Q & A Table of Contents
We’re Not Happy With The Labor/Management Bargaining Process We Face
From: Mel, Fargo, North Dakota
Question: In this state public employees have the legal right to negotiate with the employer for wages and terms of employment. Additionally, if negotiations fail to produce a mutually acceptable agreement, either party has the right to request mediation from the State Department of Labor. Should mediation prove unsuccessful, either party has the ability to request Fact Finding from the State Department of Labor using a different Hearing Officer.
In the many years that I have participated in this process my peers and I have been very successful in resolving bargaining agreements "at the table" or in mediation. However, at times it is necessary to utilize the process of Fact Finding.
In this process, labor and management present relevant facts of the bargaining situation (or should I say stagnation) with appropriate substantiation to "prove" that their conclusions are correct and should be adopted. The end product is that the Labor Department presents a recommendation as to which proposal should be adopted on each issue before the Department. The parties, then, have the option to accept or reject the recommendations of the Department.
In many cases, the Commissioner either recommends management’s proposal or, in the event that Labor's presentation is recommended, management can merely reject the Labor Department recommendation and implement management's last best offer.
We are looking for a more successful means or strategy to present labor's case to this Department and their representatives. We are always attempting to present such a case as to receive the recommendation and, if management should reject the recommendation and enact their last best offer, to carry out an effective public relations program to seek the community support and overturn the enactment by management.
What measures would you suggest to: (1) assist in making our presentations more acceptable to the Labor Department and (2) work with the representatives in management to be more sucessful at the bargaining table.
Needless to say, members of labor groups around the state are unhappy with this process, are looking to change codified law in the state in this area and have been less than sucessful.
Advice?
Response: Thanks for your description of the fact-finding and labor/management negotiation process your union faces. At the end of your description you posed three questions:
What measures would you suggest to: (1) assist in making our presentations more acceptable to the Labor Department and (2) work with the representatives in management to be more successful at the bargaining table.
(I view the statement here as describing a third question.) Needless to say, members of labor groups around the state are unhappy with this process, are looking to change codified law in the state in this area and have been less than successful.
These answers do not follow your order of the questions — but do give you a sense of where and how I would prioritize steps that should be taken:
On your third question, the first thing that should be done if your constituency and peers don’t like the existing process is to find out whether there are other approaches found in the laws of other states. If every state is the same as yours, a coordinated state-focused national lobbying effort could make sense. If there are state laws that mandate a more appealing process, then the job is to devise and implement a strategy that will convince your state legislators to change things to be more like the ‘good guys’.
Question 2. More immediately, to improve your capacity to negotiate satisfactorily with management you/your union should consider a) learning more about negotiation skills through training and b) give some consideration to have joint negotiation skill training with management representatives. The Negotiation Skills Company (TNSC) has found joint training to be particularly successful in a variety of public and private sector situations. Joint training could be challenging if you’re talking about different union and management teams in every school district — but if there are overall statewide associations drawn from each side, it could make sense.
Most folks negotiate from the hip or from habit. Neither approach is likely to yield favorable results. This is why good training is crucial.
Question 1. Making your presentations more acceptable to the Labor Department involves doing a better job of homework to understand what interests and objectives are most important to their decision-makers — and then basing your approach on that understanding. As teachers tell their students over and over again, good preparation is important no matter whether you’re playing football or taking a final. The teachers should take that advice to heart in their roles as contract bargainers as well.
You will find the philosophy underlying these ideas — and strategies for preparation and analysis — in my book, Negotiating Skills for Managers (McGraw-Hill, 2002).
Good luck,
Steve
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