Pattern bargaining is a process in labour relations, where a
trade union
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
gains a new and superior entitlement from one employer and then uses that agreement as a precedent to demand the same entitlement or a superior one from other employers.
In the United States, pattern bargaining was pioneered by unions such as the
United Auto Workers
The United Auto Workers (UAW), fully named International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico) and sou ...
and the
Teamsters
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) is a trade union, labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of the Team Drivers International Union and the Teamsters National Union, the union now represents a di ...
. The first step of the bargaining process is the identification of a target employer that is most likely to agree to a favourable employment contract. For the selected company, this provides an opportunity to influence the contract for the industry, while the downside is the risk of a labour disruption if negotiations stall or fail. Once this contract has been successfully negotiated and ratified by the unionized workers, the union declares it a "pattern agreement" and presents it to the other employers as a take-it-or-leave-it offer.
In
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
, pattern bargaining was specifically outlawed under the now-repealed
WorkChoices legislation. The law was repealed by the
Labor Party after their victory in the
2007 election, but Labor's Fair Work Act, which came into force on 1 July 2010, still outlaws pattern bargaining.
References
* Marshall, Robert, and Antonio Merlo. 1996. Pattern bargaining
''Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Research Department Staff Report''''220''.
{{Organized labor, sp=ox
Trade unions
Negotiation
Industrial agreements