IX.  Conclusions

This simulation for Cyberweek 2002 successfully demonstrated the use of Smartsettle to settle a labor-management negotiation with eleven issues. The entire simulation was done online. The Smartsettle negotiation software was supplemented with telephone conference calls, email and instant messengers. Following is the final agreement:

Ottawa Management and Rosemont Labor agree:

CLASS SIZE

· to establish a class ratio of 28 students maximum for each teacher, and

· to leave faculty increase up to the discretion of management but not to decrease during the next year.

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

· to eliminate co-pay on all health benefits,

· that the employer will pay 100 % of the dental plan,

· to go with the fee for service option for healthcare, and

· to increase the employer’s share by 0% of the total healthcare premium payments.

HEALTH & SAFETY

· to install metal detectors at school entrances on an ad hoc basis,

· to have one police officers on duty in the school per 1000 enrolled students,

· to have at least 21 non-teaching assistants (NTAs) on duty per 1000 enrolled students,

· to allow Health & Safety committee members to allot time during current prep time, and

· to allow 92 minutes/week compensated time for Health & Safety committee members in addition to any prep time used.

The following graph summarizes the results of the negotiation in satisfaction space relative to the walkaway levels of each party. During Session One, Labor and Management each made their initial Optimistic proposals. You can see that Labor’s initial proposal, shown on the left side, was below Management’s walkaway level. Management’s initial proposal, plotted on the right hand side, was not accepted by Labor. During Session Two, Smartsettle generated several Suggestions. One of those Suggestions was accepted by both parties and became a Baseline (previously known as Tentative) agreement after Session Two. Smartsettle then generated an Improvement on the Efficiency Frontier, which became the Final Agreement at the close of Session Three.

Following is a summary of the same information in tabular form. The hypothetical compromise packages are not plotted in the above diagram. The benefits generated by the Smartsettle process are normalized on the basis of the walkaway packages.

Normalized Package Ratings (%)
Labor Management
Last Labor Proposal 138 -270
Last Management Proposal -94 185
Hypothetical Compromise 22 -43
Labor Walkaway 0 100
Management Walkaway 100 0
Hypothetical Compromise 50 50
Baseline Agreement 76 79
 Final Agreement 105 102
Gain over Baseline 29 23
Gain over Walkaway Compromise 55 52
Gain over Proposal Compromise 83 145

Caution is advised in projecting benefits for real negotiations based on the results of this simulation.