Negotiating teams need to gather information on a variety of issues in order to prepare for negotiations and compile a list of bargaining goals. As indicated in your textbook, this may include the use of internal and external information sources.
Internal sources may include: surveys of union members, grievances filed under the current collective agreement, and issues identified during previous rounds of negotiations.
External sources may include: collective agreements of other unions, labour market information, and information on current economic conditions.This page provides additional information on how to locate external information sources using resources available to Brock University students.
Negotiating teams may wish to examine collective agreements from other locals of the same union, or for unions in similar industries. Consult the following sources to view current and historical collective agreements, as well as to read about current trends and highlights from recent negotiations.
Labour market information covers a variety of topics including labour force trends, unemployment rates, and current wages by industry or occupation. A key source of this data in Canada is provided by the Government of Canada.
A number of organizations monitor and analyse current Canadian economic conditions including the Bank of Canada, the economic research units of major Canadian banks, and think tanks such as the Conference Board of Canada. Large unions (e.g., CUPE or Unifor) and trade / industry associations may also have economists on staff, however their analysis may only be available to their own membership.
The following link points to sources which are freely available to the general public, or available to Brock University students through Library subscriptions.