An identity identification model may be used to isolate and understand the conflicts in communication that teacher's unions experience with the surrounding community when they strike. A union's identity is those attitudes held in common by the members; its identification is the attitudes toward it held by those in the surrounding community. During…

This paper presents an overview of teacher strikes from the perspective of school administrators and presents guidelines for the actions of principals, superintendents, and school board members before, during, and after a strike. Included are recommendations for estimating the dollar value of teacher salaries and fringe benefits, planning and…

In the field of education, the impasses that have occurred in collective bargaining for a contract have been resolved sooner or later--in one way or another. If a due process for settling the impasse has not been provided, both legal and illegal actions will take place in the attempt to force a more favorable settlement. Mediation, fact finding,…

Mutual gains bargaining (MGB) is a focused approach to contract negotiations that is designed to result in exchanges reflecting greater concern with mutuality than with self-interest. At St. Clair County Community College (SCCCC) in Port Huron, Michigan, three faculty contracts have been negotiated using an adaptation of MGB designed for the…

Beginning with a review of recent literature on social conflict, this study adopts Coser's distinction between realistic conflict, which seeks to balance both sides of a disagreement, and nonrealistic conflict, which seeks domination by only one party. Where nonrealistic conflict develops in intense labor-management disputes in public school…