The Southern Express Company Exercise

To: Boss From: Re: American Dream Analysis Date 12/5/2014 Subject: Local Union P-9 vs Hormel Meat packing Company. Preparation is key when it comes to negotiating an agreement and a prefect example would be the Hormel Company vs the Local Union P-9 workers(meat packing). The Local Union and Hormel Company both were placed at the negotiation table due to wage cut and “unfair treatment” that was conducted by the management team. This disagreement caused the Local Union to rally up members from the meat packing department that influence the workers and workers from other factories to go on strike. During this negotiation both parties made a few mistakes that are costly and time consuming. Hormel Company

These negotiation exercises are based on management-labor relations at Hormel Foods Corporation’s main plant in Austin, Minnesota. The local union was Local P-9 of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Union. The simulations are intended to portray events that occurred at Hormel, rather than to reflect precise details in Hormel’s history. The company and union were intentionally disguised, with the aim of preventing possible bias in role-playing the exercises. The 1978 negotiation role-play presents a fairly accurate portrayal of management/labor relations at Hormel in 1978. The building of the new plant and the

This strategy is quite bold and could lead the company to feel that they were not given a chance. In return MCA could have harsh feelings toward the Union and not compromise as easily. The fourth strategy was to only settle issues with unanimous consent from the negotiating committee. The union planned on every person in the committee being at every meeting and they set the rule that everyone had to agree to proceed. This is definitely not reasonable because there may be situations when a member can’t make a meeting. It is also not reasonable to say that everyone must agree. There are times when this is not possible and it should have been planned for. Maybe the union should have had a majority vote or even a 75% vote minimum.

Summary: This was a multiparty negotiation, which involved 6 players all with very different negotiation styles. It was an exercise in which teams easily form a coalition. There were concessions about the value added each team would bring to the “table”, and my team in a situation of power saw how negatively the other teams reacted in name of fairness and how important was to share the pie.

a) The two negotiators in the film, Bob White and Rod Andrew, have specific and hard positions. It is easy to identify that neither of them is willing to change or modify their position. In the case of Bob White, as the union representative, his position is to achieve a raise of 3% in hourly wages for the line workers. For Rod Andrews, the GM negotiator, his position is to make the union representatives understand that GM’s profitability is fragile and for that reason it is not possible to give line workers a raise in hourly wages.

The negotiation between Joe and Leigh had elements of distributive bargaining, but their relationship and the outcome of the negotiation were important to both parties, thus, this negotiation also had collaborative bargaining characteristics (Lewicki, Barry, & Saunders, 2010). When using this strategy, the objective is to maximize your outcome on the substantive issues while enhancing the quality of the relationship with the other party (Lewicki, Barry, & Saunders, 2011). In a job offer negotiation between two familiar parties, it is important to find a mutually satisfying solution to also enhance business performance.

In 2000, the Boeing Company found itself in an unprecedented crisis. Over 17,000 engineers walked off the job site in a massive strike initiative. Attempts to end and mitigate the strike provide a backdrop for negotiation process analysis in a collective bargaining situation. Prior to the engineering strike, Boeing grossly underestimated the morale and emotions of the company’s engineers. The failure to connect with employee concerns cost the company in both reputation and financial loss. The purpose of this paper is to explore the negotiation process as it unfolded during the Boeing engineering strike.

I feel the labor relations system as currently constituted is effective for resolving disputes as long as both parties are committed to negotiating in good faith. Although, I feel the current system is effective a further explanation of the systems strengths and weaknesses will better explain the effectiveness of resolving disputes. It is in both the companies and the labor interest to negotiate with as little third party interaction to come up with an agreement. In times when there are disputes their different course of action that start from a least costly without giving up power in the decision to the possibility of becoming more costly to either party and give up the power in the decision. As discussed in the text when an organization and labor cannot come up with an agreement a third party may be asked to come in to negotiations to resolve a dispute which includes mediation, fact-finding, and interest arbitration.

For this project, I was a member on the union team and we were to bargain for a new labor contract for our union, the United Chemical and Plastic Workers (UCPW), with our employer, the Harper Container Corporation (HCC). I participated in Week 9 as our Chief negotiator.

During our negotiation with D.G. Barnhouse (DGB), we intend to utilize an integrative bargaining strategy with management. Before coming to this conclusion, we weighed the advantages and disadvantages of a distributive approach, however, we eventually decided to take an integrative and predominantly interest based stance versus a position based stance in our negotiations after assessing internal and external environmental factors. In addition, we settled on this strategy because we ultimately believe that management and the union share at the very least, one fundamental common interest, which is the firm’s financial stability. That being said, even with our plans to use integrative bargaining, we still plan to negotiate assertively to achieve

Prepare responses to the questions below after viewing the Negotiation Strategy and Tactics Tutorial in this week's lecture. In drafting your answers to the questions, make sure that you apply course concepts in your answers.

Evaluate the effectiveness of the roles that the strategic leaders played in the formation of the performance management strategy.

Ultimately, the evasion of strikes and industrial conflict lies in the hands of management. Management’s response to collective bargaining can yield either positive or negative results; management can use the collective bargaining to expand their knowledge of the production process and improve the operation of the workplace therefore bolstering efficiency, or management can meet collective bargaining with opposition,

Collective bargaining is the process by which conditions of employment are negotiated between management, and the labor organization representing employees in the bargaining unit. However, “collective bargaining refers to a situation in which union members and officials meet with an intent to resolve any issues or conflicts, in an attempt to maintain relationships” (Holley, Jennings, & Wolters, 2012, p. 243). The collective bargaining process relies on four aspects: recognition of the meeting, meeting with appropriate parties, bargaining in good faith, and incorporating the reached agreement (Adam, 1997). Nevertheless, collective bargaining activities are governed by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The NLRA requires bargaining

The negotiation simulation was a very informative and interesting assignment from beginning to end. The practical application was unlike anything else we’ve been required to complete thus far in our program. The ability to openly engage in a mock negotiation was very insightful, and allowed me to further develop an understanding of the intricate underworking’s of the personal interactions and preparations that define how the negotiation unfolds. I enjoyed the insight into the perspective of the union’s side of negotiation, as I typically assume a perspective from management when considering negotiations and their implications. This allowed me to understand the viewpoint and strategies accompanying the union’s side of the negotiation, which could prove invaluable to me in the future.