Final Offer, the movie, was an interesting documentary on an negotiation that took place between General Motors and the Canadian Union workers.

The negotiation took place in the 1980s and what made it so interesting is that the American union workers had already worked out a deal with General Motors, which meant that GM could not give the Canadian workers a much better offer because this would change how the Americans felt and could create future implications.

The film was centralized around Bob White who was leading the negotiation on the union's side. He wanted to work out a deal with getting the leader, Owen Beiber involved.

Bob feared that if they were not able to work out a deal, Owen Beiber would step in and work out something that may not be fair for the union.

GM wanted to go with a different type of contract, where the union would share profits that GM made. The union would rather get a cost of living allowance increase of 3%.

The agreement was pushed off and eventually the workers went on a wildcat strike that started 16 hours before it was intended (which showed some lack of control and organization by Bob White and the union officials).

There was now a deadline that was set for the workers to go on a longer term strike if there is not a deal made so the pressure was really on. Bob White used a bluffing strategy by saying he had 10 million dollars in strike funds when he did not.

This made the other side feel that there was less pressure on Bob and the union then there actually was. GM had some leveraging power of their own. They were able to threaten the closing of plants and loss of jobs.

Owen Beiber threatened to take over control of the negotiation and make a contract that was similar to the deal that the Americans came up with, which is not what the Canadians wanted.

After 8 days of the strike by the Canadian Union, General Motors had flinched. They offered Bob White a 2.25% increase for three years, which was not the 3% that the union had wanted, but Bob convinced them that it was a good enough deal to take.

During the negotiation, when working with GM, Bob White was able to keep calm and control his emotions, even though cameras showed that he was stressed over the situation.

By being able to control his emotions, GM was able to sense his confidence and this was probably able to help the union with the negotiation.

Summary 2 -

"Final Offer."The movie was a documentary about the Canadian Union and GM deciding on a contract. Bob Smith, who was the head of the Canadian Union had to speak on behalf of the workers Union to get the workers the deal that they were fighting for.GM wanted the workers to not have an increase in pay but to provide them with profit sharing.The workers were not interested in profit sharing because even though they could potentially see more money in their pay checks, GM could have a bad month and the workers wouldn't be able to make as much moeny.The lack of payment stability was the deciding factor for the workers not to accept a deal involving profit sharing.The Union also wanted the Cost of Living Allowance to increase

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GM was not willing to accomodate the Union on these demands, which resulted in the workers going on a strike.Bob White had to communicate throughout the whole strike with Owen Beiber, who was the head of the US Union for GM.It was a struggle for Bob White to have to constantly turn to Owen Beiber before making any decisions. During the strike GM threatened to eliminate the workers jobs and hire new employees to make the Union comply with their demands.Bob White wasn't budging and decided to continue the strike even though Owen Beiber wanted them to settle a deal for fear that the Candadian strike would affect profits for the American Union workers.

On the 8th day of the strike GM decided to give the Union most of what they were asking for.Bob White was extremely excited that he was going to be able to put this strike to rest and get the Union back for work.When Bob presented the offer to the board of Union workers, everyone wanted a better deal.Bob White kept his composure while listening to the members say that they were not interested in taking the deal.Bob ended up fighting with one of his fellow board members for saying that he did not think of the well being of the group as a whole.In the end of the workers and GM closed the deal.Bob White took the initiative to stand up for the workers and stay on strike even though it would have cost the workers some money, because he knew that GM would eventually crack.Since GM was losing more money than the workers were GM could not afford to keep the workers on strike.

Based on the 1984 movie answer these questions:

How would you assess the relative bargaining power of the two sides? What sanctions did both sides have? Were they prepared to use them?

Describe the compromises and movement that occurred from the opening of negotiations to the final settlement.

Explain why and how internal bargaining takes place (because the movie provides more information about the union, concentrate on the internal bargaining within the union).