Essay About Teachers Union And Slow Negotiations

Case Study Negotiation Strategy
Negotiation Strategy (Article I)Grace Martínez University of PhoenixMGT/ 445 – Organizational NegotiationsProf: Gabriel MedinaMarch 23, 2013For this assignment I have chosen two articles on negotiations regarding school districts; one in Chicago and the other in New York. Here I will summarize the article about the Chicago school district number 112.  The article was published on September 6th , 2012. According to Danna J. (reporter) the teachers were working without a contract due to the slow negotiations. According to this article the teachers union and district were able to do smooth negotiations in the past.  Because they have not reached an agreement, the parties have agreed to have a mediator to assist in the process.          Having a negotiator inserted into the equation did not mean that  they had reached a wall in regards to their negotiation; it just means that the process has not been as smooth as expected and it was time to include someone that could have more strategies in negotiating. The teachers union had a three year contract that expired on August 21st, 2012. This meant that teachers were not getting salary raise. Other than the salary raise issue, the parties did not want to discuss the details of the negotiating terms.         The teacher’s spokesperson said that if they cannot reach an agreement by the next meeting they can declare an impasse; then the teachers could choose to go on strike. Even if progress is made at the next negotiating session, more dates could be on the horizon, said District 112 spokeswoman Andi Rosen. Although the parties have experience in tough negotiations they do not see this negotiation going smooth.           In this negotiation case, it seems to me that it usually is an integrative type of negotiation. Due to the lack of information on additional terms that are on the negotiating table, I cannot see if this negotiation is turning to a distributive type of negotiation. Otherwise why has it been this challenging this time around when it has been clearly pointed out that both parties have always been able to negotiate smoothly.