Analyzing The Professor Hickey's Unions And Collective Bargaining

The MIR program at Queens has introduced many concepts untouched by other academic disciplines. Beyond the initial introduction of various industrial concepts and frameworks, we as classmates, along with our professors, dive deeper into these concepts and move beyond a general understanding, into practical application. Specifically in Professor Hickey’s Unions and Collective Bargaining course, the introduction of industrial bargaining, labour law, and union formation concepts. Through an almost weekly application of the newly learned topics and theoretical frameworks, this course has put abstract learning into a practical lens. Personally, I believe that the application of the course material in the simulations offered by this course, have

Why understanding your mandate clearly is essential, and how the specific wording and terms of a collective agreement may affect your ability to accomplish that mandate. How to overcoming biases and other behavioural elements that are a part of the negotiation process, such as matching or working your own negotiation style and strategies with that of the other parties. Understanding how difficult it may be to stick with your resistance point in the face of real, hard-negotiations. And finally, the importance of reflecting after each negotiation on which skills furthered your goals and outcomes, and what areas require more attention and improvement from your team and as an individual negotiator. Although many of us negotiate in many different aspects of our lives, I believe that With the overall preparation offered by Unions and Collective Bargaining of conceptual learning, further advanced by practical application, we as future LR professionals are better prepared and equipped to enter into real collective agreement

Specifically, the bad feelings of the union surrounding the employer’s decision to give top executives large payouts, but their seemingly unwillingness to give other employees substantial raises. And the employer’s real threat of profit loss and potentially moving productions and investments overseas. I believe that economic and social sub-systems were affecting both managements and the union’s positions and goals in that simulation. The company’s lack of profits, the previous wage freeze, and current mandate to keep any wage increases to a minimum, were some of the economic systems seemingly negatively affecting the bargaining relationship. The social sub-systems seemed to be affected by the employer’s decision to give CEOs large bonuses. During negotiations the union viewed this ‘misuse’ of money as a poor excuse to be unwilling to increase wages to a significantly higher proportion. Where the employer was working from a position of little profit gains in the past few years, and a threat of moving productions all together. These opposing subsystems played a large role on the negotiations as they contributed to each party’s very contrasting viewpoint on the situation. The difficulties that arose from the conflicting viewpoints and actor’s strategies were further amplified when both parties realized the actual extent of how