Bargaining Structure

1. Bargaining structure – the resulting organizational structure for the collective bargaining process. 2. Pattern bargaining – the union bargains exclusively with that target company until an agreement is reached. 3. Bargaining power – a popular conceptualization is “the ability to secure another’s agreement on one’s own terms.” 4. Bargaining environment – is the diverse set of external influences on labor and management as they sit at a bargaining table negotiating a contract. 5. Contract costing – is used to evaluate proposals by estimating their monetary costs. 6. Unilateral change – is when an employer changes wages, benefits, or other terms and conditions of employment without first bargaining with the union. 7. Direct dealing – is when an employer illegally tries to circumvent and undermine a union by interacting directly with the employees with respect to bargaining issues. 8. Surface bargaining – is when an employer or a union goes through the motions of bargaining but does not sincerely try to reach an agreement. 9. Mandatory bargaining items – are wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment; employers and unions have an obligation to bargain over these. 10. Permissive bargaining items – employers and unions can bargain over permissive items if they choose; but because they are outside the boundaries of the NLRA, and NLRB cannot order bargaining on these issues, and employees are not protected if they go on strike over these issues. 11. Distributive bargaining – is the familiar type of negotiation used to resolve these conflicts of interests – in other words, to distribute the shares of the fixed pie. 12. Integrative bargaining – seeks to unify the common interests of the parties to a negotiation so that all can become better off. 13. Attitudinal structuring – the difficulties of trying to increase the amount of integrative bargaining in the collective bargaining process underscore the importance of