Bargaining a labor agreement is really difficult, especially if you’ve never done it before. We live in this environment now where unions are organizing like crazy. They’re organizing smaller and smaller employers, and so there are a ton of companies that are facing this task of negotiating a first labor agreement for the first time.

That’s why we decided to do this series of episodes on The Left of Boom Show that are focused on how to bargain a first labor agreement effectively. We start at the very beginning with the situation where you’ve lost your union election. Now you’re in this new environment where you have a union representative, but you don’t have a labor agreement in place. What are the things you need to do to navigate in that environment? What do you teach your supervisors about this new environment? How do you get your team in place to begin preparing for bargaining that first contract?

We then have episodes that deal with the preparation for bargaining and all the research and background information you need to have. How do you get your proposals drafted? We go into what you do at the bargaining table itself, what your strategy looks like, and what are some things you should be prepared to deal with during that phase.

We also talk about how to communicate during bargaining. Many companies need to communicate both internally and potentially externally—to clients and sometimes even to the general public. We also cover strikes. If your negotiations aren’t going well, you might find yourself in a situation where you could potentially have to endure a strike. The more prepared you are, the less likely it is that you’ll be involved in a strike. So, what are the things you can do to be so well-prepared that a union decides a strike doesn’t make much sense?

We cover all of these topics in this series. There’s a lot of nuance, and I’ve brought in a lot of expertise to join me in these episodes. Consultants who work with us to negotiate labor agreements with companies all over the country, communications partners we collaborate with—there’s a lot of material here that can help any company dealing with negotiating a contract. This is especially helpful for companies facing a first contract, but even if you already have a contract in place and are preparing to negotiate your next one, there’s a bunch of practical advice here that can help you in those negotiations as well.

I hope you enjoy this series of episodes on the collective bargaining process. I think you’ll find it valuable.