Negotiating a Labor Contract: A Management Handbook, Third Edition, gives you the winning strategies you need to meet the increasingly complex challenges of labor contract negotiations today. This practical and authoritative publication covers all aspects of negotiations, from assessing the bargaining climate to drafting the final contract document. In between, it covers such essential topics as preparations for negotiations, presenting proposals and counterproposals, costing demands and offers, ways to avoid impasse, labor law issues, preparing for strikes, and working with mediators. Stressing process more than philosophy, this volume leads novice negotiators through the entire bargaining experience and also provides seasoned management spokespersons with new insights and practical tips. In addition to giving you expert guidance, the book contains dozens of handy forms and checklists that will simplify labor negotiations preparation and analysis.

The Third Edition of this comprehensive treatise on labor contract negotiation processes and techniques has been updated and expanded to reflect the latest developments in the field of collective bargaining, including:

--Long-term contracts --Cost-sharing of health care benefits --Recent NLRB and court decisions --Current examples of contract costing and bargaining parameters --Updated forms and worksheets --New pension developments, including cash balance plans, and more. The Third Edition also features a new chapter on non-traditional negotiations. In this chapter, the author reviews various methods that alter the labor-management landscape of contract negotiation. Many employers, especially in the public sector, have sought additional guidance on such collaborative models. You get details of the rationale and strategies for conducting collaborative or win-win bargaining, and such innovations as early opening of contracts, limiting the scope of negotiations, and interest arbitration. You will gain insight into the advantages and disadvantages of this non-traditional form of bargaining.