This briefing note examines collective bargaining. Where did it come from? What function does it perform in capitalist societies? Is collective bargaining inherently conservative or can it play a role in class struggle? Is collective bargaining in Britain dead and if not, how do we rebuild it?
What is collective bargaining? Collective bargaining is a voluntary process through which employers and workers discuss and negotiate their relations and in particular workers’ pay and terms and conditions of work, seeking to embed these in collective agreements. It is a fundamental role of f trade unions. Engagement in the process enables trade unions to collectivise the often disparate demands of workers and develop the possibility of collective action to back-up a particular demand. Many argue that collective bargaining is supposed to be conducted freely and in good faith by unions and employers, meaning that each party makes genuine efforts to seek agreement and then respect the agreements reached. In reality, the environment in which collective bargaining takes place is determined by the structures of economic, social and political power in society. In other words, negotiations between unions and employers are part of deeper power struggles in society and consequently, they reflect those struggles. For example, in Britain today, collective bargaining takes place in a context where the power of the union is fettered by repeated Government attacks on trade unions leading to the UK having sponsorship of some of the most repressive anti-trade union laws in Europe. How do Marxists understand collective bargaining? Marxists understand that in capitalist societies, there is always a structural conflict between employers and workers. In capitalist societies, this is true whether you work for a capitalist or the public sector operating within the constraints of a capitalist economy. Working life is structured by this struggle and trade unions are the vehicle for expressing the defensive collective power of workers in the workplace. under capitalism. If the central tenet is accepted , that there is a continual struggle around the exploitation in the workplace between worker and employer,, then reaching collective agreements with employers are akin to a temporary truce in that struggle. How beneficial the agreement is to workers will generally reflect the balance of forces at that time. But isn’t collective bargaining inherently conservative? Some commentators, especially those working within certain kinds of Trotskyist tradition, have tended to characterise collective bargaining as inherently conservative. Workers, they What is collective bargaining? 1
Transcript
What is collective bargaining?Collective bargaining is a voluntary process through which employers and workers discussand negotiate their relations and in particular workers’ pay and terms and conditions ofwork, seeking to embed these in collective agreements. It is a fundamental role of f tradeunions. Engagement in the process enables trade unions to collectivise the often disparatedemands of workers and develop the possibility of collective action to back-up a particulardemand.
Many argue that collective bargaining is supposed to be conducted freely and in goodfaith by unions and employers, meaning that each party makes genuine efforts to seekagreement and then respect the agreements reached. In reality, the environment in whichcollective bargaining takes place is determined by the structures of economic, social andpolitical power in society. In other words, negotiations between unions and employers arepart of deeper power struggles in society and consequently, they reflect those struggles.For example, in Britain today, collective bargaining takes place in a context where thepower of the union is fettered by repeated Government attacks on trade unions leadingto the UK having sponsorship of some of the most repressive anti-trade union laws inEurope.
How do Marxists understand collective bargaining?
Marxists understand that in capitalist societies, there is always a structural conflictbetween employers and workers. In capitalist societies, this is true whether you work for acapitalist or the public sector operating within the constraints of a capitalist economy.Working life is structured by this struggle and trade unions are the vehicle for expressingthe defensive collective power of workers in the workplace. under capitalism.
If the central tenet is accepted , that there is a continual struggle around the exploitationin the workplace between worker and employer,, then reaching collective agreementswith employers are akin to a temporary truce in that struggle. How beneficial theagreement is to workers will generally reflect the balance of forces at that time.
But isn’t collective bargaining inherently conservative?
Some commentators, especially those working within certain kinds of Trotskyist tradition,have tended to characterise collective bargaining as inherently conservative. Workers, they
What is collective bargaining? 1
say, want to win whereas officials, working within collective bargaining structures justwant to compromise. Others seem to believe that workers only need to take action to beable to win. Both analyses rely on a crude understanding of workers’ consciousness and ofunions. They believe that working people are always straining to break off the leash,vanquish their employers and express their revolutionary potential, but are held back bycollective bargaining conventions and unprincipled venal bureaucrats. They also naivelyunderestimate the potentially huge power at the disposal of employers.
Collective bargaining can be conservative if it is seen as an end in itself and the onlypurpose of trade unions. But the immediate aims of collective bargaining – bargaining towin better wages and conditions for workers, using the threat of collective action – doaccurately express where most workers start from and what most workers believe theirunions are for. Given the right conditions and used skilfully in tandem with mobilisations itcan win real concessions for workers that increase income and build union power. And incertain circumstances it can play a role in beginning more radical dynamic processes.
How does collective bargaining play a role in developing trade union and class consciousness?
Seen as a place where a temporary truce is played out in the constant struggle betweenworkers and employers, collective bargaining plays an important role in the developmentof trade union consciousness. It is where workers’ initial demands are given expression andwhen it is pursued effectively and combined with good tactical and strategic use ofcollective action, it is part of a process that creates greater militant consciousness amongworkers. Collective bargaining can be a place where more radical demands are expressedtoo – such as for greater industrial democracy and control of work processes.
In periods of raised militant class consciousness among sections of the workforce inBritain, such as during the strike wave in 1968-74, collective bargaining and the winningof concessions was a central part of an industrial and political strategy amongrevolutionary shop steward organisations. Collective bargaining, is a form through whichrising trade union and class consciousness can be expressed, organised and furtherdeveloped. The revolutionary potential of any form of class action is determined by thespecific details of the economic and political context, the balance of class forces and thespecific culture and traditions in any given situation, not by arid intellectual formulas thatdivide the world neatly into revolutionary and reformist forms of action.
Collective bargaining in Britain - rise and decline:
Historically, the introduction of collective bargaining institutions, such as nationalnegotiating bodies (e.g. the ‘Whitley’ councils) in many industries rose in importanceduring periods when the power of organised labour was growing and when employersfelt the need to engage with the unions. In Britain this was especially the case in the 20thcentury when wartime industrial demands and a shortage of labour increased collectiveleverage. The idea of sector and enterprise level structures of collective bargaining wasseen as an attractive option for many employers and the state.
When big industrial employers, finance capital and the state launched their great counter-attack from the 1970s onwards, it signalled that this period was over. An essential part ofthe neoliberal assault that expressed the interests of these groups was the idea that tradeunions were a market imperfection that distorted the efficient operation of labourmarkets. While not expressed as such, that ideology remains dominant today, even withinsections of the British Labour Party. State support for the institutions of collective
2 What is collective bargaining?
bargaining has been deliberately reduced over a 30-year period.
Winning the argument that enabling workers to engage in meaningful collectivebargaining is an important and legitimate part of the operation of any society that hassocial and democratic objectives, is an important immediate political objective for unions.
Collective bargaining, Partnership working, Workers’ control
There has been a long-running debate among trade unionists about collective bargainingand different forms of greater worker participation in enterprise management. At one endof the spectrum, employers try to give the illusion of offering ‘partnership working; butthere were times when there were real debates about the possibility of workers’ control incertain industries.
Another briefing will be developed to explore these issues further but although notions ofworkers’ control can be a tactically appropriate response for workers within enterprises incertain circumstances it is important not to lose sight of the strategic need forindependent working class organisation and the overriding interest of the capitalist classas a whole, organised through the state rather than simply at enterprise level.
What next? Collective bargaining strategy for unions
As is well known, the number of workers who are covered by agreements negotiatedthrough collective bargaining in Britain has suffered a precipitous decline in the last 30years, coinciding with the state offensive against unions, the recomposition of capitalismand the accompanying loss of entire industries, the growth of finance capital and globallabour markets and the spread of neoliberal ideology.
Fig 1: Collective bargaining coverage in the UK:
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Unions are not likely to disappear, but nor can they sit back and assume that thecontemporary working class in Britain will organically find its way back to them. Iforganised labour is to rebuild its economic and political power, it must consciously rebuildits ability to barraging collectively on their behalf. And it must do so at a time when thestate is renewing its attack on the very existence of trade unions.
l Where collective bargaining frameworks still exist, in the public sector, for example,unions must develop strategies to use bargaining and targeted action in pursuit of ‘smart’bargaining wins that enable aggressive recruitment to increase density.
l Unions in the private sector could consider targeting strategically important employers,organising, bargaining and taking action at critical points along their supply chains, usingthis leverage to win agreements that cover the whole chain and enable the expansion ofrecruitment.
l Unions in the private sector should also consider exploiting the divisions in the UKeconomy between the interests of industry and those of finance capital, working to buildalliances with key manufacturing and services companies, winning support for collectivebargaining as part of strategic alliances around the defence and rebuilding of theproductive economy.
Finally, unions need to develop their community work to build support deep within thewider working class, offset the political attack from the ruling class and build politicalsupport for measures for trade union freedom.
