After two months of intense negotiations, management and the union have agreed t
ID: 334322 • Letter: A
Question
After two months of intense negotiations, management and the union have agreed to most of the stipulations in the contract. You are in the latter stages of the bargaining agreement. It is now time to look at the trading points and counter proposals on the table. Your job is to explain to your new Executive Director of HR how this process works (as he is new to a union environment). Make sure to detail how these alternative packages are created and support with examples that demonstrate both counter proposals and trading points.
Explanation / Answer
Analyzing your contract
The first step in preparing for negotiations is reviewing the current contract.
Board review of contract
Administrative review of contract
Professional review of contract
Reviewing comparables
Wages, benefits and working conditions of similar employers
Results of grievances or unfair labor practices during term of contract
Bargaining teams
Regular communication between the bargaining team and the board is essential in re-examining or redefining bargaining parameters. This also allows the board to identify additional areas for fall-back positions, alternate solutions or new positions on issues identified during the course of bargaining.
As the pressure increases and conflict between the board and the union becomes more intense, board members have a tendency to re-evaluate their positions on issues (particularly economic issues) and how the teachers’ morale problems will affect children. The question most often asked is: “Does the cost of this bargaining activity and its relationship to children balance against the value of the district’s positions?”
Once this process starts, there is a tendency to second-guess the board’s positions. This is especially true with issues that have not had a significant amount of discussion. Consequently, thorough discussion of various issues at the board level is imperative. This discussion helps create ownership and solidarity among board members.
Communication with the board also allows the opportunity to reaffirm or reassess priorities. Other advantages include preparing the board for the nature of the settlement. This regular communication prevents surprises and allows the board to discuss new union proposals.
Keep administrators informed every step of the way. Use confidential memos after bargaining sessions or brief administrators at meetings. Keeping adminis-trators in the information loop about negotiations makes them better prepared to support the board’s positions with parents and other members of the public. They also can provide relevant data and offer
input on emerging issues.
Use your community’s informal communications network. Every community has a number of individuals who might be designated as key communicators.
Bargaining goals
The board should establish bargaining goals and set board parameters before undertaking at-the-table negotiations. Two levels of goals and objectives are suggested:
Broadly based goals
Setting broadly based goals that are congruent with the district’s mission and goals statement allows the district to make strategic plans and objectives regarding labor relations. This approach looks at labor relations from a multiple-contract viewpoint.
Bargaining parameters
After goals and objectives are set, specific barg-aining parameters must be identified for the bargain-ing team. Three elements should be considered:
Develop fall-back positions:
Identify a range of positions for each issue you bring to the bargaining table. Your initial position can be viewed as an optimistic goal or a goal that is taken from the management wish-list. However, initial positions cannot be so far out-of-bounds that they are off-handedly dismissed by the opposing party. Your initial position, like all positions, must have some data and documentation to back it up.
A second range of positions is your targeted, or preferred, position. This is a realistic assessment of what can be gained through the bargaining process.
The third level is your bottom line, your minimally acceptable level on the issue (or perhaps your pessimistic view of what you will be able to achieve).
Cost benefit analysis:
With each issue, you must determine its acceptability by the other party in terms of needs and priorities and make an assessment of their resistance points. Combine this assessment with the anticipated price tag for the proposal. These assessments can, in turn, lead to prioritized goals.
Prioritize proposals:
Proposals need to be ranked as high, medium and low priorities. High priority items should be stated as realistically as possible and identified as such to the bargaining team. These issues should be carefully selected and incorporated into the overall bargaining mix. The bargaining mix is the list of issues that define the negotiations. This list includes not only the board’s list of issues, but also the anticipated union’s list of issues