March 2022 | Volume 13, Issue 8

Watch the full video on YouTube

Discussion Questions

1. What is collective bargaining?

Collective bargaining is the formal process by which labor and ownership attempt in good faith to reach a collective bargaining agreement, which identifies the specific terms of the labor agreement (employee pay, benefits, working conditions, etc.) Obviously, there is no guarantee that a collective bargaining agreement will be reached, but both sides certainly have an incentive to agree to terms.

2. What is an employee lockout?

An employee lockout is an aggressive response by ownership to a collective bargaining dispute. This is a situation where ownership prevents employees from coming to the worksite until a labor agreement can be reached.

3. Which side do you support in this labor dispute: ownership, the players, or neither? Explain your response.

This is an opinion question, so student responses may vary. As the video indicates, for many Americans, it is difficult to support either side. Many Americans view this as a dispute between multimillionaires (the players) and billionaires (the owners) who are largely or completely “divorced from reality” in terms of the plight of the average American laborer and small business owner.