Participants will:
- Explore a common workplace scenario, where there are multiple issues
faced by different workers - Be trained in and apply a simple organising approach to the workplace
- scenario
- Prepare for a negotiation
- Negotiate with ‘managers’ played by facilitators
Participants will develop:
- Knowledge of some of the issues which may arise in a workplace situation
- Understanding of a simple organising approach and how to apply it in a workplace scenario
- Organising and negotiation skills
- A deeper understanding of how the unity and solidarity within a group of workers increases their power in negotiations
Materials
Thinking collectively organiser sheet, workplace scenarios.
Before you start
Agree one facilitator to train the organisers and ensure that facilitator is familiar with the Thinking Collectively sheet. Ensure other facilitators either have a workplace scenario in mind or are comfortable creating one with
the participants. Agree facilitator roles for negotiation. You need a space where a small group of people can
be separated from the rest of the group and ideally, something that works as a desk with a couple of chairs.
What to do
Start by dividing participants into groups of about 10. Each group needs to select one or two people to be the ‘organisers’ in this scenario. Separate the organisers from each group. The remaining members of the group have 10 minutes to develop a ‘workplace scenario’ with the help of a facilitator. They need to identify where they work, what the conditions are like and what issues each individual feels frustrated about. The issues should be connected but it is important that not everyone has the same concerns. For example, the scenario might be a local café. Some members of the group may want more shifts to make up their pay to a decent wage, while others may be concerned about more flexibility of shifts and not being asked to work at short notice. Some may feel the differential for shift managers is not enough to make it worthwhile taking on the responsibility, while others may want greater equality of wages. Others may be bothered about the condition of the work environment and have health and safety concerns, etc.
Meanwhile, the organisers from all groups will be briefed together by another facilitator, using the Thinking Collectively sheet. The first thing to tell the organisers is that their job is to organise the workers around an issue or set of issues that they all care about and are all committed to solving. They will use the Thinking Collectively sheet as a framework to do this.
What are the three main problems with the situation as it stands? Give the workers plenty of time to raise any issues that bother them. Let the discussion develop, prompting with questions. Look for common issues.
Describe what you would see as a positive resolution to the situation. Let the workers set out their own solutions and ask clarifying questions to try to lead towards a common solution (e.g. So, if XXX you would feel happier?).
Who are the key people to be influenced by our actions? Only raise this point when you have one or two key issues and a collective solution. Identify the target.
What tactics can we use to influence them? This question is crucial both to see what the workers think is the first step, and to assess what they would be willing to do to get their issue resolved. Look for collective actions that involve everyone.
My next steps. Finally, what is the immediate action everyone will take?
Once the organisers have been trained and the workers have agreed their scenario and individual issues, you can return the organisers to their groups and they can have a go at uniting the workers around a coherent set of demands and a series of escalating actions they will take.
Now you get set up for the second part of the activity. Each group of workers will enter a negotiation with the facilitators (in the role of management) over the issues bothering them. It is usually best to have around three facilitators to negotiate with (if your group has these numbers), who can play the role of CEO, Finance Manager and HR Manager (or similar). The aim is to present a real challenge to the group raising their issues and not to give way unless confronted with effective collective pressure. Be unreasonable! Don’t respond to sensible suggestions unless forced to do so! Profit is the bottom line!
If you want to make the activity a bit more challenging, intentionally set up the space to disadvantage the workers. This might mean being seated behind a desk with no chairs available for the workers (possibly opening with, “Don’t worry. This won’t take long.”), seating the workers facing into the sun or placing management on full size chairs and workers on ‘child-sized’ chairs if available. Sadly, these are all real examples from union negotiations.
The negotiations normally take around 10 minutes per group (you can judge this as you see how the negotiation goes), with the other groups observing. After each negotiation, ask the workers how they felt it went. Ask the observers to comment and then give some feedback from the other side of the negotiation. Remember, the idea is to give the participants some sense of the effectiveness of collective responses (and by contrast the weakness of individual solutions).
