Bus 305 Collective Bargaining Exercise
Collective Bargaining Exercise
BUS 305 – Industrial Relations
A critical part of industrial relations is the collective bargaining process. As a class, and individually, we have studied the different stages of collective bargaining, their importance and contribution to maintaining amicable relations between the unions representing employees and ther employers. On March 15, 2013, our class had the opportunity of participating in an exercise that simulated the collective bargaining process. Lisa, Mishal, Cole and I were assigned to represent the union side, Solvent Workers’ Union of Canada (C.L.C.).
This report will be a summarization of the collective bargaining process, focusing …show more content…
During the week before the actual exercise, the intra-organizational bargaining sub process was clearly evident as it involved the team setting up objectives, developing a prioritized list of demands, and predicting a variety of outcomes. At the same time, we developed unity for the cause and discussed the importance of each issue that was handed out to us. We did not have any trouble at all in setting up our priorities as a team as each member was open to the other’s ideas. All in all, there was a sense of collectiveness during the pre-negotiation stage. We decided upon the objectives of our team, developed a best-case scenario for the union, and also determined what our bottom line would be. We identified the roles of each other in the collective bargaining exercise. Instead of appointing one member as a chief negotiator, we decided to go with equal participation in discussion by the team …show more content…
There was a sense of disbelief, and we were truly shocked by the management’s low offers pertaining to the wage increase and paid vacation days. Therefore, we decided that we would stick to our demands, and this led to distributive bargaining settling in upon the ‘establishing the negotiating range’ stage. Classic signs of distributive bargaining began to occur in the ‘narrowing the bargaining range’ stage. With the management team not budging too much from their initial offers, as both parties were attempting to maximize their own gains. It became apparent that the issue at hand was the budget itself. Instead of divulging into the terms of bargaining, both parties were bargaining the budget at hand. While our team believed the figure to be closer to the $300,000 mark, a figure estimated by our sources, and management not moving too far from their initial offer, we began getting closer to a final offer. Like typical distributive bargaining though, there was not a single spokesperson for each side (McQuarrie, p.321), our bargaining activity was turning into more of a search to see how much money management was willing or able to spend, and
BUS 305 – Industrial Relations
A critical part of industrial relations is the collective bargaining process. As a class, and individually, we have studied the different stages of collective bargaining, their importance and contribution to maintaining amicable relations between the unions representing employees and ther employers. On March 15, 2013, our class had the opportunity of participating in an exercise that simulated the collective bargaining process. Lisa, Mishal, Cole and I were assigned to represent the union side, Solvent Workers’ Union of Canada (C.L.C.).
This report will be a summarization of the collective bargaining process, focusing …show more content…
During the week before the actual exercise, the intra-organizational bargaining sub process was clearly evident as it involved the team setting up objectives, developing a prioritized list of demands, and predicting a variety of outcomes. At the same time, we developed unity for the cause and discussed the importance of each issue that was handed out to us. We did not have any trouble at all in setting up our priorities as a team as each member was open to the other’s ideas. All in all, there was a sense of collectiveness during the pre-negotiation stage. We decided upon the objectives of our team, developed a best-case scenario for the union, and also determined what our bottom line would be. We identified the roles of each other in the collective bargaining exercise. Instead of appointing one member as a chief negotiator, we decided to go with equal participation in discussion by the team …show more content…
There was a sense of disbelief, and we were truly shocked by the management’s low offers pertaining to the wage increase and paid vacation days. Therefore, we decided that we would stick to our demands, and this led to distributive bargaining settling in upon the ‘establishing the negotiating range’ stage. Classic signs of distributive bargaining began to occur in the ‘narrowing the bargaining range’ stage. With the management team not budging too much from their initial offers, as both parties were attempting to maximize their own gains. It became apparent that the issue at hand was the budget itself. Instead of divulging into the terms of bargaining, both parties were bargaining the budget at hand. While our team believed the figure to be closer to the $300,000 mark, a figure estimated by our sources, and management not moving too far from their initial offer, we began getting closer to a final offer. Like typical distributive bargaining though, there was not a single spokesperson for each side (McQuarrie, p.321), our bargaining activity was turning into more of a search to see how much money management was willing or able to spend, and