You are the Human Resources Director of the city of Spanish Moss, Florida. The city is a municipality with 400 various employees including police personnel, fire department personnel, public works personnel and general city employees. As part of your duties as director of human resources, you negotiate collective bargaining agreements on behalf of the city for the collective bargaining agreements in place for the police union, fire department union, public works union and general employees’ union. All four collective bargaining agreements are coming up for renewal, however, the city manager comes to you and explains the following:
Because of tremendous declines in city revenue as a result of diminished home values, businesses moving out of the city and rising operating costs, the city manager explains to you that you are not to offer any increase in benefits during collective bargaining negotiations. Not only are you instructed to not offer any increases in benefits, you are instructed to propose eliminating all pension benefits for new hires, cutting back vacation time from 96 hours to 40 hours per year, eliminating all sick time benefits and proposing that everyone accepts a 6% pay cut. The city manager explains that these cuts are necessary to avoid mass layoffs of police, fire, public works and general employees because the city commission has refused to raise taxes. The city manager explains that unless you can accomplish the goals of eliminating the benefits mentioned, the city will not be able to meet its financial obligations and risks being taken over by the county.
You then meet with all 4 unions, who become outraged at the proposals. The unions screamed and yelled and eventually stormed out of the after calling you names. You then explain to the city manager that the unions ran out of the meeting without a deal. The city manager gets very angry at you and says, “You are not doing what I paid you for and I sincerely doubt your abilities and your competence. Unless you get this deal done, you will be the first to get laid off.” You then go back to your office and prepare a strategy for bringing the unions back to the negotiating table to discuss the proposals in a constructive manner and to resolve the disappointment expressed by the city manager.
Assignment: Using ONLY the concepts contained in the textbook (NO OTHER REFERENCES SHOULD BE USED), prepare a research paper that THOROUGHLY analyzes what concepts, techniques and skills you would use to 1) bring the unions back to the negotiating table to discuss the issues 2) constructively talk about the issues without angering the unions 3) resolving issues and concerns expressed by the city manager about your lack of competence and 4) any other concerns or issues you feel are necessary to resolve conflict with the unions and the city manager. PLEASE REMEMBER, THIS PAPER IS NOT ABOUT PROPOSING CONTRACTUAL BENEFITS, IT IS ABOUT TECHNIQUES CONTAINED IN THE TEXTBOOK THAT WOULD HELP YOU RESOLVE THE CONFLICTS PRESENTED IN THE SCENARIO. THEREFORE, IF YOU WRITE ABOUT CONTRACTUAL OFFERS THAT YOU THINK WILL SATISFY THE UNIONS, YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE A GOOD GRADE. FINALLY, USE TECHNIQUES FOUND IN THE TEXTBOOK, NOT OTHER SOURCES.
The paper must be double-spaced, paginated, have one-inch margins and be in Times New Roman 12-point font. The form and style of the paper must follow the Seventh Edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA). Papers shall include: 1) Cover Page 2) Table of Contents 3) Abstract 4) Body of the Paper (analysis), to include a proper introduction and conclusion 5) Reference page. Be sure to spell check all written material. Please save the document in Microsoft Office Word format. The paper must be submitted in MyCourses Learning software (drop box), not via email. Please remember, the paper must include 7-9 FULL pages of ANALYSIS (body of the paper). Failure to have at least 7-9 FULL pages of ANALYSIS will result in a grade that is not passing (partial pages do not count as a full page). All other sections of the paper do not count toward the length requirement.
ADDITIONALLY, IF YOUR PAPER CONTAINS ANY CUT AND PASTE, EVEN IF CITED, YOU WILL RECEIVE A GRADE OF “F” AS THIS IS PLAGIARISM ACCORDING TO COLLEGE POLICY. ANY USE OF A SOURCE MUST BE IN YOUR OWN WORDS AND PROPERLY CITED IN APA FORMAT. IN ADDITION, NO QUOTES OF ANY KIND ARE PERMITTED IN THE SUBMISSION. THERE SHOULD ALSO NOT BE ANY CHARTS/DIAGRAMS/BULLET POINTS/PICTURES OR OTHER VISUAL INSERTS IN THE BODY OF THE PAPER. IF YOU USE CHARTS/DIAGRAMS/BULLET POINTS/PICTURES, OR ANY VISUAL INSERTS, THEY MUST BE INCLUDED IN AN APPENDIX. PLEASE PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO NOT USING BULLET POINTS AS THEY ARE PROHIBITED IN THE BODY OF THE PAPER. FINALLY, IF YOU HAVE TAKEN THIS COURSE PREVIOUSLY, RESUBMISSION OF THE SAME OR SIMILAR SUBMISSION USED IN THE PREVIOUS COURSE WILL RESULT IN A GRADE OF 0. Please see the following for more information: Academic Honesty
NOTE: THERE ARE TUTORIAL VIDEOS THAT CAN BE FOUND IN THE “COURSE RESOURCES TAB IN THE “APA HELP MATERIAL” FOLDER THAT YOU MUST WATCH. THE VIDEOS EXPLAIN PROPER 7TH EDITION APA FORMATTING, PROPER IN-TEXT CITING AND CONSTRUCTING A PROPER REFERENCE PAGE. PLEASE WATCH ALL APA VIDEOS AND INCORPORATE THE INFORMATION INTO YOUR SUBMISSIONS.