Regardless of whether your association works games for a city league, college conference or a professional league, at some point your contract to work those games will expire. Your association will then embark on the difficult, complex and often exasperating process of negotiating a new agreement with your employer.
What can you do to make the process easier and more tolerable? While there are no rulebooks to guide you on the correct ways to negotiate your agreement, there are things your association may wish to keep in mind.
1. Reach a consensus. Before your association negotiator makes the first contact with your association’s employer, your organization members should meet and come to a consensus on the association’s stance on issues to be resolved in the new contract.
First, your association’s specific concerns must be addressed by the membership. What areas in the current contract do your members wish to change? What parts of the contract do they want to delete? Is there anything new that your members want to add to the contract?
The membership must address the relative significance of certain contract provisions. For example, which is more important to your members — a small salary raise or schedule flexibility? Your association members should discuss all of the details before coming to the bargaining table.
2. Get an early start. Shortly before the contract expiration, contact the relevant individual with your association’s employer and alert them that your association is looking forward to discussing the association’s proposed modifications to the agreement. That advance contact will start the ball rolling, encourage the employer to pull the contract out of the files and allow the employer to start to prepare for negotiations.
In addition to being a courteous way of doing business, giving the employer some time to look over the existing contract before entering into contract discussions will help assure that both parties come to the negotiating table fully prepared. That will help move the process along more expeditiously and smoothly.
3. Find an attorney. If your association has not yet hired an attorney, now may be a good time to do so.
Remember that your agreement with your employer must always be in writing. An oral agreement is unenforceable and leaves your association swimming in dangerously unprotected legal waters. An attorney can represent your interests at the bargaining table. Perhaps most important, an attorney can represent your association when the time for contract drafting arrives, helping assure your new contract language specifically and precisely calls for that which you and your employer have agreed. That precise wording leaves little room for future interpretations, which may be to your association’s detriment.
4. Be ready to negotiate. One constant in contract negotiations is there are few constants. Every situation offers different backgrounds and personalities — some require negotiators to apply tight-fisted steadfastness while others require a gentle touch. However, whatever type of negotiation your association may encounter, remember one thing that is often overlooked by associations anxious to get a new deal: act professionally.
• Put all major correspondence with the employer, especially those in which you state your proposed changes to your agreement, in a typed letter.
• Select a single chief negotiator for your association. Keep the number of members attending any negotiating session to a minimum. That way, information can be efficiently and accurately communicated between the parties, limiting the potential for confusion and the possibilities of communication breakdowns.
Never conduct negotiations immediately following games. Set negotiations for another time when your association officials may meet the employer in a quiet setting, when they can be sure to be dressed neatly and to be fully prepared for the meeting.
Remember that if your association takes the job of contract negotiation seriously, you will be more likely to work out an agreement that will be acceptable to both sides. |
