Collective Bargaining as a Negotiation Strategy for Labour Union

This essay discusses the use of collective bargaining as a negotiation strategy for a labour union to address competition and loss in a company. It explores the steps involved in collective bargaining and the potential outcomes. The essay also highlights the importance of face-to-face negotiations and the consideration of all stakeholders.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMNT
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMNT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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As the company ABC manufacturing is losing money from huge competition from
offshore companies, the chief negotiator for the labour union should develop a negotiation
strategy with the different parties including the bargaining zone that will result into profitable
results. For negotiations, firstly the union must assemble data on economic trends, analyze
the collective agreements, considering labour costs, renew the contract if expired, make plans
for probable strike and carry out salary surveys (Thomas et al., 2013). For the essay,
collective bargaining as been considered as a negotiation strategy that the labour union
should undertake.
Collective bargaining is the negotiation strategy that should be developed by the chief
negotiator to reach a proposal with other companies to cut out the loss occurred, analyzing
the labour costs to reduce huge competition, covers the salary, benefits and working situation
for the workers. The external laws govern a collective bargaining negotiation process. The
private sector bargaining encounters are synchronized by the National Labour Relations Act
(Lucero, Allen & Elzweig, 2013).
Therefore, it will be easy to make the proposal to the employer as it consists of union
certification procedure, minimum one year collective agreement and avoiding unfair labour
practices. The collective bargaining strategy includes preparation and initial demands,
negotiations, settlement between the parties and possible strikes and lockouts. Canada
operates under a decentralized bargaining system that means most authorized units are
restricted to the local level. The Unions may strike at one place but may not be able to close
down operations completely since employers can with no trouble transfer construction to
another unit.
Therefore, there are certain clauses or such as management rights, union security,
term of agreement, discipline, union representation and so on which should be incorporated

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in a contract union in order to fulfil with labour relations legislation. The negotiation should
be face to face for better results. The location chosen should be neutral and off-site location
each face should hold different caucus sessions. It should be continued till both parties do not
come to a final deciding point as to lay off workers in different Canadian plants or opening a
new plant in Mexico or Central America during the negotiation.
It should be continued as long as the discussion is going on. After collective
discussions are completed, the parties must continue to deal with each other (Richardson,
2013). The chief negotiator must continue to meet the party to resolve the disagreements that
may occur because of bargaining agreement supplies. The managers and workers should
work together to produce profitable result and fill up the loss of the company. Below is a
figure of the bargaining zone that is considered to develop the strategy (Rubin & Brown
2013)
Figure: Bargaining zone
(Source: Lucero, Allen & Elzweig, 2013)

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Therefore, it would develop positive result by opening new plants in Mexico or
Central America, as the labour costs are lower than Canada. The bargaining process involves
mutual gain between the parties, finding creative solutions, and efficient problem solving and
clash resolution and attention of all stakeholders are considered. Therefore, through this
negotiation strategy it would be aiding to reach the proposed outcome for covering up the
loss company is facing.

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References
Lucero, M. A., Allen, R. E., & Elzweig, B. (2013). Managing employee social networking:
evolving views from the national labor relations board. Employee Responsibilities and
Rights Journal, 25(3), 143-158.
Richardson, J. (2013). Collective Bargaining. In An Introduction to the Study of Industrial
Relations (pp. 231-258). Routledge.
Rubin, J. Z., & Brown, B. R. (2013). The social psychology of bargaining and negotiation.
Elsevier.
Thomas, S. P., Thomas, R. W., Manrodt, K. B., & Rutner, S. M. (2013). An experimental test
of negotiation strategy effects on knowledge sharing intentions in buyer–supplier
relationships. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 49(2), 96-113.