Negotiation Experiences EPO

1
Negotiation Experiences EPO

• Phil Bocking
• SUEPO
• Central Staff Committee

2
Reaction to positions of power
"The most common reaction to a position of power
is to build an opposing position of power"
John K Galbraith - Anatomy of Power
3
Situation in 2001

• 6 days strike to get a face to face meeting with
  senior management
• Strongly Positional
• Document wars
• Extreme distrust

4
Career / Salary Negotiation

• Threat of takeover from Admin Council
• Initially Stifled Dialogue
• Regular meetings (14 in all)

5
Meeting structure (Start)
Management
Staff Reps
6
Development of better relations

• Deepening understanding of each others problems
• Joint Agenda Building (Process)
• Introduction of new topics

7
Meeting structure (end)
8
Meeting structure (Experiments)
9
Breakthroughs

• A Career Agreement - Genuinely JOINT
• Joint Communications to staff
• Health and Safety / Invalidity WG
• Consultation Group
• Second Group established of other areas.

10
Change of Management

• New President - July 2004
• Presidents assistant is opposed to Staff
  Committee
• JAB Process has been stopped

11
Current situation

• New President is not supportive
• Attempts to wind back some of the agreements
• Undermining of the consultation groups
• Adversarial relations developing

12
Conclusions

• Partnership can work but is personality/relationsh
  ip dependent
• Processes are important tools
• Anything not written can be changed
• It always helps to have an alternative
• Fear of external interference worries IOs
• Negotiation is a multi-faceted skill and requires
  training.