What to do | create a management bargaining team
The role of the Management Bargaining team is to receive and offer proposals in the collective bargaining process, operate in good faith, and represent and hold the goals of the organization in balance with the goals and requests of the staff union in order to achieve the best possible contract.
There is also a larger, much more visionary role for the Management Bargaining team of stewarding the organization to set ambitious goals, strengthen systems, and deepen relationships organization-wide.
Because most organizational leaders have not experienced collective bargaining before, it is often difficult to figure out how to choose, train, and support a management bargaining team. Traditionally in the non social change world, this decision isn't difficult because organizations choose a lawyer or highly trained negotiators to win and minimize the union
Non profit-leaders have the opportunity and challenge to create a new path and should take the following factors into consideration when creating a Management Bargaining Team:
Composition of the Team:
Who should you consider to be a part of the management bargaining team? You need both planners and negotiators.
Planners: these are the people who meet in between bargaining sessions to prepare.
People with subject matter expertise. They don’t have to also be negotiators.
They cost things out and make projections; they determine what’s legally allowable, they know how the existing policies work and why; they are able to gather necessary information between meetings.
They are open to considering all the proposals, not just management’s proposals.
Among your team of planners, who are the negotiators?
Negotiators: these are a subset of the larger group who attend the bargaining sessions
Who are lead and main negotiators?
Consider how many people are on the union team. Management usually has fewer.
It is okay to substitute people in depending on what is being negotiated
Negotiating team can have layers of Management including upper and middle management
The Role of the Executive Director
There is no right or wrong answer as to whether the Executive Director is on the Management Bargaining Team. Organizations benefit from being very intentional about the role of the ED in the planning and negotiation process.
For some organizations, it is most helpful to have the Executive Director lead the team and be at the negotiating table. For example, in small organizations or where the ED is the organization’s best negotiator.
For other organizations, an outgoing or interim Executive Director can hold the bargaining process so that the incoming Executive doesn’t have to.
In other organizations, the ED attends only a few sessions - the first and last day of bargaining, for example.
Even if the ED is not attending bargaining, they still have two very important roles:
The ED shares their vision for negotiations and sets the tone for the team’s work. This may need to happen several times over the course of negotiations as the tenor of bargaining changes.
The ED has an important role of credentialing the negotiating team to the union, to demonstrate that they care about the process and that they trust the negotiators to represent them and the organization.
The Role of the Lawyer
As with the Executive Director, there is no right answer to how involved the lawyer should be in negotiations. Organizations benefit from weighing the costs and benefits of having the lawyer attending or leading negotiations, vs. being in an advisory role.
Some organizations have no one internally with negotiation experience and so will ask their values-aligned attorney to lead the first few sessions or all the way through to agreement.
Other organizations have a Director or a Board member who leads negotiations, and consult with the values-aligned attorney between sessions or during caucuses.
Others handle negotiations themselves unless they come across an issue they are unfamiliar with, at which point they consult an attorney.
Setting the Management Bargaining Team up for Success
Forming as a team
Plan to bring the management bargaining team together to form as a team. These early meetings will help them to set goals, understand their roles and scope of authority, and how they will function internally. We recommend drafting an Operating Agreement.
Training - by themselves and jointly with the union
Additionally, the Management Bargaining Team will need training on the collective bargaining process. This can be offered just for the Management Team or you can invite the union team to attend as well. For that reason, it is helpful to have an organization provide the training that is not considered Management or Union but a third-party neutral. Both the Federal Mediation and Reconciliation Service [FMCS] and Cornell University ILR School offer bargaining training. Many Labor Education programs at other Universities do as well.
Beyond Neutrality authors and affiliates do not provide legal, tax, or accounting advice. This and all Beyond Neutrality resources are intended for informational and educational purposes only. Readers should consult their own legal, tax, and accounting advisors, and organizations should retain experienced labor-friendly counsel aligned with their values. 2023