Collective Bargaining and Conflict: Impacts on School Governance

Abstract

This paper deals with the links between collective bargaining and the overall governance process in a school system. Through a detailed case study the dynamics of the relationships among superintendent, school board, and union are described, with a focus on conflict and how it cuts across bargaining and governance structures. Anthony M. Cresswell is Associate Professor of Education and Man agement and Director of the Labor Relations in Education Project at Northwestern University. Daniel Simpson is a student in the Educa tion Administration program at Northwestern University and a resi dent of the district described. 1. Part of this research was conducted through the Labor Relations in Education Project which is supported by the Ford Foundation and the Spencer Foundation. 2. See, for example, C. R. Perry and W. A. Wildman, The Impact o f Collec tive Negotiations in Public Education (Worthington, Ohio: C. A. Jones, 1967); D. Gerwin, ed., The Employment of Teachers (Berkeley: McCutchan, 1975). 3. M. W. Kirst, "After School Finance Reform: What Will Low Wealth School Districts Do With Unrestricted State Aid?" Stanford: School of Education, Stanford University, 1975 (mimeographed); J. G. Chambers, "The Impact of Collective Bargaining for Teachers on Resource Alloca tion in Public School Districts: The California Experience," paper pre sented at the Southern Economic Association Meeting, November 1975; D. B. Lipsky and J. B. Drotning, "The Influence of Collective Bargain ing on Teachers' Salaries in New York State," Industrial and Labor Relations Review 27, 1 (October 1973). 4. Some of these studies are: D. Hellriegel, W. French, and R. B. Peterson, "Collective Negotiations and Teachers: A Behavioral Analysis," In dustrial and Labor Relations Review 23, 3 (April 1970); M. J. Murphy and D. Hoover, "Negotiations at the Crossroads: Increased Profes sionalization or Reinforced Bureaucracy?" IAR Research Bulletin 14, 2 (February 1974); A. M. Glasman and J. A. Belasco, "The Chapter Chairman and School Grievances," Industrial Relations 14, 2 (May 1975). 5. R. E. Walton and R. W. McKersie, A Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965). 6. J. Dunlop, The Industrial Relations System (New York: Henry Holt, 1958), pp. 13-16. 7. N. W. Chamberlain and D. E. Cullen, The Labor Sector (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971), pp. 226-29. 8. See T. A. Kochan, "City Government Bargaining: A Path Analysis," Industrial Relations 14, 1 (February 1975), and, also, Perry and Wild man, The Impact of Collective Negotiations. 9. The importance of coalition formation in bargaining is reviewed by J. Z. Rubin and B. R. Brown in The Social Psychology of Bargaining and Negotiations (New York: Academic Press, 1975), pp. 64-80. 10. See D. Rogers, 110 Livingston Street (New York: Random House, 1968), and M. R. Berube and M. Gittell, Confrontation at Ocean Hill- Brownsville (New York: Praeger, 1969). 11. A. Rosenthal, Pedagogues and Power (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse Univer sity Press, 1969); R. G. Corwin, Militant Professionalism (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1970). 12. W. R. Hazard, "Collective Bargaining and School Governance," South- western University Law Review 5 (1973): 83-117; and L. G. Simon, "The School Finance Decisions: Collective Bargaining and Future Finance Systems," Yale Law Review 83, 3 (January 1973): 409-60. 13. L. H. Ziegler and M. K. Jennings, Governing American Schools (North Scituate, Mass.: Duxbury, 1974); and L. lannaconne and F. W. Lutz, Politics, Power and Policy: The Governing of Local School Districts (Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, 1970). 14. Iannaccone and Lutz, Politics, p. 175.