BUS 485: Negotiations and Conflict Management

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1.  Introduction

NOTE (Spring 2016): This guide was created a few years ago when the BUS 485 assignments required sources on negotiation theory (section 2 below) as well as actual collective agreements, and news stories about them. I'm unsure if such resources are required this term, but have left the guide in place just in case. -- MarkB

This guide covers resources (books, articles, websites) on negotiation in general, as well as on the more specific topic of labour negotiations/collective bargaining.

Start with the tools/tips listed here, but remember to ask for help if you have trouble finding what you need.  Contact a librarian by email, phone, chat, or in person using our Ask a Librarian services and/or email me.  Good luck with your research!

Mark Bodnar
Liaison Librarian - Business & Economics
mbodnar@sfu.ca

2. Negotiation theory and practice

2.a. Books

Search for books in the SFU Library catalogue using such subjects as:

Also try the same subjects in the catalogues of other local libraries, especially the local public libraries.

2.b. Journal and magazine articles

Search for academic journal articles and business magazine articles in Business Source Complete. Start with the following subjects, then use the Refine Search link to focus your search with additional terms.

A few journals that you might want to browse:

3. Collective agreements & news

If your research involves analysing an actual labour contract negotiation, you will likely want to find both the collective agreement (the result of the negotiation) and details on what was said at each stage in the negotiation. Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that you will find verbatim transcripts of negotiations. Instead, you will probably need to rely on secondary sources (i.e., newspaper articles, web sites, press releases, etc.) and make inferences about what went on in the negotiations.

Don't expect to find everything laid out for you in one publication! (And even if you do find a particularly comprehensive description of a specific negotiation, be sure to evaluate its quality carefully - both parties in most negotiations have strong motivations for being less than completely open and truthful with the press.)

3.a. Finding collective agreements

  • If you have a particular negotiation in mind, you should start by checking the sites of the relevant organisations (unions, government bodies, etc.) See 3.b. below for directories of unions.
TIP: Before you settle on a specific negotiation, do some exploratory searching in some of the sources below to make sure there is some information available!
  • B.C. Labour Relations Board: Searchable index of collective agreements. (Note: there is no guarantee that other provinces publish agreements as BC does.)
  • Negotech: "Negotech features a sample of small bargaining units of 100 or more employees under provincial jurisdiction, all bargaining units under federal jurisdiction and all large bargaining units of 500 or more employees. The system provides the last two available collective agreements as searchable text." (A product of the Government of Canada's Workplace Information Directorate.)
  • Workplace Bulletin: Much of the same data as is in Negotech (above). SFU has earlier versions of this newsletter in print. For example: Workplace Gazette (SFU has 1998 to 2004 - Bound Journals (Bennett: 6th floor)) If you are working on an older negotiation, you should also check the earlier versions of the Workplace Gazette: Major Wage Settlements (SFU has 1984-1997) and Collective Bargaining Review (SFU has 1965-1997).

3.b. Directories of unions & labour groups

3.c. Government sites

Government sites may have useful information if the government was the employer or if the government intervened in the dispute (e.g., back-to-work legislation).

  • BC Government: if a specific government ministry is the employer in the case you are researching, check out that ministry's website for news or reports. If the case you are working on involved government intervention (e.g., back-to-work legislation), you should also check the relevant government web site. See the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training and Responsible for Labour's Reports web page, for example.
     
  • Canada: As with BC, the Canadian government might have been the employer (check the list of agencies and departments to find the specific part of the government involved).

3.d. Press releases

Many organizations will provide their press releases at their web sites, but you can also search across many organizations by using a site such as Canada NewsWire. A good place to find US (and other international) press releases is PR Newswire. Note, however, that services like PR Newswire tend to be focused on companies rather than government bodies. If you are investigating a negotiation involving a government, you might be better off start with CBCA or Canadian Newsstream (below) or visiting the government site directly (above). For recent releases from unions in Canada, check out the Canadian feed of Labour Start.

3.e. Magazine/newspaper articles

To find articles written about specific contract negotiations, start with the article indexes listed below.

Canadian Newsstream
Fulltext articles and transcripts from many Canadian newspapers and news shows from the late 1980s to a couple days ago.
 
TIP: Canadian Newsstream will likely be one of your most valuable tools. Note that it contains major papers throughout Canada as well as smaller papers from BC such as the Vancouver Courier and the Burnaby Now.
CBCA Fulltext Business
Articles, many of them fulltext online, from 1982 to a couple months ago from Canadian business journals, newspapers, and other magazines. Includes such publications as Our Times ("Canada's Independent Labour Magazine"). Business Source Complete
Canadian and US articles in academic and popular publications - many fulltext online. Business in Vancouver (BIV)
BIV often has good coverage of business/labour topics in BC. BIV is indexed in CBCA Fulltext Business (listed above) and at the BIV site, but it isn't available fulltext online in any of our databases. (That means you can use CBCA Fulltext Business to identify articles on your topic, but you won't get the whole article on your computer screen.) Check SFU's print copies of BIV for the specific articles you need (we own 1990 to the present in our Print Journals area (6th floor, Bennett Library)). For more help finding appropriate news databases and sites, see the SFU Library's guides to News Resources and Alternative News Resources.

4.  Further resources

  • BestCase
    This SFU Library database includes summaries of the BC Labour Relations Board Decisions and the BC Labour Arbitration Decisions, as well as the Canada Labour Arbitration Summaries.
     
  • Industrial Relations Legislation in Canada
    From Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC), a great overview of the laws and regulations dealing with collective bargaining in each province. Covers things such as what rules dictate when unions and employers can request government mediation, etc.
     
  • Strikes and Lockouts
    Another HRSDC resource: "Interactive database that provides the number of strikes and lockouts which have occurred in Canada since 1976. A weekly report and a year-to-date listing containing all major strikes and lockouts involving 500 or more employees are also available."
     
  • Our Times: Canada's Independent Labour Magazine
     
  • Industrial Relations Bulletin
    Most recent year available in the Bennett Library Print Journals area (6th floor) - shelved by title.
    From the Business Council of British Columbia, this monthly newsletter includes details on recent settlements and negotiations that are in progress.
     
  • Public opinion resource: Ipsos News Centre
     
  • Canadian labour relations and employment topics
    Most recent year in the Reference Collection at the Bennett Library [HD 8106.5 C651]. Older editions on the 4th floor at the same call number. Editions older than 2004 had the title Canadian industrial relations and personnel developments and the call number [HD 8106.5 C65] (4th floor)
    Includes a calendar of agreements being negotiated throughout the country, as well as data on specific working conditions and compensation details recently negotiated in union agreements, and articles on trends and issues in Canadian negotiations.
     
  • BC Bargaining Database
    A joint project of the BCLRB and the Business Council of BC, this database "provides general statistical information on collective agreement settlements in British Columbia".
     
  • British Columbia Collective Bargaining Review and Outlook: HD 6529 B7 B7361 (on the 4th floor of Bennett Library). Includes details on wage settlement patterns in BC as well as bargaining issues (past and projected).
     
  • Canadian Labour Law and Labour Relations Links: Links to sites on legislation, standards, LRBs, etc.

5.  Presentations, citing, and help

5.a. Presentations: "How-to" books and the equipment to practice

The SFU Library has many books on creating effective business presentations and on public speaking in general, including several recent titles that are available online for SFU researchers. In addition, SFU students can sign out a digital projector in the Library to use in our bookable group study rooms: a great way to practice your presentation!

5.b. Citing your sources

You also need to correctly cite all of the books, journal articles, and sites that you used in your research. Start with the SFU Library guide to APA Style and our Citing Business Sources (APA) guide. 

The APA offers a bit of online guidance for those citing electronic materials in APA format at their APAStyle page. Note that one of the topics they cover is Citations in Text of Electronic Material.  Note also that some of our article indexes have information within their Help pages on how to cite articles found in databases using common formats such as APA, MLA, and Chicago, and that some of them will even allow you to save/email your citations in a specific format like APA (e.g., Business Source Complete has this feature).

Learning how to properly credit others when you use their ideas is a difficult, but important, part of research. Start with the SFU Library's interactive tutorial "Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism" to test yourself and to learn more about plagiarism. Also read the SFU Library Guide on Plagiarism for further discussion of this critical topic and for links to other plagiarism guides.

5.c.  Getting help

  • You can get help from a reference librarian in person at our reference desks as well as via email, chat, and telephone. Check out our Ask A Librarian services.
     
  • If the reference librarians that you reach via Ask a Librarian can't help you, they will usually suggest that you email me.  If you do email me [mbodnar@sfu.ca], please try to include as much of the following information in your question.  This will make it much easier for me to help you quickly.
    • What exactly you are looking for (saying that you need "everything about CUPE" is far too broad - saying that you need to know where to find "the collective agreement between CUPE Local XXX and the City of Burnaby" is better);
    • where you have searched so far (have you tried the sources listed in this guide?);
    • and what search terms you have used.