An analysis of over 1,700 negotiations conducted by 289 Indiana school districts revealed that collective bargaining conversion from voluntary to compulsory mediation and factfinding sharply reduced the length of negotiations but had no effect in reducing the number of severely protracted negotiations. (MLF)

This paper provides a brief overview of collective bargaining in public education in Indiana in 1975, the second year that school boards and teachers operated under a collective bargaining law. The authors analyze major factors and apparent trends related to bargaining and impasse issues, mediation and fact-finding practices, teacher strikes, and…