Collective Bargaining Consists of Negotiations

¶ … Collective bargaining consists of negotiations between an employer and a group of workers so as to settle on the conditions of employment. The outcome of collective bargaining procedures is known as a collective agreement. Employees are often represented in bargaining by a union or other labor group. Collective bargaining is overseen by federal and state statutory laws, administrative agency regulations, and judicial decisions (Collective bargaining and labor arbitration: an overview, n.d.). There are several things that have been identified as practices that might be considered unfair labor practices when it comes to collective bargaining and unions. These include:

hindering the rights of workers to organize a union and be represented in negotiations by such a union discouraging or encouraging membership in any union, dominating a union and discriminating against workers on the basis of their participation in union activities

punishing an employee for filing a grievance with the union declining to recognize a qualified union refusing to negotiate or bargain with the union in good faith disobeying a bargaining agreement (Pynes & Lafferty, 1993).

Discussions surrounding collective bargaining normally focus heavily on the effects that collective bargaining has on the workplace and the workforce. Collective bargaining has numerous effects on many aspects of both of these. According to Hill (2006) these effects include: district wide salary escalations, district structural deficits and lower-quality recruits in big city districts. Currently district wide salary escalations are measured as increases in the whole salary scale. Hill (2006) proposes that this should be measure by way of actual teacher compensation for big city districts. District structural deficits are currently measured by the number of districts now acknowledging deficits. Hill (2006) proposes that this should be measure by comparative rates of total district budget growth and of teacher salary growth. Lower-quality recruits in big city districts are currently measured by some comparison of teacher quality in city, metropolitan labor markets. Hill (2006) proposes measuring this by way of comparisons of measure ability and preparation for new teachers place in all districts.

The current measures in regards to collective bargaining often affect the costs of entire school districts. The incomes in districts are often determined separately of their costs which make it very hard for some schools to meet the costs that are imposed on them by collective bargaining. Another effect that these measures have on schools is the weakening of poverty neighborhood schools. Teachers often get to choose where they want to teach and most do not pick the poorer neighborhoods. Most prefer to work in neighborhoods where parents are supportive, students are easy to mange and the environment is safe (Hill, 2006).