Political Negotiations Analysis

In any negotiation, preparation is crucial; and having a set, outlined process to follow when preparing helps mitigate a potential oversight of any significant issues within the negotiation. Following a set process also helps one stay on task and in-line with what the important issues and factors are in a negotiation. In Bargaining for Advantage, G. Richard Shell provides a well-structured framework to follow in planning for a negotiation. For this reason, I used Shell’s negotiation preparation framework to plan for the negotiation between Rapid Printing Company (Rapid) and Scott Computers, Inc (Scott).

This case particularly resonates with me because it highlights the problems that arise when two individuals have reference points which do not overlap. An impasse was reached between myself (VP of operations for Les Florets) and the Restaurant owner and this was primarily due to the fact that we both had reference points with a ceiling which we felt we could not exceed.

Bargaining vs. going public was covered in class during lecture seventeen as well as in the Pika and Maltese text in chapters three Public Politics and five Legislative Politics.

The issue at hand is whether or not it is a violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution to require non-union members to pay agency fees. Agency fees are used to pay for representing employees and negotiating contracts, in addition to lobbying activities to support collective bargaining negotiations or secure advocates. The argument is that because these fees are used for lobbying, it potentially violates the first amendment right to prevent individuals from funding political speech that they disagree with. In addition, the argument is that collective bargaining is also political since wages and benefits that unions negotiate on also come out of the public budget. The other side of the argument is that paying these fees contributes to collective bargaining and prevents individuals from free loading representation by the union in negotiations of wages, breaks, etc. This specific case dealt with the California Teachers association and the role its union plays in funding lobbying that is not supported by certain teachers that are non-union members. Agency shop laws require for dues to be paid as a condition of employment.

This paper presents my reflections on the Negotiations: Strategy and practice coursework in the MBA program at Said Business School, University of Oxford. My paper will present various reflections on different themes of negotiation simulation undertaken by me during the course. This course has allowed investigating and reflecting on key drivers of negotiation techniques for me. I have learned that transparency and coalition are the core tenet of negotiation for me. For the purpose of this reflective exercise, I will conduct a comparative analysis of the process, dynamics and outcomes based on the themes such as negotiation styles, bargaining zones, power, emotion, coalitions, value claiming vs value creation etc. for the below-mentioned simulations:

This case is about public teachers’ ability to choose their speech was being violated due to state involved agency requires public employees to pay union “agency” fees include who are non-member of this agency .This court should reverse the lower court decision and hold that mandatory agency fees that is an equal portion of the bargaining costs violates public employees’ freedom of choose the speech that is protected by first amendment for two reasons. First, people who opted- out or non-members were required to pay fees for union, and second, fees were automatically taking out from their paychecks.

The effectiveness of the political compromises that were taken during 1820 to 1861 did little enough to impact sectional tensions in the United States. Sectional tensions had caused a severe division between the North and the South. Political compromises were purposed to resolve the issues between the regions, but only lead to a temporary fix. Slavery was one of the major causes of sectional tensions. With the South in need of a large free-labor force in the cotton industry, the North was quickly transitioning to industrialization. The Compromise of 1820, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Compromise of 1850, were political compromises that were to weak to reduce sectional tensions during 1820 to 1861.

In the well-known case of of Tinker Verses Des Moines Independent Community School District, the Supreme Court remarked, “it can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” While shedding your thoughts and freedom of speech or expression at “the schoolhouse gate” can be difficult, the district did have the right to not renew the teacher’s contract. I think that it is important to keep my mind what the judge stated in the facts above, “teachers … do not have a right under the First Amendment to express their opinions with their students during the instructional period.” The teacher gave her opinion and an idea of her political view by stating

California Teachers Association, , a suit brought by 10 non-union California teachers who say that making them pay “fair share fees” to a union, even if only for the reason of collective bargaining, requires them to support an organization they oppose politically, and this is a violation of their free speech rights. The Supreme Court adjudged to be affirmed opinion per curiam. The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided Court; which left the lower court ruling as the controlling final decision in which they sided with the union. on April 8 2016, a petition for rehearing was filed; on April 13 the Supreme Court has distributed the case for conference on April 29, 2016. An opposing ruling in Friedrichs could call for public unions to function in all 50 states as they do in the 25 right-to-work states that prohibit unions from collecting dues from non-members, even though those unions bargain collectively for members and non-members alike. Right-to-work legislation means a death of unions via the "free rider problem." The capability to be represented by a union for no cost has led to a rise in employees who obviously gain the benefits of the union without having to pay their fair share. Not only do unions lose the agency fees that help keep their doors open, but many workers who otherwise may have joined the union because of the often small difference in cost between agency fees and union dues simply decline to pay anything at

“There is no such thing as freedom of choice unless there is freedom to refuse,” stated David Hume. The case Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, which just recently began oral hearings the week of January 11th, “centers on the questions of whether union dues are inherently political—and if they are… whether employees who are not union members can be compelled to pay them” (KQED News). Those in favor of the plaintiff, Rebecca Friedrichs, a teacher from Orange County, believe that employees who are not union members should not have to pay union dues because the CTA cannot require its nonmembers to pay for political causes, seeing as doing so compels them to identify with a public policy cause, a violation of their First Amendment rights. Those against the eradication of union dues for non-union members believe the fees are necessary because the union has a legal duty to represent all teachers at the bargaining table, even those who are not part of the union; if nonmembers can be represented by the union without paying any fee, there would be a strong incentive to become a “free rider” and not join the union, leading to a weakened force at the negotiation table. Because this requirement of dues is a direct violation of the Constitution, teachers that aren’t members of the California Teachers Association should not have to support the union and its

The NEA and the AFT represent millions of teachers throughout the country. Moe indicates that teachers unions are known has political powerhouses which contribute millions of dollars to campaign contributions and lobbying. Fortune Magazine has consistently ranked National Education Association in the top 15 of its Washington Power 25 list for influence in the nation’s capital. The American Federation of Teachers along with the National Education Association has given more than $60 million combined in campaign contributions over the last 20 years (Moe 267). Ballot initiatives that are created in to order to begin school reform usually are defeated because their huge sums of moneys that come from these unions in order to defeat a ballot that can jeopardize a teacher’s job. Let’s keep in mind that unions are designed to protect the interest of the teachers, unions are not designed to help the interest of children. The unions use this money mostly to demand special interest for the teachers, such as imposing a structure at the workplace giving teacher’s rights and restricting managerial control. Teacher unions are by far the most powerful forces in American education and use their power to promote their own special interests at any expense.

The topic for my real world negotiation is to come to an agreement with my supervisor for a promotion as well as an increased salary. I currently work as a student assistant at the student services Planning, Enrollment Management, and Student Affairs (PEMSA) department. My goal is to increase my hourly pay from $10.15 to $12.70, a 25% increase. Having worked in this department for three years, I have taken on tasks not part of my job description such as processing return mail, data entry, and supervision.

Last fall, my wife and I put our home up for sale. Our motivation was simple, with the money we would get from the sale of our home we could pay off all our debt and have plenty of money left over to invest, eventually saving enough to buy a bigger home. Emboldened by the allure of liquidity I listed our home for sale and waited for the offers. Indeed the offers did come in, in fact over the next few months we were in and out of escrow three times.

Negtiation is a strategic process of reconciling differences in interest and coming to a mutual resolution through cooperation that is percieved fair for both of involved parties (Fells 2012). The negotiation that was analysed in the “Enterprise Agreement Negotiation Report,” demonstrates that negotiation is not an easy process nor its orderly, since it is the activity and not the segment that determines the phase of a negotiation.

Negotiating is something that has been around since the beginning of mankind. We all start off negotiating as little kids, even for little things such as candy and toys. When we grow up, negotiating becomes sort of the norm. We negotiate consciously and subconsciously every single day. When you think about it, negotiation takes up most of our lives. We are always trying to see what we can get as a benefit without giving up much. It always comes down to the pie, how big is the pie and who can get the biggest slice. As we become adults with careers, there are ever some that become flat our ‘Negotiators’. This means that all they do for a living is negotiate. They are master negotiators and are praised for being so. When it comes to negotiation, persuasion is also within that talent. You have to be able to get what you want from people without them feeling like they are being taken advantage of and that they are also getting just as big a piece of the pie as you are getting, although in reality they are not.