Preparing for Difficult Bargaining

Overview

• Anticipating the Employer’s motives and moves

• Educating/Mobilizing the membership• Utilizing the resources at your disposal

The Basics…

• Saul Alinsky – Rules for Radicals– Power is not what you have, but what the target

thinks you have. • Remember – The Employer wants bargaining

to occur in secret. Not in the public domain.• Two ways to affect the employer.– Public Image– Bottom Line

Anticipating the Employer

• Does the Employer have a practice of regressive bargaining?

• What has been the result in other units/unions in recent bargaining?

• Are there mitigating issues that are causing the employer to take a hard line?

• Who represents the Employer at the table? (In-house or outside counsel)

Researching the Employer (1)

• Why research?– Need to identify the employer’s relationships.– Need to identify the employer’s vulnerabilities.

• Do your homework!– Research employer’s financials (10k report,

shareholder report, Hoover’s, etc.)– Get to know the decision makers in the Company.

• What is their history, both within and outside the Company?

• What is their compensation and compensation history?

Researching the Employer (2)

– What relationships does the employer have that impact their ability to operate?

– Regulatory bodies– Customers, End users– Political connections– Local relationships

• Goal: Get the best possible overview of the Employer!

Relationships

Employer

Union

What You Think You Can Affect

Strategic Relationships

Employer

UnionMedia

Parent Corp., Subsidiaries, Sibling

Co’s., and other Operations

Middle Management

Financial Institutions

Government/RegulatorsPoliticiansSuppliers/

Vendors

Other Employers,

Same Market

Customers/Service

Users

Executives, Owners,

Shareholders, Directors

Public/Civil Society

What You Can Actually Affect

How to Affect Relationships

1. Mobilize and educate your members.2. Create relationships in the community.3. Educate the Public.4. Target Decision Makers.

Membership - The Key

• Members have a vested interest in securing a good contract. Utilize this fact!

• Members have relationships in the community and with the public. They are your best messaging machine!

• Members can place pressure on the decision makers.

Creating a Mobilization Structure

• Just like organizing a workplace, except you already know who is where.

• Identify and recruit canvassers in each work location, shift and workgroup.

Mobilization Structure

CoordinatorSmithville Service

Center

CanvasserLine Department

5-7 individual employees

CanvasserMeter and Relay

Department

5-7 Individual Employees

CanvasserLine Department

5-7 individual employees

Goal is one canvasser to 5-7 employees. Optimal number.

Mobilizing the Members

• Perform a membership inventory. – Communications structure– Individual Interests – i.e., health care, pension,

wages, working conditions– Create working groups on issues.– Identify member relationships within community• How? Use a member survey.

Membership Surveys

• Not what you think!• Short survey, 5-7 questions– Yes/No answers– Performed member to member– Results reported back through communication

structure

Timelines

• If you suspect hard bargaining, give yourself adequate time to prepare. – You cannot in all likelihood, develop this strategy

while in the heat of battle. – Develop a timeline, working backward from the

date of your first session.

Spheres of Influence

Bargaining Committee/LU

Leadership

Mobilized Members

Pressure Points on Target/Community

/Public

Decision Makers at Employer

Point of Optimal Union Power

Bargaining Table Strategies

• Force the Employer to explain, in detail its regressive proposals. – To “intelligently bargain”, you need all the

information concerning the need for the proposal, the impact upon the Employer and bargaining unit, and what cost savings the employer will realize with the proposal.

Bargaining Table Strategies

• Use Intelligent Bargaining Tools– Information requests – Right to bargaining

information.– Ground rules – written proposals back and forth

across table.• Include discussion in your written counterproposals,

and information requested/provided/not provided. – This creates a running commentary on the negotiations.

– Always test the chief negotiator’s ability to make decisions.

Bargaining Table Strategies

• Communicate daily results of bargaining through your communications structure to the membership. (You control this, so use to your advantage)– Create agitation among members to employer

proposals. – Have members question supervisors about

regressive proposals. Make this company-wide.

Bargaining Table Strategies

• Control the process. – You can decide the response time, need for

information, and how the process proceeds. • Most Importantly, Have Confidence!

Additional Resources

• IBEW Strategic Campaigns Training – 8th District

• Offensive Bargaining – David Rosenfeld, available through the Meany Center Bookstore

• Getting to Yes – Fisher/Ury• Robust Unionism – Arthur B. Shostak• Rules for Radicals – Saul Alinsky