The ongoing negotiations between The Ontario Public School Boards’ Association (OPSBA), the government and the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) have once again broken down. Negotiations and disputes between teachers, management and the government can get heated, especially when all parties have different views.

Craig’s model provides a more systematic approach to IR issues than that of Dunlop and can be used to examine the temporal effect though the feedback loop. Craig presented the input-output model of industrial relations system in the late 1960s. In his model, the actors and the context are similar to those of Dunlop’s model. The main components of Craig’s model are: (a) the inputs or the goals, and the values and power of the actors; (b) mechanism for the conversion of inputs into outputs; (c) the outputs of the system are the financial, psychological and social rewards for the workers. The output is in the form of the rules, which govern matters such as pay, working conditions, and hours of work.

In essence, Craig’s model proposes that external inputs from the environment (e.g., legal, economic, political, etc.) impact the actors of the IR system (e.g., labour, management, government) and that through a series of conversion mechanisms (e.g., collective bargaining, third-party interventions, etc.) the parties convert the external inputs as well as the internal inputs (e.g., the goals and values of the actors) into both organizational (e.g., management and union rights) and worker-oriented (e.g., wages, due process, etc.) outputs. These outputs can then, thorough a feedback loop, influence the actors.

There are three main parties (actors) involved in the industrial relations system. Firstly, ‘Employers/Management’ – they have certain rights, such as whom they can hire and fire. In this case, The Ontario Public School Boards’