MONEY and CAREER-SAVING TIPS: The topics in this summary are a useful guide for negotiating a collective bargaining agreement (union contract).

Haste -- and the desire to be perceived as sharp, decisive boss are signs of an inexperienced negotiator and an easy opponent. The union has done their homework on you and they know how to lead you into costly blunders.

Remember, the union team does this for a living...but you won't do this kind of negotiating more than once every 3-5 years.  Always bring in an outside negotiator.  Your attorney should be given progress briefings, but generally, attorneys should not lead the negotiating team -- unless they specialize in this area of law and unless they know your business inside and out.

Example: experienced negotiators never agree to "standard" or " boiler-plate" clauses  proffered by a union. (There is no such thing as a standard clause or a standard contract that protects an employer!)

Bring in someone the union trusts and respects to be your chief negotiator -- the only person who will speak for you. Occasionally, your chief negotiator may ask a  team member to speak out to explain a technical or operational point.

The team should be "dynamic" -- members change.  It must  include your CFO and/or at least one of their senior staff.  Other team members can include your top operations executive and one or more senior supervisor(s) as issues and circumstances may warrant.  Dynamic, fluid, changing...

The NLRB imposes no deadlines on negotiations. Management is obliged to bargain in good faith, but there is no legal penalty for taking ample time -- or for keeping quiet and simply listening attentively to what the union's negotiator is saying (or not saying). Your  management team and your employees are going to have to live with the agreement for 3-5 years, so take plenty of time.

The union side is "obliged" to "open with a show" for their side --  at the start and even throughout the bargaining. Don't get offended, don't react, just listen patiently for the REAL agenda -- it is always a subtle part of their "act".

You must have a strong Management Rights clause in your agreement. Unions expect to negotiate over management rights and if yours is unambiguous and strictly business, they will agree. If it comes off as strident or petulant you will come to impasse -- arbitrators and third parties mean additional costs. 

Negotiations never conclude until the entire document (with everything, EVERYTHING -- no matter how trivial) in writing. When your chief negotiator is ready, get a full review of the final  draft from your CPA and another from an attorney like Perry Confalone of the Carlsmith firm in Honolulu...pricey? Yes, but his counsel will be the most useful, instructive legal advice you will ever get.

Neither side is ever 100% happy with the final agreement, but once it is signed both are honor-bound to live with it. The side that breaks it usually loses.  

                                                                                                                        Bill Gibson, January, 2008