Canadian Lawyer asks Josh Mandryk about collective bargaining
What is collective bargaining? Josh Mandryk explains.
In a series designed to address popular topics and questions people may have about the legal profession, Canadian Lawyer asked Josh Mandryk “What is collective bargaining?”
Collective bargaining is a standard process for workers and bosses to negotiate their working relationships and is a hard-fought gain of the labour movement.
Without a trade union, workers negotiate employment contracts with their bosses individually. Through collective bargaining, trade unions and management develop collective agreements that determine employment terms for all the union’s members. While collective agreements deal with wages, benefits, and vacation, they can also provide protection against unjust discipline and layoffs and dictate rules around job postings and promotions, says Joshua Mandryk, a lawyer at Goldblatt Partners LLP.
“Collective bargaining is an achievement of generations of labour struggle,” he says. “The benefits that folks enjoy today are the fruits of those past struggles… Collective bargaining has had a positive impact on all workers.”
“Collective bargaining provides for workplace democracy, and it gives working people a collective voice at work… Workers are stronger together, and they can improve their working conditions and their livelihood, and indeed make broader social gains when they collectively bargain together.”