This report describes the historical process through which a public employer and the public employees in a school system ultimately reached a satisfactory level of mutual accommodation. Over a 20-year period, the gradual shift in the relative power of the parties produced a relationship from which at least some elements of conflict had been removed. Three time periods are discussed. At first, the behavior of the school board toward teachers was characterized by exclusion of the teachers from the decisionmaking process. Subsequently, the power differential declined, the teachers began to mobilize their collective power effectively, and forced the board to make concessions to which it would never before have consented. Finally, in the power differential elimination period, the union, first by a strike and then by association, and by issuing sanctions, demonstrated its willingness to disrupt the school system to achieve a share in the board's education decisionmaking. The implications of this research for boards of education and teachers are presented. (Author/JF)