Collective barganing

The readings on collective bargaining in this volume have been selected with two closely related purposes in mind. They are intended, as far as possible, to offer the student a comparative treatment of the subject and to assist him in gaining greater in sight into its theoretical problems. Although the United States and Great Britain are most prominently represented, the readings range over a number of countries for which suitable texts in the English language were available. They have been grouped to gether for reasons given in the brief introductions to each part.

Collective bargaining is an important institution in all indus trialized countries where freedom of association is a reality and, in most of them, it has become the centre-piece of their systems of industrial relations. Though definitions are best avoided, it norm ally involves representation of employees by trade unions, and some regulation of their wages and other conditions of employ ment by agreements made between the unions and employers. These universal features, however, tell us very little about its nature, and nothing about how it works or what its results are. Collective bargaining is not, as is often assumed, a simple, static method which one either accepts or rejects. It reveals immense diversity of form and content in different countries; even between different industries in the same country. Moreover, it is an evolving institution, changing its character and structure, and its relations with other institutions, over a period of time.

As in the study of all social institutions, systematic comparisons of the highly intricate and complex network of rules, roles, and relationships placed under the single label of 'collective bargain ing' is one of the keys to their better understanding.