Question

Can there ever be equal bargaining power between unions and management? Why or why not? Include the union’s bargaining power and management’s bargaining power in your submission.

Answer 1

The worker unions are generally more under the pressure for selling their labour force than a single employer is under to purchase it. Both the union and management negotiators prepare the bargaining proposals. The bargaining power is the power of the parties in which the situation arises to exert the influence on each other. When both the parties come at equal footing in a debate, then they both will experience equal bargaining power. This situation usually occurs in a perfectly competitive market, or between evenly matched monopsony and monopoly.

The bargaining power of the unit relative to the bargaining power of the management has greater ability to fix the terms and conditions of the salaries, wages, or any other equivalent income not determining the kind of occupation of the person. Not all the cases of the negotiation face equal bargaining power of both the parties, some situations arise where the union can improve the worker’s welfare, in which the bargaining power of union as well as the management varies, as such sometimes it is equal and sometimes its not.