ABSTRACT
A problem of compelling immediacy for legislative bodies is the need to develop appropriate legal structures for the resolution of impasses in public employee collective bargaining. One of the relevant considerations in adopting a particular structural alternative is its acceptability to the labor relations practitioners who must live with it. This paper reports a survey of preferences for various types of impasse resolution alternatives by persons who bargain on behalf of municipal corporations and those who bargain for one group of public employees, fire fighters. It examines several questions with respect to these preferences. Union negotiators’ preferences are analyzed to determine what procedures they prefer, and the order of preference. Management negotiators’ preferences are viewed to the same end. The preferences of union negotiators are compared with those of management negotiators in order to determine whether, and to what extent, they disagree as to preferences for particular procedures.
