You may recall that we communicated to you that CRPEG and the employer had agreed to attend a work shop on Interest-Based Negotiations (IBN) offered by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (MCS), a department in the Government of Canada.
Our negotiations team met with the employer for our first formal round of negotiation talks May 18-20th. The first two days were made up of a Facilitator-lead workshop on Interest Based Negotiations (IBN), concluding with both parties agreeing to enter into this style of bargaining, with assistance of a MCS provided facilitator. The third day was used to build on the training establishing a set of joint goals and the ground rules that will govern the negotiation. The goals, as part of a formal statement of intent, will be communicated to members once they are finalized at the next session. As this is a change from typical negotiations, the goals may be shared with the rest of the company, to show an alternative approach. The groups also took the opportunity to deal with logistics: setting times that fifteen people could meet throughout the summer months for three days at a time. Both groups were able to commit to a three day session once a month starting in June to October.
How is Interest-Based Negotiations different than what we have done in the past? The traditional method of negotiating at CNL is referred to as Position-Based Bargaining. In this method, employer and employee representatives each develop a set of proposals that represent a new collective agreement (a position). Then the two go back and forth revising the positions until they reach some middle point. It is, by its nature confrontational. This alternative method of bargaining, Interest-Based Bargaining focuses on an issue or group of issues put forward, and the employee and employer groups work together to try to develop a solution to the issue that meets the needs of both parties. It is more cooperative in nature, and can generate more creative solutions for complex issues. Neither is right or wrong, they both have appropriate uses. (For more information on IBN http://www.gov.nl.ca/lra/union/ibn.html)
The Employer and CRPEG have jointly agreed to use the IBN process and hope the exercise will lead to a more efficient round of negotiations and also to improvements in ongoing labour relations between the two parties.