ND AFL-CIO Supports Public Employee Collective Bargaining

WHEREAS, a union fundamentally is an association of individual workers seeking to address
common workplace issues, the statutory right to engage in collective bargaining is necessary to
ensure that workers can exercise their civil right to associate with other workers on issues of
mutual concern and restore the balance of economic power in our country; and

WHEREAS, collective bargaining is the process in which working people negotiate contracts
with their employers to determine their terms of employment, including pay, benefits, hours,
leave, job health and safety policies, ways to balance work and family, and more; and

WHEREAS, in the United States, some three-quarters of private-sector workers and two-thirds
of public employees have the right to collective bargaining; and

WHEREAS, collective bargaining statutes take into account the economic reality that individual
workers typically lack the economic bargaining power to stand up meaningfully for their
individual rights and that collective action is often necessary to protect individual rights; and

WHEREAS, collective bargaining is recognized by international human rights conventions as a
fundamental right that ensures the ability to protect other rights; and

WHEREAS, licensed K-12 educators are the only public employees in the state of North Dakota
that are legally allowed to negotiate a contract; and

WHEREAS, many public employees have joined together in their unions, though they are not
legally allowed to negotiate a contract with their employer; and therefore be it

RESOLVED, the North Dakota AFL-CIO will actively support efforts to secure collective
bargaining rights for public employees in North Dakota.

Passed June 4th, 2020 by the 61st North Dakota AFL-CIO Convention.