nt presenting their "ideal" contract and then negotiating from there. Most negotiations are assumed to be conducted "in good faith," meaning that both parties have as their goal a mutually agreeable contract arrived at through fair and legal means. Once a contract has been agreed to by the principals, the union members vote on it. Although it is not unheard of for a negotiated contract to be turned down by workers, negotiated contracts are typically ratified by the membership (Towers, 1997, p. 301).
The collective bargaining process often involves difficulty as the two sides try to reach agreement on the contract. When a: impasse (an inability of the process to move forward) is reached there are three possible alternatives which might be invoked to break the impasse: conciliation or mediation, strike or lockout, or arbitration(Sherman, Bohlander, & Snell, 1998, p. 592). Conciliation or mediation involves a neutral third party, who is
invited by both labor and management to help break t
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