Labor Relations: The Meet and Confer Process

 Open and Honest Discussion Expands Mutual Interests and Options

 Standards Can Replace Power Regarding Bargaining Outcome

3. Steps The Steps used in interest-based bargaining can be summarized as follows:

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Preparation

 Preparation of information, data collection, etc., is similar to traditional bargaining; unlike traditional bargaining, however, parameters are not generally obtained prior to the start of bargaining.  In contrast to traditional bargaining, in interest-based bargaining, all group members participate in discussions; to assist the group in its discussions of issues a facilitator is selected; the parties can either select a person to act as facilitator or more commonly, appoint someone from the group to act as a facilitator on a rotating basis.  Record keeping is done by a designated record-keeper for the group. Most often charts are used to record the discussions of the parties.  Opening statements represent each party’s goals and aspirations for the negotiating process; usually the stated goals are broad based; the parties generally reaffirm their commitment to work cooperatively toward a more effective working relationship and to use the interest-based bargaining approach as the means to achieve that relationship.  Ground rules are used and typically include the ones used in traditional bargaining as well as those which indicate a more interest-based or collaborative approach (e.g., joint information gathering).

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Opening Statements

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Identify Issues

 Clarifying and understanding the issue(s) and the problems which created the need to present the issues are essential.

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Identify Interests

 Clarifying and understanding each party’s interests is essential. Parties should not proceed to the next step in the process unless they thoroughly understand each other’s issues and interests on a particular matter.

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Create Options

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Create Standards

 Use objective criteria whenever possible to focus on the option(s) which have the greatest potential for resolving a particular problem.  Typical standards include legality, operational efficiency, safety, consistency with the marketplace, and mutual gain.

Labor Relations: The Meet and Confer Process ©2019 (s) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 62