MCA case/ Connecticut Valley negotiation

This week we took part in a three party negotiation that dealt with seven competing projects. We were either a headmaster, faculty committee member or board of trustees member for the Connecticut Valley School. The point was to agree on the main improvements for the school while staying under budget for the year. As a headmaster, my three main concerns were the pool, hockey rink roof and busses. As soon as me and my partner got to the negotiation table, we we found that the faculty and trustees had already formed a coalition within minutes. They presented us with a plan that sounded suffice and included all possible upgrades except the pool and the heating system. The faculty convinced us that this was the best approach and the trustees had agreed. As soon as we began to make our argument we got word that a girl was assaulted walking from the library to her dormitory. The timing of this news harmed our argument because everyone immediately found the campus lighting as a necessary issue, including my partner and I. We decided that not getting the pool was acceptable because we still did get the hockey rink roof and busses. Improving our current assets and helping our students out with busses seemed to be a higher priority. We had access to a pool that we were able to rent, so we decided that we would have to wait another year to invest in our own pool. After all, we did invest a large sum of the budget into athletic activities last year as well, so it was only fair to allow some improvement of academic activities this year.


The MCA case was interesting because the flight attendants really wanted to be compensated in a similar way to the competing airline companies. They were proven to be underpaid, and did not have the same type of benefits as other companies. The flight attendants union was able to come up with a strong strategic plan to encourage MCA management to give them an upgraded contract. MCA did not come into the negotiation nearly as prepared as the flight attendants did, which is why they were forced to give up some more on the first interest by the flight attendants. Unfortunately, the case did not go through the whole negotiation, but it seemed as if the strategies that the union had designed were working in their favor.