Negotiation Role
The reason for the negotiation was to avoid a strike and make the management board meet their demand for higher pay and no intrusion in “non activity” time. As a member of the teacher’s union, the role of the negotiation would be to look into the benefit of the teachers.
Worksheet
Questions Discussed
- Salary
- Teachers’ evaluation
- Employment security for teachers
- Work load
- Benefits
Interests
School Board: The interest of the school board is to maintain its budget and negotiate the best possible salary and benefits with the Teachers’ Union in order to avoid the strike.
Teachers’ Union: The aim of the union is to attain the best possible offer in terms of salary, benefits, working hours, and teachers’ evaluation by receiving a new contract when the school reopens after the summers.
Parents’ Association: Want the schools to function normally and resume its operations on day-to-day basis.
Points of Negotiations
Strategies: Compromise/ Accommodate/ Take it or leave it
Tactics: Exchange of information, revealing the data related to wages, leaves, benefits, etc. of school teachers in other districts or states and present a comparison, admit to the problem of resistance and a strike, draw up a written scheme for the negotiation and the demands of the Union, and present the proposed agreement.
Bargaining Mix: Fringe benefits to the teachers
BATNA: Teachers from other schools
Advantage: to attain a greater advantage and a better contract drawn for the teachers that has better pay and better benefits for all.
Disadvantage: This may create a tussle between the management and the union, and this may affect the process of further or latter negotiation.
Concession Points
- Increase in salary
- Reducing Prep-time and work day
- Increase in pupil teacher ratio
- Evaluation process of teachers has teacher representation
- Layoffs with 60 days written notice
Bargaining Approach
Interests
School Management: The interest of the school management is to enter into a contract with the teachers’ union before the school reopens in order to avoid a strike and keep their costs low.
Teachers Union: The aim of the teachers’ union is to attain the best possible contract with the school management with greater salary, fringe benefits, and higher employment security.
Goal
The main aim of the negotiation process of the teacher’s union is to increase salary, not increase working hours, and have representation in the layoff committee.
The demand of the union is to increase salary, cost of living, or other benefits. Further, the union would resist any increase in the number of hours of activity of the teachers within their working hours. Layoff of teachers without a 60 days written notice period will be resisted by the union.
Strategies
The main strategy of the teachers’ union would be going ahead for collective value creation in order to attain a situation for mutual benefit. The main reason to avoid competitive negotiation, as both the bodies would be working hand in hand for value creation; therefore, a competitive negotiation may spoil the relationship between the two bodies and create further differences.
A negotiation strategy needs to be employed that would help the union to attain the maximum possible demands without hampering the interest of the management. In this respect both aggressive and cooperative negotiation skills must be employed. At certain points negotiation goals are attained to the maximum and the best deal is attained by employing both the competitive and cooperative technique of negotiation.
The process of negotiation that is to be employed would not be restricted to zero-sum, fixed-pie negotiation. The main aim of the strategy would be to employ an integrative negotiation strategy. An integrative negotiation strategy is one that helps in cooperative bargaining.
When a stern or adamant stand cannot be fulfilled and does not become mutually beneficial, a cooperative approach must be employed in order to divide the pie to benefit both the parties. Therefore, this collaborative strategy of negotiation to be employed by the union will entail a win-win situation for both the parties.
In this case study, the teachers’ union wants to attain a higher salary across all bases, increase in fringe benefits, and ensuring their free time and leaves. However, the school management intends to reduce the salary of the teachers, increase work hours in order to increase productivity and layoff teachers who are not evaluated as good in order to do away with their liabilities such that they have fewer losses.
Apparently, the interests of both the parties are contradictory, and if a competitive and aggressive stand is taken, like a strike, it would simply aggravate the situation, instead of drawing a solution. However, the collaborative process would ensure that both the parties agree upon certain points to a mutually beneficial degree and therefore, attain the best possible options.
The teachers’ union already knows that the management wants to cut costs, and therefore would likely assort to reducing benefits, increasing workload, and layoffs, as direct reduction of salary would aggravate the union.
However, the union has other demands that would make the employment of the teachers more secure, increase their salary in accordance to the increase in cost of living, and increasing their benefits and employment security. However, the union is ready to compromise on certain issues such as increasing work hours or pupil-teacher ratio, or reduction of prep time for teachers.
Compromise provides greater power to the negotiator and helps the negotiation when they commence with an opening offer .
However, the union is ready to take an aggressive stand and call a strike if some of their unconditional demands are not met such as no changing of free time usage, layoff rules, and changes in teacher evaluation process. Therefore, an integrative bargaining process would help in creation of value for both parties and help towards a mutually beneficial outcome .
Tactics
First the Union must sets its bargaining range high. As conceded by Churchman . Therefore, the union will first divulge their bargaining range on three levels – “optimistic, realistic, and deadlock” . This would help the union to get the maximum possible power during the negotiation process. Then the tactics of the union would be to present the management with a realistic bargain.
When a fair point of the bargaining would be reached, which many theorists believe as the mid-point of the bargaining range, a substantial outcome would be reached.
Then the last tactics to close the deadlock would be on part of the union to provide to the management their “best and final” offer that would entail the maximum compromising points that the union was willing to do away with in order to reach an agreement. This compromise would demonstrate the union’s willingness for negotiation and the genuine intent to reach an agreement.
Bargaining Mix
The bargaining mix of the union would be based on the increase of salary of the teachers, and across all bases and increase cost of living allowances.
Then the second issue would be the new evaluation process in which teachers’ union representation is called for and the evaluation process should be framed in such a way that if required the data of the evaluation can be accessed by the teachers and they could contest the evaluation outcome if not satisfied.
The third point of bargaining was reduction of workload and the fourth was the increase of fringe benefits as demanded by the teachers’ union.
BATNA
The BATNA of the teachers’ union is to have higher employment security for the teachers and better work terms and higher salary for the teachers. The main aim of the teachers union was to attain higher employment security for the teachers as the management was devising a plan to lay off teachers with the introduction of the new third party evaluation process in a hassle free way.
Further, the union also wanted to ensure the employability of the teachers who are laid-off by pushing the management to hire them when hiring is started again. The BATNA of the teachers’ union would not be set any higher as in many cases parties try to fix a very high BATNA and fail to attain it or lower it within the right time. This may spoil chances of optimum negotiation outcome.
Negotiation Terms
Beginning Offer
The main offer of the union would be to increase the cost of living allowance of the teachers’ salary. The second would be to keep the break time of 50 minutes unchanged. The third would be to allow a member of the union to be in the evaluation committee such that he or she is in the process of formulation of the evaluation criteria.
Further, no layoffs should be allowed without a written notice of 2 months. If any lay-off is done wrongfully, the union will have the right to contest it and challenge it. Further, the union would also make an initial offer to increase the benefits of the teachers in terms of increase of some of their paid leaves as in childcare leave.
Target Point
The target of the union was to attain a higher cost of living salary for the teachers, reduce layoffs an increase the employment security. Further, they also wanted to ensure higher benefits for the teachers.
Further, they wanted union member’s representation in the evaluation committee in order to have some control over the evaluation scheme, process, and data. Further, they were looking for increasing paid leave for the teachers over and above what existed. Further, the union was aiming for a contract of 1 year.
Resistance Point
The points at which the union would put up a resistance were increasing the cost of living allowance. The other demands would include inclusion of a union member in the evaluation committee, access of evaluation data to the teachers, and an official process to contest the outcome of the evaluation.
The union is unwilling to reduce the duty free time or incorporate any addition service during that period of 25 minutes. The union wants additional 2-day bereavement leave for the death of spouse’s parents, paid leave in case they are detailed for any civic duty.
Concession Points
Lay offs
The union is ready to support lay off as long as they are done in accordance with the proposed process of 60 days in advance written intimation. As long as their demand for agitation against uncalled for layoffs is met. Further, minimal layoff must be followed in any situation.
Salary
The union demanded $2250 across the board increase in salary. However, they are not adamant on increase in the overall salary and other allowances and are willing to accept certain concessions.
Teacher Evaluation
The teachers are not opposed to the concept of teacher evaluation as long as they have full representation in the evaluation committee and process.
Workload
The teachers were willing to allow for an increase in the workload of the teachers in terms of increase in pupil teacher ratio, reduction of prep-time, etc.
References
Beersma, B. & de Dreu, C., 2002. Integrative and Distributive Negotiation in Small Groups: Effects of Task Structure, Decision Rule, and Social Motive. Organisational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes , 87(2), pp.227-52.
Brett, J.M., 2007. Negotiating globally: how to negotiate deals, resolve disputes, and make. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley and Sons.
Churchman, D., 1995. Negotiation: process, tactics, theory. Boston, MA: University Press of America.
Fisher, R. & Ury, W., 1981. Getting to yes. New York: Penguine.
Gosselin, T., 2007. Practical negotiating: tools, tactics, & techniques. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.
Guasco, M.P. & Robinson, P.R., 2007. Principles of negotiation: strategies, tactics, techniques to reach agreements. Toronto, Canada: Entrepreneur Press.
Lewicki, R.J., Saunders, D.M. & Barry, B., 2010. Negotiation. 5th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Straus, D., 2003. Facilitated Collaborative Problem Solving and Process Management. In L. Hall, ed. Negotiation: strategies for mutual gain. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. pp.28-40.