Being on the bargaining team is a position of great responsibility. It provides an inside view of how the employer operates and how wages and working conditions are determined.
The chief negotiator should be someone that other workers, bargaining team members, and elected union leaders respect and trust. This person will lead the negotiating team. If you have someone that meets these criteria, but does not have bargaining experience, see if you can pair them up with someone in the labour movement who can mentor them.
Each bargaining team member needs to understand and value the concerns of all workers and the overall contract campaign strategy and tactics. The team must be unified and representative when speaking with management, the media and workers.
Should committee members place their own interests ahead of the common good, management will exploit their self-service to create divisions amongst workers. Those divisions weaken the power of the team and the union.
Negotiating team members spend so much time with each other and with the employer(s) that they can sometimes forget how the bargaining process looks to workers who are not involved in the same way. Constant communications about bargaining can help correct misinformation and rumours at the worksite and provide critical feedback.
Some unions use large bargaining teams in order to ensure maximum worker representation and involvement. Other unions have small teams to keep the decision-maker part simpler and to keep costs down. If you do not have a large bargaining team, make especially sure that the bargaining team is representative in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, age and caste, and that the bargaining team is strongly linked to arbolito or workplace delegate structures.
Each bargaining team member can be assigned a specific group of workers to keep informed and involved. Regular contact with workers, arbolitos leaders and workplace delegates will help keep the bargaining team grounded in the concerns and realities of the workplace.
The time commitment for bargaining team members is significant. Some employers and unions provide paid time off for wages lost but many do not. Bargaining usually requires long days and weekend work, both at the negotiating table and to keep workers informed. The union will need to support bargaining team members, particularly women, with childcare, transport, additional hours of time released from work and/or additional help with home responsibilities. You may need alternates who can fill in when bargaining team members are not available.
Making the bargaining sessions open to all workers to attend and observe can help build transparency and increase workers’ knowledge of the bargaining process. Plan for times when groups of workers can come speak and make their presence known when significant issues are being discussed at the bargaining table. It can be an empowering experience to listen to your employer(s) (rather than your union) explain to you directly why workers are not worthy of improved conditions. It is good for as many workers as possible to be directly part of the collective wins and losses during bargaining.
“Men suddenly become very active when there is a chance to meet with government leaders. You find they push themselves into the negotiating committee and leave us women out.”
Hold regular meetings of the bargaining team, the arbolito leaders, workplace delegates and the leaders of the contract campaign after every negotiation session. This way you can plan next steps together. If you are negotiating as a federation or confederation, you need to coordinate the unions involved, including workplace leaders. The process of bargaining together can help improve teamwork, while building confidence and trust.
Bargaining team members will have to make tough choices about what proposals to insist on and what to drop. No matter what the settlement, some workers are not going to be satisfied and are going to shift blame from the employer(s) – who refused to agree to reasonable proposals – to the bargaining team and the union. When the time comes to settle and present a tentative agreement to the membership for a vote or to take a strike vote, the team members will need to own their collective decisions. They need to be able to say, “these are the decisions we made as a team, and here is why …”
Discuss and plan the size of your bargaining team and which groups of workers the team members will represent. Will you need alternates?
What will the responsibilities of the bargaining team be?
Will each bargaining team member be responsible for working with a specific group of workplace or arbolito leaders?
Will the bargaining team meet with the leaders of the arbolito groups either in person, by phone or online before or after each bargaining session?
Will the employer or the union provide lost wage payments and, if so, how much and for what activities?
Will the bargaining be open to all workers to attend and observe?
If you are working with a number of unions or employers, discuss a coordinating structure(s) for the bargaining and contract campaign.
Discuss which of the following will help inform and support the union bargaining team members:
☐ Information and training seminars and events for bargaining team members. Can you bring in experienced negotiators to talk to the team? Or attend and observe other union negotiations?
☐ Involve experienced union leaders and past negotiators as mentors or enlist their support for the bargaining team?
☐ Make it a practice to meet together as a team before every negotiating session and go over the goals and agenda for the session together as a team and discuss any questions or concerns together. Hold each other collectively accountable for tasks team members have committed to. At the beginning of each meeting of the team, go over who was able to accomplish what and give credit to those who were successful and plan to assist those who were unable to complete the tasks.
☐ Predict how the employer will respond once the union begins to lean on them? How will the employer respond at the workplace? And at the negotiating table?
☐ Plan worksite visits, meetings and social events to allow bargaining team members to witness working conditions and to build relationships with the workers they are representing.
☐ Designate specific bargaining team roles – chief negotiator, note-takers, time-keepers, observers and relationship-builders for specific employer team members, contract language drafters, public and worker messaging and media…
☐ Be clear and specific about what bargaining team members can and cannot do at the table and team decision-making procedures. Review and decide which of the group decision-making and idea-gathering methods in the materials on “Committees” (link) are useful in your situation.
Create clear ground rules, including not contradicting each other at the table. Instead, pass a note to your chief negotiator asking for a caucus if there is a problem or question concerning what either side is saying. Discuss together what is confidential and what is not.
Agree to keep confidential matters secret.
☐ Discuss together what to do if team conflict does arise, such as bringing the conflict out in the open, seeking assistance and having a clear process for resolution.
☐ Discuss what to do if mandates are not met or bargaining gets stalled so that these situations will be easier to face.
☐ Plan meetings with the bargaining team and the elected leaders of the union to ensure relationships and support are strong and the elected leaders are up to date on the bargaining process.
Discuss what kind of educational opportunities and support can be provided for the bargaining team.
To be nominated for a seat on the bargaining team, any union member in good standing must submit a petition of support, signed by at least ___ co-workers from their work area. The designated work area groups for the bargaining team elections are _____________________________________________________.
The deadline to turn in completed petitions is 5 pm on 30 January.
At the 1 February 1 union meeting, nominees will have the opportunity to give a five-minute speech and provide a written statement on why they want to be a part of the bargaining team.
Elections will be held by mail ballot between 2 February and 10 February. The ballot will include the nominee statements.
Nominees who are not elected to fill an available seat may serve as alternates in bargaining, as needed.
Discuss and plan your bargaining team election process. Include the nomination process, the election notice, the voting and communication of the results.
Can you recruit more people to become arbolito leaders and workplace delegates at the same time as you are recruiting bargaining team members?