NEGOTIATORS, “LET’S BE CAREFUL OUT THERE.”
Wandering around the streets and back alleys of a collective bargaining neighborhood can be very dangerous—even fatal to one’s future career prospects as a negotiator. A new FLRA decision reminds us of a signature line in a decades-old cops and killers show called Hill Street Blues where the shift sergeant uttered the words quote above as he sent his officers out onto the streets. Check it out. A new decision out of FLRA highlights why negotiators need to be just as cautious. The agency proposed a significant change in working conditions and the union submitted only the following bargaining proposal, “The Union proposes maintaining the status quo pertaining to the [policy] until the completion of the term negotiations of the Master Agreement. The [p]arties would then use the procedures agreed to in the new Master Agreement to address the issues in the [A]gency’s proposal.” Can you see why arbitrator and FLRA allowed the agency to refuse to bargain and unilaterally implement? [Hint, the proposal was timely, it was not de minimis, and the agency did not have a covered-by defense.] Continue reading