Tentative Agreements and Caucus

Tentative Agreements

When both parties have reached an agreement on a specific proposal, or specific portion of a proposal, or on the entire package, they have reached a tentative agreement.   If you can get your employer to sign off and date parts of the overall package every time you have reached a TA, it “settles” that portion of the bargaining so that it can’t be used as a hostage in exchange for other items later, unless both sides mutually agree to such an exchange.  If negotiations break down and you go to impasse, items that were  TA’d cannot be taken away in imposing the Board’s last best offer.  Items that have been TA’d  ARE part of the last best offer (LBO).  Caution:  once you TA a portion of the package or the whole package it would be a potential unfair labor practice to try to take back the TA.  Therefore, it is imperative to make sure that whatever the team agrees to is something that will be ok with the entire membership.

Caucus

A caucus is a recess from bargaining at the table.  It can serve a variety of purposes:  a cooling off period after a heated exchange, a chance for the team and chief negotiator to strategize, share information on what is being seen, heard, or sensed in the room, or to share an idea for a proposal or counter proposal, to consider a proposal from the other side, or as a strategy to give the other side a chance to think or to second-guess themselves, or to second-guess you.  A caucus can be called by either side.  They should be used as necessary, but as sparingly as possible.   You may set a ground rule regarding the length of time or number of caucuses to be allowed, but avoid that if you can agree to keep them to a reasonable length.

Good Faith

SDCL 3-8-2.  . . .The negotiations by the governmental agency or its designated representatives and the employee organization or its designated representatives shall be conducted in good faith.  Such obligation does not compel either party to agree to a proposal or require the making of a concession but shall require a statement of rationale for any position taken by either party in negotiations. . .

Requirement that the parties to a contract (such as a collective bargaining agreement) regularly meet and discuss with a willingness to reach an accord on proposed new contract terms.  It is an unfair labor practice under SDCL 3-18-3.1 and 3.2 for an employer or employee to refuse to negotiate collectively in good faith.  "Hard bargaining'(taking a strong position on an issue) does not violate the laws, but surface bargaining (meeting and merely going through the motions of negotiations with no intent of reaching an agreement) or a "take-it-or-, leave-it" approach would constitute “bad-faith bargaining” in violation of the law. Additional examples of bad-faith bargaining include refusing to meet, delaying meetings, or failing to give the chief negotiator sufficient authority to make agreements. -Such violations would prompt a ULP.