All too often, management likes to stir the pot in contract negotiations by putting their so-called “final offer” on the table. With this type of proposal, the Management team is implying that the bargaining process is at an end. They may even add for effect that the “final offer” has to be accepted and ratified by the membership by a date specific or it is off the table and forever lost. Also, for emphasis they may add a few adjectives such as- “this is our last, best and final offer” in a take-it-or-leave-it tone.
Such a tactic usually occurs towards the later stages of the bargaining process, and is designed to intimidate and threaten the union team into accepting a substandard settlement. Not surprisingly, Management teams view these inflammatory offers with deadlines attached much differently than do the Union committees. They see it as “a useful way to exert pressure on the union to act upon management’s final offer” and a “businesslike way of negotiating”. (Negotiating a Labor Contract : A Management Handbook by Charles Loughran) However, by simply declaring that this is their “final offer” does not in any way absolve management from their legal obligation and duty to bargain.
The duty to bargain is set out in the National Labor Relations Act, as well as in the Massachusetts collective bargaining law, Chapter 150 (e). It requires that both parties (the union and the employer) engage in the process of bargaining over mandatory subjects in good faith. This means that there is “…a mutual obligation of the employer and representative of the employees to meet at reasonable times and confer in good faith with respect to wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment …” (National Labor Relations Act, Sec. 8 (d)). and “The employer and the exclusive representative shall meet at reasonable times, including meetings in advance of the employer’s budget-making process and shall negotiate in good faith with respect to wages, hours, standards or productivity and performance, and any other terms and conditions of employment … (Mass. Chap. 150 (e)).
Neither party may unilaterally or prematurely terminate that bargaining process by declaring that it is at an end. However, an employer’s “final offer” attempts to do just that.