It’s been more than 15 years since most Wisconsin public employers sat across the table for traditional collective bargaining. During that time, leadership teams have changed, institutional knowledge has shifted, and an entire generation of administrators, human resources leaders, finance professionals, elected officials, and board members have entered public service or assumed leadership roles. Collective bargaining did not disappear entirely: M3 has remained engaged with municipalities and counties that continued bargaining with selected employee groups, as well as Education and Governmental Entities, or EDGE clients, in other states where collective bargaining remains part of the operating environment.

As questions about the future of Act 10 continue, employers may be tempted to focus exclusively on what the courts will decide. While that decision matters, the more important question for employers is this:

Collective Bargaining Is More Than a Negotiation

Collective bargaining is often associated with what happens at the negotiating table. In practice, the most important work frequently occurs before formal discussions begin.

An employer must understand its benefit programs, cost drivers, employee contribution structures, total compensation strategy, financial commitments, workforce priorities, and long-term budget outlook. Without that foundation, it becomes difficult to assess proposals or explain their implications to leadership and employees.

A proposed change may appear manageable in the first year but create significant financial or operational consequences over time. That is why public employers need more than plan pricing or a market comparison. They need reliable data, scenario analysis, financial modeling, and an understanding of how individual decisions fit within the organization’s broader strategy.

Meaningful preparation can include benefit benchmarking, total compensation analysis, employee contribution modeling, multi-year budget forecasting, costing of bargaining proposals, financial impact analysis, leadership education, consensus building, employee education, negotiation preparation, and contract implementation.

Experience Matters, but Perspective Matters Too

My experience with collective bargaining has included time on both sides of the table. I have participated as a teachers’ union president and as a school board member on negotiation committees. Those roles carried different responsibilities, but both reinforced the importance of preparation, clear communication, reliable information, and an understanding of the priorities influencing each party.

Productive bargaining does not begin by assuming that one side’s priorities are inherently incompatible with the other’s. It begins by understanding the organization’s goals, the employees’ concerns, the financial realities, and the areas in which shared interests may exist. For employers, that requires a disciplined process. Leaders need to know what flexibility exists, which commitments may have long-term consequences, and how potential decisions align with fiscal responsibility, recruitment, retention, and employee relations.

Your Advisor Should Help You Prepare Before, During, and After Bargaining

A broker or consultant’s role should not begin when an employer receives a proposal, and it should not end when an agreement is reached.

This full-cycle approach supports employers before, during, and after negotiations through benchmarking, proposal costing, financial analysis, leadership education, consensus building, employee education, negotiation preparation, employee engagement, and program implementation.

Public Sector Context Cannot Be an Afterthought

Public employers operate within a distinct environment. Decisions must account for governance responsibilities, public budgets, board, council, or state government oversight, staffing pressures, recruitment and retention challenges, and accountability to the communities they serve. That is why collective bargaining guidance cannot be separated from the broader realities of public sector operations.

Within M3’s EDGE practice, collective bargaining is a focused area of support that brings together employee benefits expertise with experience in public sector budgeting, governance, workforce strategy, risk management, and long-term planning.

This Is a Long-Term Readiness Conversation

No organization can know exactly how the courts will rule, what legislative action may follow future elections, or what a future bargaining environment might look like. Employers can, however, control how well they understand their programs, document their decision-making, educate their leaders, engage their staff, and prepare for possible scenarios.

M3 has supported Wisconsin public employers before Act 10, throughout the years it has been in effect, and during the current period of uncertainty. Our responsibility is to help clients approach what comes next with reliable information, thoughtful preparation, and a strategy grounded in their organization’s long-term needs.