "meet-and-confer" efforts with public employers for many years.

From the Paper:

"In recent years, however, public-sector employees slowly gained the right to collective bargaining by forming coalitions and only after quasi-collective bargaining "meet-and-confer" efforts with public employers for many years (Malfaro). Teachers' unions have tried engaging in non-binding negotiations with school board through the process called consultation, sometimes fruitfully, sometimes not. But even when fruitful, the grant of their demands is not a matter of legal right on their part but only a favor on the part of the officials. These teachers' unions, nevertheless, resort to consultation and "meet-and-confer" arrangements in coming to terms with their employers on wages, teaching hours and working conditions. All in all, these efforts by the public sectors' unions have managed to secure fair bargaining laws in recent years. Besides collective bargaining rights, workers' unions have also sought equal rights for part-timers, family and paternity leaves, limits on working hours and a national minimum wage (BBC News 2000). "

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