Arbitration and collective bargaining: conflict resolution in labor relations

More than a decade has passed since Archi bald Cox, Harvard Law Professor and former United States Solicitor General, ob served that: "We have not labored at the administration of collective agreements for almost two decades without arriving at some generalizations upon which the unbiased can agree even though partisan interests preclude unanimity." Time has not lessened but has made more imperative the need for codifying, or at least gathering together in some systematic form, those generalizations which have gained exceedingly wide if not unanimous acceptance by the few hundred persons who serve at the terminal point of most grievance and arbitration procedures. This book is an attempt by two knowledg able and highly experienced teachers and practitioners to meet that need.

It is an analytical study of labor arbitration in particular and collective bargaining in general. The authors believe that studying arbitral issues and concepts is one of the best means of understanding the dynamics of collective bargaining. They provide a theo retical framework for grasping the essence of the grievance and arbitration process, and to this purpose explore a wide range of sub stantive and procedural issues. Their book focuses on the arbitration of grievances un der written collective bargaining agreements stressing underlying analytical concepts rather than surface techniques. The material covers a wide variety of actual case studies.

The approach throughout is analytical and philosophical. Its major emphasis is on con cept rather than technique. The book seeks to provide a lucid theoretical framework for understanding the day-to-day collective bar gaining process. Basic arbitration criteria are analyzed and illustrated through the use of authentic and significant arbitral opinions.. An effort is made to probe the inner logic of this quasi-judicial system. The authors examine not the awards of arbitrators but the reasoning behind them. Their spotlight is on fundamental criteria utilized by most arbitrators. They also indicate some areas of disagreement among arbitrators as, for example, the issue of clear language versus past practice.