Negotiation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement

Class 1

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

Today – Planning for Negotiation

I. Determining Goals and Priorities

II. Who will be on the negotiation team?

III. Gathering information

IV. Calculating costs

V. Watch out for unintended consequences, e.g. behavioral changes

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

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?

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

IV. Calculating Costs

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

IV. Calculating Costs

Programs designed to produce behavioral changes

• Health insurance buyouts

• Early retirement incentives

• Sick day conversions

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?

Administrative

• Hand out Murphy reading

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

Association’s issues better?– How can misunderstandings like the one from the

previous round of negotiation be avoided in the future?

Next Time

• Continue Topic of Negotiation

• Finish Readings on that Topic (not in text)– Hebdon and Stern– Partridge

Negotiation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement

Class 2

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

Today

I. Teachers on Strike

II. Interest-based Negotiations

III. Educational Collective Bargaining and Work Rules

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

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?

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

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

III. Educational Collective Bargaining and Work Rules

• Hess and Kelly - Contracts usually not as restrictive as critics suggest but administrators often don’t use the flexibility they have

• Hess and Kelly - Some administrators and Boards use contract language as an excuse for inaction

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 you’ll be negotiating

• Everyone should look at both the Association and the District materials

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?

Next Time

• Next Class – Mediation and Fact Finding

• Reading – on reserve– McKelvey– Karper