You are the HR manager at FoodFaire, a local grocery store. Your clerks belong to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which has threatened a strike in $11$ days unless their demands are met. They are asking for a $12\%$ raise, and you can offer them only $4\%.$ You can almost feel the hours ticking by$-$this is a critically important negotiation, and neither party really wants the strike.

The conflict$-$handling technique is most appropriate in this situation.

Which of the following statements would set up objective standards for solving this problem?

We're willing to negotiate with you $-$ we just want to arrive at a fair agreement.

In order to stay in business, FoodFaire has to bring in a $5\%$ profit next year. How can we bring more money into the company so that we can both meet our goals?