Reaching a tentative agreement (TA) after any contract negotiations is a rewarding experience, but it leads to a series of further actions to bring the TA to a successful employee ratification:
- Clarify with the union how and when the TA will be communicated to the employees/union membership; and what details will be communicated in the initial announcement.
- Unless agreed to otherwise, the union negotiating team typically announces the TA to its members while management notifies its team at the same time or immediately thereafter.
- Decide with the union if there should be a joint press release and if so, coordinate on the message from each party and the timing of the release.
- Unless agreed to otherwise, allow the union to take the lead in communicating the details of the TA to its members during the ratification process in order to avoid a potential charge of negotiating directly with the employees.
- Once the details of the TA have been communicated to the employees, reinforce support of the TA through your management team and with the represented employees, but resist the urge to discuss details of the TA unless the union is open to management becoming actively involved with detailed communications.
- Encourage employees to reach out to their local representatives to answer specific TA questions and to ensure that they understand the overall benefits of the TA.
- Coordinate with the local management and union teams to promote and facilitate the employees’ vote in support of the TA.