Retrieval bargaining is the process of removing, through collective bargaining, benefits won by employees in previous negotiations. This document treats the retrieval bargaining process, explaining first the factors that could make such cutback management techniques necessary in the public sector, including federal funding reductions, inflationary pressures, and declines in client populations. Potential obstacles to retrieval bargaining, notes the author, include union resistance, civil service job security provisions, government regulations, public opinion, and public employee unions' concepts of productivity. Counseling against cutting employee salaries except as a last resort, the author suggests several areas for cutting costs and proposes a procedure for handling retrenchment in a hypothetical case. Finally, the author recommends tactics that public sector employers can use when conducting retrieval bargaining. Among these tactics are publicizing the financial position of the agency, ensuring the support of members of the agency's governing body, reviewing the current contract, modifying compensable benefit provisions, increasing employee workloads, cutting salaries, and providing cost-free benefits. (PGD)