Negotiation%20of%20the%20Collective%20Bargaining%20Agreement

1
Negotiation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement

• Class 1

2
Review

• Concept of Improper Practices
• Particularly watch out for duty to bargain
• Careful of anti-union behavior
• Choice of union representation by majority vote
• Duty of Fair Representation
• Union must represent everyone in the unit
• Employer must not try to deal with them
  individually
• Bargaining Units
• District may have input about new units
• Issues for the District to consider

3
Today Planning for Negotiation

1. Determining Goals and Priorities
2. Who will be on the negotiation team?
3. Gathering information
4. Calculating costs
5. Watch out for unintended consequences, e.g.
   behavioral changes

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I. Determining Goals and Priorities

• Examine the existing collective bargaining
  agreement
• Where do goals come from?
• Remember limits of what can be accomplished
• Note differences in perspective

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II. Who is on the Negotiating Team?

• Who is the chief spokesperson?
• Will Superintendent be at the table?
• Will there be Board of Education members at the
  table?
• Will the Business Officer be at the table?
• Role for Principals?

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III. Gathering Information

• What kinds of information do we need?
• Comparative Information
• Cost Information (see below)
• Legal Information
• Where can we find it?
• Internal sources
• External sources

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IV. Calculating Costs

• What kinds of costs (and savings) do we need to
  calculate?
• Pay
• Health insurance

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IV. Calculating Costs

• Programs designed to produce behavioral changes
• Health insurance buyouts
• Early retirement incentives
• Sick day conversions

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V. Unintended Consequences

• Will holding the line on pay or a concession on
  health insurance make it harder to recruit and
  hold employees?
• Will a saving have a serious deleterious effect
  on morale?

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Administrative

• Hand out Murphy reading

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Case D Bargaining Dispute at the MacIntosh
School District

• Additional Questions for you as District
  Representatives
• How can you present your issues as to make the
  Association understand and appreciate them?
• How can you alter your positions so as to be more
  persuasive?
• How can you try to understand and appreciate the
  Associations issues better?
• How can misunderstandings like the one from the
  previous round of negotiation be avoided in the
  future?

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Next Time

• Continue Topic of Negotiation
• Finish Readings on that Topic (not in text)
• Hebdon and Stern
• Partridge

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Negotiation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement

• Class 2

14
Review Preparing for Negotiations

• Setting goals and priorities
• Deciding who speaks for your side
• Gathering information
• Calculating costs
• Watching out for unintended consequences,
  especially behavioral changes

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Today

1. Teachers on Strike
2. Interest-based Negotiations
3. Educational Collective Bargaining and Work Rules

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I. Teachers on Strike

• Teacher strikes in New York State have become
  quite rare
• Quite common in 1970s and 1980s
• What was it like for teachers to be on strike
  Professor Cathy Leogrande

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I. Teachers on Strike

• Arguments against the right to strike for
  teachers
• Arguments in favor of the right to strike for
  teachers
• Hebdon and Stern what kinds of legislation
  gives rise to more strikes?
• Partridge what kinds of legislation gives rise
  to more strikes?

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II. Interest-based Negotiations

• Based on Fisher and Ury Getting to Yes
• Try to focus on interests, not positions
• Try not to personalize the dispute
• Try to create options for mutual gain
• Try to agree on standards to judge the options

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III. Educational Collective Bargaining and Work
Rules

• Hill - Local school boards have given unions
  control over teacher placements, performance
  evaluations, working conditions and work
  assignments and tied principals hands
• Hill - Disadvantaged students and schools lose
  the most from teacher collective bargaining
• Hill - Teacher pay may increase by much more than
  announced rate of increase due to steps

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III. Educational Collective Bargaining and Work
Rules

• Hess and Kelly - Contracts usually not as
  restrictive as critics suggest but administrators
  often dont use the flexibility they have
• Hess and Kelly - Some administrators and Boards
  use contract language as an excuse for inaction

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Administrative

• Organize the negotiation Exercise
• The case materials you need to do the negotiation
  are already available on the course web site
• Fact Finding case but youll be negotiating
• Everyone should look at both the Association and
  the District materials

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Case Today

• The Chatswood CSD and Chatswood Teachers
  Negotiations
• If you were the District, how would you try to
  persuade the Association here?
• If you were the Association, how would you try to
  persuade the District here?

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Next Time

• Next Class Mediation and Fact Finding
• Reading on reserve
• McKelvey
• Karper