Building on a new labor–management partnership, Kaiser Permanente and its nearly seventy thousand union employees negotiated a five-year contract agreement in 2000 based on the principles of “interest-based negotiations.” The people who made this remarkable achievement happen as well as the historic background of the case are described and analyzed. A key element to the success of this initiative was the back-and-forth work of many different groups, including joint labor–management committee, coalitions of unions, bargaining task groups focused on particular subject areas, and local and national leaders of the company and its unions. Using illustrative comments from actual participants in this complex, nearly year-long negotiation process, the authors explore how the parties crafted their agreement.

Leaders from the business, labor, academic, religious, and ADR communities in Massachusetts have gotten together to form a “workplace network” to encourage the use of ADR mechanisms in the resolution of workplace disputes and problems. The Massachusetts experiment may serve as a model for other states. Current ADR initiatives of the new Network focus on discrimination cases, health and safety issues, and education and training.