What is a Collective Bargaining Agreement?
Collective bargaining is the engagement terms negotiation activities between an employer and a group of employees. The following are some of the terms of employment; working environment, basic salary, extra time bonuses, work and shift duration, work holidays, leaves, retirement and healthcare provisions.
How are Collective Bargaining Agreements Used?
Collective bargaining involves labour union representatives and organizations management engaging the unionized employees. The collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is the outcome of collective bargaining, and it develops employment’s rules for a determined period. In exchange of the representation, members fund the union through subscriptions. The collective bargaining process may involve opposed labour strikes or employee lockouts if the two sides face challenges in a settlement. Unions exist in both the public and private sectors in the United States. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, 10.7% of U.S workers were union members by 2017, Public sector leads in their members joining unions with 33.4% of these unionized compared to only 6.5 % of workers in the private sectors. In the unions, workers categories all economic sectors and they include; grocery store employees, airline employees, professional athletes, teachers, auto workers, postal workers, actors, farm workers, steelworkers and others. Unionized workers receive better wages than non-unionized workers at $1,041 and $829 respectively. Besides, there is significant fluctuation rates of unionization between States. In 2017, almost 23.8% of New York workers were unionized while less than 2.6% of South Carolina workers belonged to Unions.
Collective Bargaining Controversies
Collective bargaining has faced troubles with disagreements throughout the 21st century specifically in public-sector cases. Due to tax revenues financing wages for public sector employees, there have been claims of the practice resulting into excessive payments that burdens taxpayers by collective bargaining challengers. On the other hand, those supporting public-sector collective bargaining dismiss threats regarding overpayments as unrealistic and unreasonable. Public-sector employees covered by collective bargaining agreements earn a maximum 5% more than their non-unionized colleagues. New Jerseys Governors, Chris Christie and Scott Walker of Wisconsin staged battles with public-sector unions. In reducing state expenditure, Christie clashed New Jersey Education Association for streamlining teachers pensions. In June 2012, there were a lot of controversies in Walkers attempts to restrict teachers collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin that its rivals succeeded in signatures gathering to compel an election removing him from the office.
