Meaning & use
bargaining unit
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountablebusiness
A group of employees who are officially recognized as negotiating together with their employer, usually through a union.
Grammar: Countable: one bargaining unit, several bargaining units.
Patterns
- a bargaining unit of employees
- be included in a bargaining unit
- represent a bargaining unit
The nurses formed a separate bargaining unit so they could negotiate their own pay.
Only workers in the bargaining unit are covered by the new contract.
The board must decide which employees belong in the bargaining unit.
Word forms
| plural | bargaining units |
|---|
Common combinations
- form a bargaining unit
- The cleaners voted to form a bargaining unit.
- represent a bargaining unit
- Local 21 represents a bargaining unit of about 800 drivers.
- members of the bargaining unit
- All members of the bargaining unit will vote on the offer.
- appropriate bargaining unit
- The labor board must identify the appropriate bargaining unit.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- bargain verb
- To discuss something in order to reach an agreement.
- bargaining noun
- The process of negotiating, as in 'collective bargaining'.
Commonly confused: bargaining unit or collective bargaining?
bargaining unit vs collective bargaining
This is the process of negotiation itself; a bargaining unit is the group of workers who take part.
Practice
In labor law, a bargaining unit is best described as ___.
Choose one answer.
A bargaining unit is a group of workers, not a place, a document, or a department. The room where talks happen is sometimes called the bargaining table.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “bargaining unit”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.