This speech presents a brief history of public sector collective negotiations and compares collective negotiation to private sector bargaining. The author points out that, unlike private collective bargaining, the public association or union cannot put the employer out of business; therefore, a strike or a strike threat is no longer a viable weapon in the arsenal of the teachers' association. The author suggests that school boards adopt a policy of "modified Boulwarism" -- based on the negotiating tactics of a General Electric vice president in the 1940s. Under such a plan, a school board would present the teachers' association with a carefully considered and researched offer that fell within the goals of the school system. The school board would consequently make very few changes at the bargaining table unless the association, on the basis of research, could show that the offer was inadequate or undesirable in any aspect. According to the author, this method precludes unseemly gamesmanship in which both sides make many demands and charge each other with irresponsibilities. (Author/JF)