Labor costs, productivity, flexibility, and many other outcomes are largely determined by what happens during negotiations. Therefore, the company must prepare carefully along a number of dimensions. Fossum defined a sequence of management preparation for negotiations, establishing seven steps that management must follow. LBSC, Inc., operates a milk processing plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Their union, the Brotherhood of Food Processing Workers (BFPW), represents all non-supervisory production employees at the facility. The contract between LBSC and BFPW expires in six months, so LBSC must begin preparing for negotiations. LBSC's human resources department plans to hold a series of management meetings requesting feedback on appropriate negotiation objectives and asking the finance department to calculate the acceptable cost profile for the next contract term. You will gather information on average plant age and inventory levels, and forecast customer demand. It will look into the complaints and find out what it can do about the course of other recent negotiations for the BFPW. Your finance department will estimate the costs of an additional vacation and a 401(k) plan. Finally, you will decide how much room you will have to make concessions and what will need to be submitted to the corporate office before it can be approved. This activity is important because the outcome of contract negotiations can have a large impact on a company's ability to meet its competitive challenges. The goal of this activity is to match the scenarios with each of the seven steps that management should take to prepare to negotiate. Identify which step LBSC Inc. is performing for each of the actions (as stated by Fossum) below. 

1. Conduct management meetings 2. Identify provisions that could cause difficulties 3. Collect aging and inventory information 4. Determine the authority of the negotiation team 5. What management intends to do 6. Determine the cost of a new vacation 7. Analyze complaints