The First Labor Negotiation I Ever Participated In... Water in the Face.

yes, mainstream media and the blogosphere are both all abuzz about the Employee Free Choice Act. much of the conversation is centered around the card check/secret ballot provision - but what many would agree upon is that one of the most troubling pieces of the EFCA is related to the time limits that are imposed upon the negotiation of first time contracts.

so what exactly are we dealing with? the EFCA would only allow a company and union 90 days to negotiate a first-time collective bargaining agreement. if unsuccessful after 90 days, either party can demand mediation. and if after 30 days mediation doesn't work? a contract is essentially handed down by a federal arbitrator in a process called “interest arbitration.” read more here.

90 days doesn't seem to phase everyone - but what most don't realize is that first time contracts are rarely negotiated after one year - it takes longer if it happens at all. folks argue that the lengthy process is ever more reason to require contacts to be negotiated within 90 days - but if you've never participated in a contract negotiation then sure... it's easy to say get it done in 90 days but let me tell you a little story...

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the first labor negotiation i participated in... eye opening, to say the least. it was a first time contract for a new bargaining unit that had been established, and the result of years and years of organizing. we already had a dozen or so contracts for other bargaining units with several different unions - but the one that had been certified was new to us. and we didn't have established relationships with them. this being my first time in a negotiation, i had no idea what i'd be in for with this process - and i fear that many HR pros and business people who have never operated in a unionized environment have no clue what this process looks like. let me try to break it down for you...

the contract itself - in the end - had 36 sections. definitions, job posting procedures, holidays, training, health and safety, workload, wages, vacation... the list goes on and on. all of this, pretty standard. think about your employee handbook and all the sections therein. you usually have dozens of pages of contract language with almost every single term and condition of employment as a mandatory bargaining topic.

as with any kind of negotiation - there's a lot of back and forth. think about what it's like to buy and car and haggle with a sales person on the price. there's a lot of back and forth before final decisions are ever made in the negotiation room. each side had its limits that they knew they could bargain towards - but each side also had those above them that they were accountable to + research that would need to be completed to determine the financial impact of the specific contract provisions being negotiated. take for example, vacation pay.

let's say the employer is willing to offer 15 days of vacation per year - standard and consistent with other contracts in effect or for other employees not covered by a contract. and maybe the union wants to offer 20 vacation days per year to its bargaining unit. the issue is hashed out, back and forth, back and forth. the employer says they'll consider 16 days - but they need to do research so the issue is tabled. the employer might take it back to their labor relations team who also has their finance department evaluate the impact. this goes on and on and on.

contract negotiations are a dance. and there's a lot of showmanship that takes place. everyone has tactics, people try to stall and cause delays. there is grandstanding. and it can become tense. (which of course is why all good labor relations pros would tell you their job is all about relationships. it makes a helluva difference.) and negotiations can go for hours and hours and days and weeks and months - because you can become deadlocked on an issue, easily. frequently, actually. and when you add in the back and forth of having to take the issue upward + the need for additional research - it's no wonder that on average, a first time contract takes about a year to actually get negotiated.

in my situation, we had a head of HR who was fierce and didn't want to be average taking a year or longer to negotiate this first time contract. for her, she felt the optics were better to crank out a contract that both sides could agree with and just move on with our lives. so to keep us engaged and fully immersed in the negotiation process, we'd sit at the negotiating table some days for 16 hours - but that's not completely realistic to do every day. people get tired. people have families to go home to. people aren't meant to sit for 16 hours straight behind a table. and to keep us awake at the negotiating table? i kid you not - our head of HR had a squirt bottle that she always was equipped with and at the first sign of anyone at the table beginning to look the least bit tired, she'd squirt you in the face with water. absurd, i know. maybe it was more for show. who knows?! but it was her thing. and i think it worked.

with that particular contract, it took us 6 months to negotiate it - and that's with our head of HR squirting water in our faces to keep us on the ball and keep the negotiations moving. 6 months, and the water bottle trick, aren't normal - it was an above average situation but had it happened in an environment where the EFCA ruled supreme? we would have been in mediation and arbitration - after 90 days. our awesomeness of negotiating this first time contact in about six months would have meant nothing and the contract we worked so hard to agree on, would have gone down the tubes. you can take out some of the grandstanding, you can be less showy - but when you're negotiating a contract that outlines terms of employment, you don't do it quickly and with haste. you use diligence.

90 days doesn't work for me... just another reason for you on why EFCA needs to fail.

Comments

[Lisa Rosendahl]

Ha, another trick for my bag o'tricks. Off to buy a water bottle :)Fun aside, you bring up a great point about timelines. Keep the EFCA info coming here and on Fistful of Talent, you are my one-stop-shop for information on this lately.

[Michael VanDervort]

That is just too bizarre. I have negotiated over 50 labor agreements, and have yet to get squirted in the face.

I have had the union negotiators refuse to sit down with me and send other people in to finish up a deal.

I have done decertifications.

I have negotiators quit mid-stram to run karate dojos.

I have had to shave at 2 AM to look "crisp"

I have been attacked by ducks.

But I have never been squirted in the face...

[jessica lee]

attacked by ducks? do tell... do tell!