When the economy is depressed, resources are limited, mandates are overwhelming, and the organizational climate in the district is souring, education leaders and teachers union officials often brace themselves for contentious negotiations. Poor economic conditions affect the district's ability to offer raises, maintain current benefit levels, and…

In many school districts, business managers--not superintendents--are the ones who deal with labor relations, negotiating or participating on the negotiations team. Business managers who oversee the human resources department may find themselves dealing with labor relations on a regular basis. In this article, the author discusses four labor…

In the vast majority of school districts, the collective-bargaining process has evolved little during the past few decades. Teachers unions have successfully represented teachers' economic and job security interests by linking them to collective bargaining and procedural due process rights, but district administrators continue to make the…

Free speech concerns associated with collective bargaining become important when unions impose fair-share fees that charge nonmembers for costs associated with the benefits they receive through labor negotiations. When unions collect fair-share fees, those payments often support causes with which nonmembers and dissenting members disagree.…

In times of limited resources, the likelihood of difficult negotiations between labor and management may increase even in the best of school districts. The negotiation process can range from traditional to positional to competitive to a more collaborative and cooperative interest-based approach. The most productive approach is a matter of debate…

Mutual gains negotiation is an innovative system that emphasizes interests instead of positions and problem solving instead of preconceived solutions. The process can reverse social disintegration, reverse worker alienation, and address a shifting educational environment. It can resolve difficult labor-management problems such as contracting out,…

Interest-bargaining involves focusing on the issues, segregating each issue, and assigning interests by each side to these issues until a mutually satisfactory option is reached. Cites effectiveness of interest-bargaining in 60 California school districts and an endorsement from the New York State School of industrial and Labor Relations at…

Most frequently made collective-bargaining errors include mistaking rhetoric for reality, negotiating every teacher demand, settling too soon, failing to resolve board conflict, allowing unions to define the comparison base, accepting ambiguous solutions, circumventing the bargaining team, not seeking counsel, waving "red flags," and trusting the…

Negotiations proposals can be evaluated by assigning advantage points and plotting these values on a negotiations analysis graph. Provided to illustrate the procedure are a table containing all proposal items submitted by both bargaining teams showing advantage point evaluations; four figures, each with four graphs, are also included. (MLF)

The ratification of a new contract in a school district includes clarifying any contractual language that can be subject to multiple interpretations. In addition, all of the school district's administrators should be trained in proper contract management. (MLF)

Collective bargaining negotiations engender public interest. This article presents a hypothetical scenario in which a city school district has four months to negotiate a new contract before its current teachers' contract expires. Offers examples as to how the district might conduct its negotiations. (LMI)

Surveyed school administrators and teacher union leaders in order to evaluate the success of the labor management committees in New York school districts. A total of 48 surveys were sent, and responses were received from 17 teacher union representatives and 16 administrator representatives. (MLF)

Salient school employee-relations issues include elimination of positions because of budgetary austerity; and managerial initiatives toward higher productivity through enhanced technology and an ever-smaller, core, full-time workforce. (MLF)

Challenges facing school transportation programs include pressure from community groups for extended service, austerity imposed by conservative county commissions, increasing driver militancy, declining district purchasing power, rapid turnover of drivers, and growing disciplinary problems aboard buses. (MCG)

Forecasts the items unions will bring to the bargaining table to launch their labor-management relationship and membership into the twenty-first century. The future will require greater cooperation and a closer working relationship between the school systems and unions. (MLF)