Collective Bargaining

Bargaining is an opportunity for change, and to improve your working conditions. But you can only do this as a collective. When you join together with your coworkers, you have the power to make improvements to your pay, classifications, hours of work, leave, safety—and other important aspects of your working life.

Collective bargaining is your chance to use your union strength to make changes to your working life.

1. Members have their say

This is where members decide what they want to improve at work. This is done through talking with your coworkers, completing your union survey and holding member meetings.

The more workers that have a say in this process, the more representative your campaign will be.

2. Finalise the changes you want to see

When the survey is complete, your Together delegates come together and build a draft list of what you want to see changed in this bargaining round. This is your 'log of claims'.

Union delegates are workers who have been chosen by their fellow members to represent them in their profession or their workplace.

When your delegates have endorsed this draft log of claims, it is put out to all Together members covered by your EB for their endorsement.

3. Getting organised

Once you know what you want to improve, it's time to start organising.

This means working together to show how strongly your feel about your issues, building networks to get information around quickly, and talking to your coworkers about the issues and how they can be improved.

This is when you and your fellow members spend time getting ready for when, or if, your employer disagrees with the improvements you want. It takes members using their collective power to make them change their mind.

4. Negotiations

Your delegates will take your log of claims to meetings with your employer. They present them, and there is discussion of each item in a series of meetings. These are the negotiations of your EB. Your delegates use the expertise of union members - who know the best what their job is and how these improvements will help - when they are talking to the employer.

After every negotiation meeting, delegates will report back to union members with what happened: what was discussed, what the employer said, and what the outcomes were. These updates are provided directly to union members, but it's important to keep talking about the campaign at work so you can make sure everyone knows what is going on.

5. Taking Action

If negotiations have not delivered an outcome by the time your current EB expires, members can take collective action to show the employer your power as a union. This is what is called 'protected industrial action'.

Only union members can take protected industrial action: this is where you stop work, go slow, put in place work bans or change how you do your job so that you can demonstrate to your employer how strongly you feel about issues - and how important you are are to get the job done!

6. A New Agreement

An offer is made by the employer to accept or reject the claims made by you and your fellow members. This is an offer to "settle" the agreement.

Once an oﬀer has been made by the employer, members decide if they accept this by a democratic vote, and in Together members always have the final say.

If members do not accept the offer, you continue to campaign and use your collective strength to make the employer give you a better offer.

If members vote to accept the agreement, the EB is settled and the documentation is drafted and certified by the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission. Congratulations, you have a new EB with improved wages and conditions!