How Collective Bargaining Works
The contract negotiation team may be composed of UAW representatives and a group of JPLers. This team will have the sole authority to represent everyone in the bargaining unit.
During negotiations, the union is allowed to ask for the things it promised you and for things the union wants in the contract – such as the ability to collect mandatory dues from all bargaining unit members.
The bargaining process is just that – a give and take between both parties. And the union can trade away things that you care about to get what it wants. During contract negotiations, your pay, benefits, and terms and conditions of employment would be bargained by the union, and the union may trade something that you value for something it prioritizes.
You may not know the details of all the deals the union is making until the contract negotiations are done and the union asks you to ratify a proposed contract.
Risks of Bargaining
No time limit.
Bargaining can take months or years. In fact, according to an analysis of first contracts by Bloomberg Law, the average time to negotiate a first contract is currently 465 days.No unilateral changes.
During bargaining, the company must maintain the “status quo” and cannot unilaterally make new changes to wages, benefits, or working conditions, even if those changes are advantageous to the employees in the bargaining unit.No guarantees.
A contract must be agreed to by the union and the employer – a union cannot unilaterally decide any issue for the employer.What’s on the table.
Your current wages, benefits, and terms and conditions of employment would be negotiated by the union in collective bargaining negotiations. The union may bargain away something that you value in exchange for something the union values since the union would be your exclusive legal representative.
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No time limit.
Bargaining can take months or years. In fact, according to an analysis of first contracts, the average time to negotiate a first contract is currently 465 days. -
No unilateral changes.
The company must maintain the "status quo" and cannot unilaterally make new changes to wages, benefits or working conditions during bargaining. -
No guarantees.
A contract must be agreed to by the union and the employer. -
What's on the table.
Federal law requires negotiations on wages, benefits and terms and conditions of employment.
Management Rights
In a typical union contract, you’ll see language that says the company has the right to:
Allocate its resources, manage its facilities, and direct the workforce – including directing the working location of its employees
Hire, promote, transfer, demote, and/or lay off employees
Sub-contract or contract out work
Establish and modify policies, and rules and regulations governing safety, performance, procedures, and conduct
With or without a union, JPL has the responsibility to run the Lab.
Less Than You Bargained For
The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that:
… collective bargaining is potentially hazardous for employees and that as a result of such negotiations employees might possibly wind up with less after unionization than before."
There is no way to guarantee that collective bargaining will only result in changes that you support or that benefits you currently value will remain in place.