Emphasize 'Collective' in Bargaining

Local leaders who focus on the "collective" in collective bargaining are the most effective, retired WEAC Collective Bargaining Director Bob West told a room full of negotiators Saturday (November 4, 2000).

"You have more power as a group than as individuals," West said in a keynote address at the WEAC Statewide Collective Bargaining Conference in Middleton. "When you utilize your skills collectively, you are ultimately powerful."

"It's better for everyone to move together."

Negotiators, he said, should gather the opinions of the membership and keep them informed every step of the way.

"Talk all the time," he said. "Take all the time you need to build trust and confidence within your membership. Trust and confidence lead to solidarity." He defined solidarity as "a state of mind that flows from the heart."

When you get the support of membership before you begin bargaining, he said, you will have it when you need it most when challenges arise during the bargaining.

And, West said, when you are at the bargaining table, don't "nibble around the edges." Know what you want "and demand it with fervor."

West received a standing ovation when he was introduced and again at the end of his address.

Today, he said, we are bargaining for great schools, and great schools are built by great teachers and support staff. "And we won't have great school employees if we don't compensate them well."

"Some school districts expect a Porsche performance at Pinto prices," he said.

School boards typically begin a bargain by offering what they say they can afford, not what the employees are worth. Good unions demand that employees be paid what they are worth, he said.

"You use what you have to get what you need," said West, who was a UniServ director in Northwest United Educators for 12 years before becoming WEAC's director of collective bargaining 14 years ago. West recently announced his retirement as collective bargaining director but is continuing to serve WEAC members as a special consultant on collective bargaining.

West said the most organized WEAC members were came in the early 1970s during the Hortonville teachers strike. After every striking Hortonville teacher was fired, teachers came in buses from throughout the state to march with them in solidarity. Members contributed more than $1 million out of their own pockets to help their Hortonville colleagues.

"They understood that an injury to one is an injury to all," West said. "We were wonderfully united."

The Hortonville strike led to passage of the arbitration law, "which made it unnecessary to activate the masses," West said, leading to a less organized union.

Following passage of the Qualified Economic Offer law in 1993, "we atrophied" as a union, he said.

"Now, we are trying to become a collective union again," West said.

West ended his address by quoting from Sen. Edward Kennedy's 1980 speech at the Democratic National Convention when he withdrew from the race for president:

"The work goes on. The cause endures. Hope lives on, and our dreams can never, never die."

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