In any business deal it is highly important that the final agreement between the business partners preserves employees’ civil rights as in the case of failure in this area the company may eventually suffer great material and reputation looses. To find practical guidelines on how to do it in the best way it is useful to study other companies’ collective bargaining outcomes and to make adequate conclusions out of it.
Collective bargaining in itself can be described as a process of palaver between the representatives of the employer and an authorized union of workers. The purpose of such negotiations is to determine conditions of employment including the payment issues, working hours, working conditions, and any other issues connected to the process of work. These notions are the most important during the negotiation process between the management of the company and the representatives of the workers.
I have studied the case of the “Big Three” Union of American giant motor-car construction companies which includes General Motors, Ford and Chrysler (Stebenne 1996). The case occurred as a result of the conflict between the union of labor power and the companies’ management. During the long period of conflict and negations the union of workers succeeded to achieve its goals and secure the workers better working conditions and fees. However, this result was achieved after a long session of negotiations and the interference of the state which laid to the companies’ great material and reputation looses.
The conflict arose in 1950s at its first stage. The employees’ demands were to secure better working conditions namely less working hours, regular breaks and a higher level of fees. The representatives of the workers informed the company’s management of the difficulties the workers had had at their places of work namely the lack of proper hygiene conditions, the absence of breaks relevant for power regeneration and having meals, too long hours of work which were absolutely unacceptable on the manufacture with such level of danger for human health (Moody 1997). The representatives of workers supported their statement with significant facts of medical researches and addressed the guarantees of rights and freedoms provided in the Constitution. During the first stage of negotiation, the agreement was not developed. Later, the union of “Big Tree” was punished for that and fined by the government. This provided the basis for the future success of employees’ unions at the second stage of the collective bargaining negations (Bronfenbrenner 1998). However, the companies have already suffered significant material and reputation losses.
Reasoning on this case, I would propose the next strategies for my company while collective bargaining negotiations: effective information reception concerning the demands of the workers and their complaints as to the violation of their civil rights, offering the union of the worker’s possible ways to solve the emerging problem, and finding an optimal compromise decision. It is important to succeed in finding an ultimate compromise on each and every stage of negations as it is impossible to pass to the next stage without success on the previous one.
Concluding on the above-mentioned information, it should be stated that the importance of preserving the employee’s civil rights is great for any business establishment. Thus, it is significant for its management to participate in the process of collective bargaining in order to provide the company’s workers with fair working conditions and well-deserved fees.
References
Bronfenbrenner, K., et al. (1998). Organizing to Win: New Research on Union Strategies. Ithaca, N.Y.: ILR Press.
Moody, K. (1997). Workers in a Lean World: Unions in the International Economy. New York: Verso.
Stebenne, D. (1996). Arthur Goldberg: New Deal Liberal. New York: Oxford University Press.