You are a chief officer in your organization, and your fire chief selects you to participate on the management negotiation team in the development of the organization’s first memorandum of understanding (MOU). You were selected for your knowledge of labor management relations and your keen ability to maintain management rights while fostering a collaborative relationship with union leadership. The fire chief communicates with you that your top priorities are to remain fiscally conservative and foster a good relationship with the labor group.
The department has never been unionized or had any type of MOU between management and labor.
The union has requested to begin negotiations to establish the organization’s first MOU. The union negotiations team consists of the president, a negotiator, and a full e-board. The management team consists of you and the hired negotiator. In this assignment, you will need to discuss the initiation of bargaining.
Explain regulations, laws, and standards of personnel management related to effective labor management relations.
During the first meeting, you will be asked to set ground rules and principles of bargaining and to describe them.
What would you include in your proposal to the union regarding ground rules and principles of bargaining, and why?
How will you ensure good communication and positive labor/management relationships during negotiations?
How would you ensure management rights are maintained?
What central issues/contract terms would you want on the table?
Would you ask to receive non-economic or economic proposals first? Why?
During the second and third meetings, a few basic articles in the MOU are agreed upon, and the union has finished proposing all of their economic requests and have a few non-economic proposals on the table. A total of nine economic proposals are made, including an employee retirement contribution decrease, more vacation days, increased uniform allowance, educational incentives, increased base pay, additional steps, holiday pay, employer paid health insurance at 100%, and call-back pay.
At the end of the third meeting, the union asks if the department is going to make any counter proposals. You say that the department will not be able to until the department can cost out the full amount of each economic proposal to determine the economic impact. The union negotiator challenges your statement, implying that you are bargaining in bad faith because you have not made any counter proposals, and that there is no reason you cannot agree to terms on some of the smaller economic proposals.
How do you address the issue?
What would be your response? Be as detailed as possible with the information provided.
Your assignment must be at least four pages in length but no more than five pages. You must include at least two outside references, one of which can be the textbook. Please adhere to APA Style when creating citations and references for this assignment. APA formatting, however, is not necessary.
Unit II Case Study
For this assignment, you are to research a case study about a case issue surrounding personnel management in the fire service related to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Consider the information learned in this unit, which pertains to integrity and ethical decision-making, motivational techniques, communication, and leadership styles that can be used in dealing with the case study you choose.
Legal topics may include, but are not limited to, the following areas:
diversity,
hiring procedures,
hostile work environment,
discrimination (any type),
sexual harassment,
social media/bullying,
retaliation, or
another related topic.
Upon choosing your topic, you will need to ensure you address the components below.
Explain the issues surrounding the topic within personnel management.
Develop recommendations and solutions surrounding the issue.
Formulate a plan to implement the recommendations.
Explain how ethical decision-making and motivational techniques impact these issues.
Identify key leadership styles or traits that you would use to address these issues.
You will need to discuss your topic as it pertains to your workplace in a minimum of three pages, not counting the title or references page. You must use at least three references, one of which can be the textbook, to help you formulate the response. Please adhere to APA Style when creating citations and references for this assignment. APA formatting is necessary.
