Union Bargaining Strategies - Essay Example

"Union Bargaining Strategies" is an inspiring example of a paper on the health system. As a Union Organizer, it is my responsibility to call a meeting and prepare for the contract renewal negotiation with the hospital.  Due to the economic recession facing the country, the State has reduced its budget allocation to the health sector affecting numerous hospitals. The hospital projects a loss of $100 million. This has resulted in numerous cost-cutting measures by the hospital including reduction of staff, reduction of salaries and integration of two pediatrics ICU units into one.

 Recently, the nurses union and the janitors and technician union finished their contract negotiation, and they agreed on a one-year salary freeze. It is the turn of CIR to negotiate a new contract with the hospital, and this meeting has been called to lay down the strategies of the negotiation and identify the demands of the union. The main objective of the meeting is to analyze the demand of its members and come out in unity for the purpose of realizing the demands of the union.

 One of the concerns emanates from Jared, the resident surgeon. Jared’s department advocates for a pay rise because of the extra hours of work they devote to the organization. This view is supported by Sarah, the internal medicine resident. However, she is sympathetic to the hospital's financial condition. The department of JD is critical of the union and is concerned with the security of its members, while the Neurology department, represented by Rebecca, advocates for the working condition of the staff. This includes restructuring of the time within which the hospital cafeteria needs to be closed and proper care of the call rooms where residents sleep.

The issues identified for the negotiation are salary increase, proper care of call room facilities and accessibility of cafeteria services during night shifts. After this identification, it is important to know the strategies our negotiating team needs to employ in order to get the results. On salary increase, it is most unlikely the hospital will grant our wish because of the financial crises facing the nation and the hospital, the same for proper maintenance of call room facilities because it will need hiring more cleaners, which will be against the hospital's policy of cost-cutting measures.

The members of the union agreed to employ an integrative bargaining strategy (Menil, 21). We had to consider the interest of the company in relation to ours with the aim of giving up some of our interests for the benefit of gaining some. The issue of salary raise is unrealistic at the current financial crises; we, therefore, had to give up on that. To get support, the union voted Sarah as the leader of the negotiating team since her department had the majority of votes.  

Another strategy is to neutralize the influence of JD from the psychiatry department and explain to them the benefits of the union and why they need to vote for the union’s resolutions. Rebecca’s concern is a critical issue that affects the whole resident's department and therefore it will have to be addressed and no comprise with the hospital department made on this issue.

In conclusion, the negotiation strategy of CIR is known as an integrative bargaining strategy (Menil, 22). This is a soft bargaining strategy which involves ceding ground to some of the organization's interest for the purposes of gaining other interests. The Union resolved not to pursue a salary increase due to the economic recession facing the country in the hope of gaining better working conditions and staff retention.

Read More