Voting on or ratifying the entire bargaining proposals (also called the bargaining claim) will help create ownership over the union contract proposals. It will also make negotiations and ratification and settlement processes easier as workers will be knowledgeable about the content of the claim from the beginning.
Claim ratification votes send a strong message to the employer(s) that the workforce is involved and informed.
Whether you are bargaining for a small number of informal workers or at the international level for all the workers in a multinational company, having a clear process for worker ratification of the proposals will reduce the separation between workers and leaders and will give both workers and leaders ownership over the proposals.
If you are bargaining at the international level, you will want to take the time to carefully plan out this process with the unions involved to ensure that workers, not union leaders alone, have direct input into the bargaining proposals.
You will want to give workers time to receive and review the proposed claim documents before they vote, and a time and process for further amendments to the claim. To prepare the ratification materials, you can either draft the specific opening proposals that will be given to the employer or you can draft a summary of the claim that workers will review.
Think about the priorities that workers have set in the proposal meetings and bargaining surveys. Your opening claim should not be an unedited wish list with every proposal any member could possibly dream up, as this may raise unrealistic expectations or make the employer think that the union doesn’t want to negotiate a realistic settlement. On the other hand, the opening claim must ask for more than you expect to gain, as the employer will come to the table expecting to see areas where the union can compromise.
Instead of voting on the entire claim, you can also select a particular prioritised issue or issues to ratify. This will further emphasise the problem(s) and create a form of a collective mandate. For example, you might prioritise reduction in class size for teachers and hold special meetings on the subject, gathering evidence from the teachers on why it is important, and voting on what the maximum number of students should be and the content of the contract proposal. To add a mandate, the teachers could vote on whether they will strike or take other strong action should the employer not agree to the required class size.
Below are examples of two different ratification processes.
Australian Services Union Ratification Process
The following is adapted from the Australian Services Union NSW Branch, Community and Disability Services Industry campaign for a Civil Society. The union’s Civil Society campaign has been instrumental in driving more than 40% net growth in union membership and achieving a number of funding and workplace victories.
“Over 2,000 members have helped build the claim for our industry wide campaign to improve our sector. This claim will form the basis of our campaign for the coming months and years. Now its time for you to vote on the claim. Set out below are the steps you need to take to vote.
The Korean Street Vendors’ Confederation, KOSC, developed a ratification process that includes a mandate to stop crackdowns and evictions and a commitment from street vendors to follow democratic decision-making procedures and take strong collective action whenever needed.
„First: negotiate the demand that municipalities stop employing crackdown parties or gangsters to crack down on street vendors, and that they should abolish bad laws on eviction.
Second: democratic decision making systems and procedures are necessary. If the negotiating committee is operating against our will, we should decide whether or not to participate.
Third: the committee should not be partial towards governments or municipalities. It should guarantee to hear the opinions of street vendors themselves. And it should have power to make a decision and act.
Fourth: if we make an agreement, municipalities or street vendors should carry it out.
Finally: whenever the municipalities try to avoid carrying out agreements, we should organise struggles and act on the offensive to achieve our demands.“
Review and discuss the priorities set by the proposal meetings and the bargaining surveys.
Discuss whether you will hold a vote or ratify the entire claim or a particular issue(s).
Decide whether you will hold special meetings or a mail vote or whether the vote might take place at a branch, national meeting or a delegates conference.
Use the samples outlined above to plan your ratification.
Discuss how you will handle any amendments or additions to the claim document being voted on.
Set any applicable benchmarks for the number of workers voting and the percentage of “yes” votes needed for ratification of the claim.
Discuss whether you will create mandate(s) and what actions will be taken by workers if the mandate is not met.