Collective bargaining exists because many workplace rules cannot be set individually

Evidence

Many matters, such as rates of pay, can, of course, be settled by separate agreement between the employer and each individual employee. However, unless labor is in short supply or the particular employee’s services have some special value, this is likely to amount to purely unilateral law making, and so to lack the greater assurance of acceptability and other advantages that flow from genuinely bilateral action. But seniority rules could not feasibly be worked out at all by individual agreement, could they? Think about all the other matters of which this is true. E.g., establishment of a grievance procedure; hours of plant operation; working conditions; etc., etc., etc. If matters of this type are not settled through collective bargaining, they have either to be settled by avowedly unilateral decision of the employer or else by official decision. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 4246

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Unilateral wage setting without bargaining power is unilateral law-making — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 4246; A collective bargaining agreement is private legislation creating private courts and administrative processes. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 4334