Negotiations
The Legislature has already passed a "skinny" budget that covers K-12 for next year, with figures that make negotiations able to continue and come to agreement as districts have a good idea of their revenue forecast. The Classroom Site Fund estimate usually available by March 30, 2020, has been delayed. The cash analysis and estimates on additional revenue available for compensation, benefits and other employee resources are available. Continue working with your Organizational Consultant to discuss priorities.
Check out AEA's Summary of the K-12 Education Budget Bill
Local Association participating in Meet and Confer, bargaining and negotiations with their district have likely not yet come to an agreement. School closure will make it more challenging to meet and reach consensus and agreement, but should not prevent these meetings from taking place using alternative meeting modes, such as Zoom video meetings.
Check out Harvard Program on Negotiation’s useful tips.
Additionally, the AEA provides the following advice for negotiating remotely.
Consider the following before embarking on virtual negotiations:
- How will the meeting be facilitated online?
- How will you use chat rooms, caucuses, team breakouts?
A note of caution, the host on these platforms can record the session. In my experience, this chills discussions and participants may feel threatened if the video is released later. It would make sense to consider a ground rule that the bargaining sessions will not be recorded, either by WebEx or Zoom, or by participants using phones, etc. Generally, that’s just an “electronic” extension of ground rules already in place for in person negotiations.
In terms of exchanging draft, consider continuing/clarifying/instituting a ground rule where only the lead negotiators exchange drafts through email. It would make for a cleaner trail if there’s ever a dispute down the line.
An online procedure may consist of the following elements:
- Online preparation and survey – Through this asynchronous function, each team is provided a template from the facilitator. The team collaboratively answers the questions and submits the answers to the facilitator. The facilitator organizes the responses and develops a negotiation plan for the two parties. In some cases where the goals are far apart, the facilitator may have to intervene prior to commencement of negotiations to understand the goals of the parties. This initial stage will essentially create the pre-determined ZOPA (Zone of Possible Agreement)
- Identification of interests – Once the facilitator has organized the issues, a survey will be sent to each participant. In this anonymous survey, each participant will share his/her story about the issue and identify interests. A participant will be able to select “interests” from a dropdown menu or develop additional interests.
- Coupling shared interests – From the information gathered by the “interest” survey, the system will build an inventory of story and interests. The system sorts the interests into three distinctive categories – “shared,” “opposing/positional,” and “other.”
- Developing options – Once the interests are organized, each participant can develop options to match the interests. If an option specifically addresses an “opposing/positional” interest, the participant must justify the option.
- Ranking options – After all options have been developed, the facilitator will combine similar options. Then the participants can rank the options (1 – best to 5 – worst). All options will be sorted and the top 10 will be identified.
- Building straw designs – Teams will be created to address each of the issues and options. Through an asynchronous application (WebEx, Zoom, etc), the straw design teams will meet to develop a proposal that includes the options.
- Allocating resources – When developing a proposal, the straw design team must cost out the possible expenses. To aid the teams in costing out the proposal, an application that projects revenue for five years will give the team an idea whether or not the proposal is sustainable.
- Tentative agreement – In the final stage, the groups can elect to meet f2f or online or a mixture of both. Each team will present their proposal. Once the proposal is evaluated by the group, the group will reach consensus on the proposal. Consensus means everyone agrees on the proposal. If a participant rejects the proposal, he/she must identify ways to improve the proposal. Conversation will occur until the proposal is mutually agreed upon.
For bargaining support contact your regional organizational consultant or Greg McQuade.
