By Paul F. McCarthy, Collective Bargaining Associates

When we play games for our amusement or relaxation we know what to expect and what is expected of us as players. One of the reasons games are fun is that the playing field is level and the rules are followed by all the participants. The collective bargaining process also has certain rules that need to be understood before it can be successfully "played." Management negotiators fully understand these rules because their jobs depend on how well they perform in this arena.

It is incumbent upon union negotiators to know the rules too and to make sure the negotiations team and the membership clearly understands them.

The following rules have served me well in my 30 years as a union negotiator, activist and organizer. I pass them on to you because I know them to be true, appropriate, and effective.

Rule #1: We do our business in a power arena.

The most important rule to remember is that the collective bargaining process is a power process. It is not a debating society where reason and logic will win the day. In fact, the corollary to this rule is that collective bargaining is an illogical and irrational process. Because power, or the ability to act or produce an effect, needs no rational explanation, one who has power to do something needs no one else's approval, nor does he or she have to explain the why of their actions. Rightly or wrongly, one who has power can do what he or she pleases.

Rule #2: To compete in this game, the employer must perceive that the union has power.

Perception is everything in the labor/management relationship. Saul Alinsky, the famous activist and community organizer, said it well: "Power is not what you have but what your enemy thinks you have." If a union is perceived as a helpless victim, unable to fend for itself, it will be victimized. This is an immutable certainty in our business.

Rule #3: Before engaging the employer in negotiations, a union must first build its power.

The employer will perceive your union as having power or effectiveness and looking more like a "player" than as a victim if the union leadership works toward achieving four conditions.

• Build a two-way communication system between the leadership and the membership. The union leadership cannot be satisfied with just getting information out to the members. It actively seeks out the members' opinions and input, involving them in the process of solving problems that beset them.
• The leadership must build a consensus about the issues affecting the organization. Consensus does not mean unanimity. What it does mean is that every effort has been made to make certain that all opinions are heard, discussed and respected. If the members are to fight effectively for an issue, then that issue has to be theirs and not just the leaders.
• The leaders and members work together to maintain internal union coalition. The membership must be empowered and made aware that participation in the union is not an option but an obligation. Using one of Alinsky's concepts, we can keep unions organized integrally using the concept of "small successes." If a contract campaign is underway, the membership must be told of each small success along the way. No success is too small to report and explain.
• The leadership and the members must work to build coalitions within the community-at-large. Former House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill's political credo stated, "All politics are local." Union leadership cannot lose sight of this important truth. Corporate America is well aware of this latent power and does its best to co-opt and neutralize it.

Rule #4: Union leaders must avoid becoming "Messiahs."

It is not the role of a union leader to take on the entire burden of the union. Therefore, the members must be educated and empowered to the reality of this power arena. The membership must fully understand the roles of staff and officers.

Your union's success in collective bargaining is directly proportionate to the commitment of the union membership to the goals of what is being sought at the table. If the members have no connection to the bargaining process, and no ownership of being part of the overall solution to a problem, then we cannot expect the employer to take us seriously at the table. John Wayne's characterizations were fictional. In real life there are no one-man shows where the man or woman in the white hat rides into town and single-handedly makes things right for the downtrodden.

Rule #5: The membership must be educated to be responsible to itself and the union.

Members must be made aware of all realities. The union leadership should never be fearful of being truthful with the members. If a goal, desired by the members, cannot be reached because of their lack of involvement, then the leader must make them aware of that reality. The members have to make some effort. Without that effort the desired result will not be attained.

Union leaders must not enable the members to avoid their responsibilities. If the membership is not focusing itself on its responsibility, then the leader must educate the members to that responsibility. The leader must work to empower the members. A union leader who is resigned to accept the non-involvement of the membership is doomed to unnecessary stress and inevitable failure.

Condensed from UWUA Light published by the Utility Workers as seen in the Gild Reporter and seen in Labor World, Volume 104, Number 11, November 18, 1998.