CHAPTER 10. Approaching collective bargaining?

Collective bargaining is one of the most important tools for workers to discuss their working conditions. 

It is, therefore, essential that we can start from a common definition. In other words, we must be able to clearly express what collective bargaining is and what it is not.

In this chapter, we propose to think of collective bargaining as a collective tool of workers, which is not only limited to a negotiating table or a collective agreement or labour agreement but is a dynamic and permanent process that accumulates historical experience. 

Depending on each country’s legislation, it will have a greater or lesser degree of formality and institutionalisation.

This chapter aims not only to clarify the meaning of collective bargaining but also to articulate this definition with the role of trade union organisations, their particularities, and the possible contents of collective bargaining.

We often hear collective bargaining referred to as “a pact between equal parties that seeks to improve something” or as “an agreement that implies better working conditions and higher wages for workers”.

But it is true that when we try to outline a conceptual definition, some difficulties arise around the following questions: Is collective bargaining just a pact? Is it an interim or a final agreement? Are the parties involved on an equal footing? Is what is always negotiated in the interests of both parties?

These are many questions, and surely at the European level, each EWC member country will have a different answer.