Labor-management contract negotiations in an electronic meeting room: A case study

We present perhaps the first case study of labor-management contract talks conducted in an electronic meeting room supported by a computer Negotiation Support System (NSS). The organization's union and management representatives spent a total of 57 hours (13 sessions) in the electronic meeting room; their efforts resulted successfully in a contract ratified by both sides. The NSS described comprised three tools from the Group Systems electronic meeting system and three ad hoc tools. Besides the NSS, three other intervention factors were introduced in tandem with the NSS: new negotiation process techniques, the active involvement of third party mediators, and a unique negotiation setting. The new process techniques were introduced based on the goals of integrative bargaining and the Win-Win techniques. The negotiation process was divided into three distinct stages: strategy, issues, and bargaining.