ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to offer useful guidance to labor relations practitioners who participate in collective bargaining in the field of higher education. For context, the author first provides readers with the structure of public sector collective bargaining in New York State and its impact on the 29 State-operated campuses of the State University of New York. With this background in place, the author then gives readers practical information gleaned from his many years of experience in both public higher education administration and at the bargaining table. Selected by the author from a host of issues that confronted the parties over the course of numerous rounds of bargaining, the examples he has chosen provide readers with situations and solutions they are likely to encounter when working in this arena. These situations are not, however, offered only as specific fact patterns, but rather to serve as generic illustrations of challenges that will arise in the course of collective bargaining. These illustrations are accompanied by suggested intellectual considerations for the parties’ use in trying to identify common grounds upon which to reach agreement. In short, the author describes actual problems and approaches to resolution that can serve as a valuable template for wider application by labor relations practitioners on both sides of the table.
