Labor Relations Collective Bargaining

Advantages of Collective Bargaining In Aviation Industry

Collective bargaining gives aviation employees a bigger voice. With collective bargaining, aviation workers can fight for their rights and positions as hard-working individuals. By organizing themselves into a trade union, the workers have voices through union representatives, working to better the employees’ lives by negotiating for higher wages, a safe workplace, realistic working hours, and good health care (Williams, 2015). With the aviation industry facing fluctuations in demands and mounting costs alongside a pilot surplus (Serrano & Kazda, 2020), pilots and other aviation staff are likely to experience an “a take it or leave it” form of offer. Failure to take the offer implies the company will hire another person. Collective bargaining enables employees to band together and creates one voice to prevent any form of workplace impunity.

Collective bargaining promotes cooperation. Many workplace jurisdictions encourage negotiations on both sides of the employer-employee to be conducted in good faith. The workers need to get a fair pay and other benefits in a safe work setting, while the employer needs consistent productivity and revenues to keep the organization in business. Such a need for balance encourages cooperation. Collective bargaining is a legal standard usable for legal defense if either party is not performing to stipulation (Williams, 2015). Hence it provides security to bother employers and employees.

Disadvantages of Collective Bargaining In Aviation Industry

Collective bargaining comes with direct and indirect costs. Workers may be part of the union negotiation team but may be compelled to take a leave when negotiating the collective bargaining contract, hence losing productivity. The CBAs are lengthy documents that need more time to read and digest, further reducing employee availability. On the employer side, the representatives in the negotiation also become less productive during the negation process. Other costs may include legal charges on both sides. Unions also charge the workers for representation, going up 2.5% of the employee salary monthly (Williams, 2015). Such costs may make collective bargaining costly for both employer and employee.

Reference

Williams, D. (2015). Workshop Training: Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations for New Administrators and Labor Representatives. Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy, (10), 6.

Serrano, F., & Kazda, A. (2020). The future of airport post-COVID-19. Journal of Air Transport Management, 89, 101900.