Who bargains with whom

The structure of bargaining is important because it plays a pivotal role in determining the relative bargaining power of the employer against the union in the negotiation process. 

There are two dimensions of bargaining structure, the first dimension is the MTA as the employer unit is defined as the plant, firm, or group of firms covered by a specific collective bargaining contract. The smallest or most decentralized form of the employer unit is a single plant/single employer bargaining. The chemical and petroleum industries typify this form of bargaining structure. DuPont, for example has several dozen branch plants throughout the country, only a minority of which are unionized. In this situation the management of each unionized plant bargains separately with its union and signs a separate collective bargaining agreement that applies only to that plant.

The second type of employer unit is multi plant, single employer bargaining. The automobile industry is the classic illustration of this form of bargaining structure. General Motors Corporation, for example has over 120 separate plants or facilities nearly all of which have been organized by the United Automobile Workers. Rather than bargain on a plant by plant basis, the union and the company have centralized the bargaining at higher levels of authority in the union and the company. With this form of bargaining one master agreement is negotiated that covers all the organized plants of the company.

The third type of bargaining structure on the employer side is multi employer bargaining. Classic examples are the coal and construction industries. Multi employer bargaining usually occurs in industries where numerous small firms have been organized by one or more unions. To increase their bargaining power and prevent the union from playing one employer against another, these firms form employer associations such as Bituminous Coal Operators Association (BCOA) that then represents all the employers as a group in the bargaining. The collective bargaining agreement in this case covers workers in different plants and among different employers. Questions - 1. We in the TWU Local 100 fit which model? 2. A common saying is ‘a union organizer’s best friend is bad management’ what does that mean? If a union succeeds in organizing a firm is that necessarily a sign of management failure?