Question

1. In preparing to negotiate a contract with a union, what types of information would you gather before arriving at the bargaining table?

Answer 1

Solution:

In order to negotiate with a union, we must have detailed information about the union size and structure and how the union negotiations have been in the past. This helps in understanding the mindset of the union and helps appropriately handling the negotiation. Hence, the background knowledge about the union is one of the pre-requisite information that is required. Secondly, we must understand the information about the details of negotiation and an analysis of the same. We must have information about our negotiation limits and threshold values to handle the negotiation effectively. Having information about negotiation boundaries is extremely critical and important for the business to know. We might also need the information that helps to change the direction of the negotiations. This means knowing the reservations we must adhere to for the negotiations is a critical information to have at the bargaining table.

Hence, these are some of the sources of information that can be beneficial to check before arriving at the negotiations table.