Interest-Based Bargaining: Labor and Management Working Together in Ramsey County, Minnesota

Abstract

In a local example, where a new approach to bargaining got started, we find Ramsey County, Minnesota. After a bitter strike and experiments with outside negotiators, the parties turned to interest-based bargaining as a way to improve the bargaining relationship. Even though the brief period that the county contracted out negotiations seemed peaceful compared to the preceding tumultuous years, the parries found that an interest-based bargaining relationship produced results beyond expectations. Construing bargaining as part of a mutual interest relationship, the parties rely on each other's on-going service and quality of work-life concerns. Now, contracts are renegotiated in record time, before expiration, in contrast to the lengthy delays under the traditional collective bargaining model. Issues are addressed by joint groups between bargaining rounds. Grievances have been reduced, thus causing less disruption. Better service is now provided, and customer service has been enhanced. The parties also applied the interest-based approach to the always complicated problem of merging departments. Correcting the anachronism of separate city and county health departments, this new relationship and approach was used to handle the personnel and labor issues involved in such a merger. Here, Ramsey County shows how to move in a municipal context from a traditional to a cooperative relationship and how quickly the benefits spread out and emerge.