Collective bargaining

It's an important thing to note for people who listen to this podcast.

We talk about collective bargaining a lot.

But there are really two places where employees can address matters of concern.

And one is going to be at the bargaining table, and we do that all the time.

The New Zealand Writers Guild is marking 50 years of representing and supporting screenwriters in New Zealand.

Alice Shearman has been the Guild's Executive Director since 2015, working across the industry and with government on issues like collective bargaining, copyright and the implementation of the Screen Industry Workers Act.

She's with us now to talk about the Guild's history and some of the challenges members are facing in the AI era.

Kia ora, Alice.

Okay.

The financial sustainability of people to work full-time and work professionally is a big issue.

One of the big developments, of course, also has been a move towards collective bargaining.

This is under the Screen Industry Workers Act.

I mean, it's like, what are, what are we doing with college sports? So Jamie, we were talking about this before, but at, at the crux of all this, like the one big debate in the new paradigm of college athletics is will the athletes eventually be able to

to... collectively bargain and get, you know, the benefits of collective bargaining like a lot of pro sports team athletes do.

Will they be actual, quote unquote, "employees," right? And get the benefits of that.

So where are we on that front?

I think there's a subset of folks that five years ago wouldn't have considered it within college athletics, maybe not presidents, but at the athletic director level-

Yeah

... coach level, that are now actively supporting a collective bargaining model.

Whether that's in employment or not is another question.

And then he proceeds to provide a bunch of evidence supporting that the answer is, unfortunately, yes.

You know, in summary, and I'm going to break it down a little bit, but he talks about overall fewer workplace protections, delayed protections, rolled back of overtime, changes affecting independent contractors, large-scale efforts to eliminate collective bargaining for roughly a million federal workers, and a massive fight at the National Labor Relations Board.

Okay, so those are sort of the highlights of his article.

But I just want to emphasize that this is not just about the impact on federal workers, right? Because any change that happens has a ripple effect.

Okay, so let's talk about the four main areas that Stephen takes up in this article, right? And again, if you're just tuning in, I'm talking about Stephen Greenhouse's article that looks back at the first part of Trump's presidency and has he delivered on To the American people, all the promises he said about the American worker.

Okay, so four major areas Stephen Greenhouse talks about.

Workplace protections, wages and overtime, collective bargaining, and the broader general power of organized labor.

Okay, so let's get into it.

And talk a little bit about what was the experience of going through the process like in terms of the response from the institution and the response from faculty and fellow house staff? And then what were the end results? I think one of the key

things that pervaded all the groups is a little bit of fear because there's a little bit of this unknown, like what does this mean if the house staff have collective bargaining efforts? Does that mean for if you want to give constructive feedback? Does that...

get in the way of the educational mission.

And a lot of the challenge was trying to dispel some of these sort of like, no, the union has absolutely nothing to say about education, has something to say about hiring and firing decisions.

That means it is, it's difficult to organize and it's difficult to maintain a high level of unionization 'cause, you know, if this un- cafe goes out of business, but this one new one starts up, it has to be newly organized and no collective agreement that is bargained in one establishment applies to anyone else.

In many countries, uh, in continental Europe, collective bargaining happens at a different level.

So for example, in Germany, you have collective bargaining happening at the level of a sector within a region.

So you've got the entire metal manufacturing sector where the unions and the firms all come together and they negotiate their agreement, and then the agreement applies to all the firms that are part of that employer association group.

And so it doesn't apply to everyone in Germany, but in practice it applies to a very, very large share of the sector.

I mean, that's going to be extremely difficult as far as, you know, how that continues to boil over.

But I do want to get your guys' thoughts on, you know, your experts in the industry and with the contracts especially, you know, what are your thoughts on, you know, maybe collective bargaining for athletes? Do we think football and basketball break away? I just love talking to people in the space and kind of hearing your guys' thoughts.

I think collective bargaining is a great idea.

I think a lot of the people who are trying to push collective bargaining in the industries are ...

I also sometimes question who are they pushing it for? You look at some of the organizations that advertise for it the most, advocate for it the most.

You know, you see that the athletes that they bring in are usually top D1 football players, top D1 basketball players, women field and track.

So those are already all the sports that gain a lot of revenue.

And I think if we need collective bargaining, I think a very important part is also to bring up those athletes who are just picking up on those smaller third-party NIL deals on those athletes that are getting smaller rep share deals.

'Cause their loyalty is to a program and not to the athletes, which makes it really difficult.

Um, Oluchi, why do you feel collective bargaining is the solution for stability instead of asking Congress for that?

Honestly, just because stability doesn't have to mean one side gets to make all the rules.

Collective bargaining does an excellent job of giving both sides a structured way to negotiate compensation, health and safety, working conditions, transfers.

Um, and then it just puts those agreements into an enforceable contract.

Congress can absolutely, uh, have a role in creating the legal framework, but athletes and institutions are the people actually living under these rules every day.

Um, it, it instead has a lot to do with greed.

Yeah.

It's a crisis for the colleges and the coaches who just didn't like having players with power, and they want Congress to remove that power.

Pro sports leagues have rules that are enforceable through collective bargaining, multi-employer bargaining units, which unlock an antitrust exemption.

Randy Levine, the Yankees president and the vice chair of the Protect College Sports Roundtable, called me up last weekend and said, it's impossible.

It's impossible.

Legally, it's impossible to have collective bargaining.

Is he accurate or inaccurate when he says that?

I mean, that's totally untrue.

And at the end of the day, if this was student-centered, students and players should have been at the table, and they were not at the table.

Let's bring up collective bargaining.

It's a subject to state law, illegal in certain states here.

How do you recommend this changes and this happens to change?

The Senate should oppose the Protect the College Sports Act.

The Protect the College Sports Act is something that the NCAA is proposing to gain order within college athletics because right now it is a mess.

However, we feel as though the right path is through allowing the student athletes to have a voice at the table and negotiating a collective bargaining agreement.

Everybody wants stability and we have such a clear understanding that rules are needed within the college athletic space.