Collective Bargaining Agreements Refer to a Document

Collective bargaining agreements refer to a document of agreement signed between the management of a firm and its employees prepared by representative labor union that specifies terms of employment such as duration, wages, work conditions etc. In nursing profession, CBA are not something new and while some may oppose it, most still believe that these agreements are for the benefit of nurses and hence must be signed as they offer he job related security a person needs. They also give nurses a membership in representing trade union which may later work for them in case of unfair termination or other actions and they gain the power of collective bargaining which is the key feature of CBA. Collective bargaining is described by Kahn-Freund in the following manner:

By bargaining collectively with management, organized labor seeks to give effect to its legitimate expectations that wages and other conditions of work should be such as to guarantee a stable and adequate form of existence and as to be compatible with the physical integrity and moral dignity of the individual, and also that jobs should be reasonably secure. (p.69)

The National Nurses United (NNU) union was formed at the end of 2009 when three different nurses associations merged together to form one big union. (NNU website) Today the organization claims more than 155,000 making it the largest union of nurses in the U.S. NNU has proved quite useful in difficult terms making it all the more necessary for nurses to sign CBAs today. This organization has worked on concerns of nurses about losing jobs during recession or when hospitals were under great financial burden and hence had to cut costs. During such times especially in 2010, the nurses threatened strikes in California, Pennsylvania, Maine, Michigan, and Minnesota (Washington Post, 2010) NNU has the retained the right to strike because they seem to believe that without this right, it is not collective bargaining but collective begging. The biggest strike ever arranged under NNU took place on June 10, 2010 when 12,000 nurses from 14 hospitals in Minneapolis area stopped working for one day which accumulated to 12,000 days of idleness. (BLS, work stoppage report)

The key issues that NNU has been working on include better patient-staff ratio which has often been the cause of conflict in many hospitals. The high quality care needed in hospitals can be severely compromised when there are not enough nurses to provide care to growing number of patients. This on the one hand makes life difficult for patients while on the other, it can jeopardize a nurse's job and reputation and hence signing a CBA is a good thing which appears to have more benefits than downsides.

Pension and health benefits can often cause problems as well and in July 2010, a major standoff was averted when one hospital made last minute arrangements to preserve pension and health benefits. CBA thus manages to protect the rights of a nurse in difficult situation and also help them keep their jobs in special circumstances.

Trade and labor unions play an important role in extending collective bargaining power to workers for improvement of their work conditions and wages. Nurses and other professionals can benefit from membership in labor unions which is automatically extended to them when they sign CBA. CBAs are created for dealing with subjects like employee labor rights, scope of bargaining, unit determination and recognition, unfair labor practices and other bargaining topics. The main areas affected or determined by CBA include the following:

1. Employee rights

2. Employer rights

3. Administrative agency

4. Unit determination

5. Recognition procedure

6. Scope of bargaining

7. Impasse Resolution procedure

8. Union Security

9. Unfair Labor Practices.

The administration of any medical facility would affirm that it is their policy to promote pleasant and supportive relationships between management and its employees. It also promises to protect the employees by confirming the orderly and continuous operations and functions of the facility.

Employers who allow CBA are responsible to negotiate in good faith with the union representatives of a facility. There are certain bargaining issues which are actually the conditions of employment to be initially discussed between the employer and union representatives. CBA arises from the belief that conflict management must be a prevention measure instead of a disaster control measure. This means that there must be set of rules by which both employer and employee would abide and this would limit the number of possible conflicts later. The CBA framework has strong conviction that negotiation can kill all the barriers of communication and make the work environment for labor force more conducive to work.

Under the CBA method, employers are required to negotiate with the unions or employee group on the mandatory bargaining issues. The topic of discussion under the mandatory bargaining issues could be wages, medical benefits, health insurance, and vacation and leave plans, reimbursement of expenses and allowances, retirement benefits and disciplinary rules. Job security is not considered as a condition of employment thus it is not a mandatory issue for bargaining. Job grades according to the salary range are also not part of mandatory issues of discussion.