"ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, The"

FERMAN, LOUIS A.

doi: 10.1177/0002716284473001001pmid: N/A

BARBASH, JACK

doi: 10.1177/0002716284473001002pmid: N/A

A half century of union ascendancy in bargaining is possibly coming to an end. Adverse economic and political circumstances are forcing the unions to concede the bargaining initiative to management. It is now the unions that are cast in the reacting role. The management strategies are identified here as positive, hard-line, and normal bargaining. The union counterstrategies are identified as orderly retreat, quid pro quo, political action, organizing, and pension power. As the economic recovery process gets under way there is some question as to whether the outer limits of membership tolerance for concession may not already have been reached.

ROBERTS, MARKLEY

doi: 10.1177/0002716284473001003pmid: N/A

Demographic changes in the next 20 years will affect labor force characteristics and workers' expectations of jobs and unions. These expectations will affect the size and strength of labor unions, union organizing and bargaining, and union political-legislative actions. A demographic look at the next 20 years indicates (1) a slowdown in population growth contributing to slow economic growth and slow growth in jobs; (2) aging of the labor force, and more concern for job security and retirement; (3) women, blacks, and Hispanic-background workers constituting bigger shares of the labor force; (4) population and job growth in the Sunbelt and in nonmetropolitan areas; and (5) declining opportunities for upward mobility for the middle-aged, baby-boom generation. These changes point to a continuing key role for labor unions in protecting and promoting the interests of working people.

McLAUGHLIN, DORIS B.; FRASER, DOUGLAS A.

doi: 10.1177/0002716284473001004pmid: N/A

Collective bargaining will evolve in the next 20 years in response to the changes taking place in the world of work and union reaction to those changes. Job security will be a central issue, with increased emphasis on reducing work time to create more jobs. We also foresee more union mergers and increased inclusion in the labor movement of workers not traditionally a part of the union's constituency. That, in turn, will further erode the effectiveness of centralized bargaining. Moreover, unions will attempt to alter their traditional role as reactors to managements' unilateral actions and see themselves as partners with management. The role of the government and the courts may alter the collective bargaining process, but whether it will erode or strengthen that process is still an open question.

REHMUS, CHARLES M.

doi: 10.1177/0002716284473001005pmid: N/A

American labor's contemporary political activities—lobbying, organizing election workers, raising political funds, and attempts to persuade members to vote for favored candidates—have not since the 1960s proved effective in influencing public policy in ways that labor favors. As a consequence, in the 1980s organized labor has turned to deliberate efforts to control the selection of the Democratic party's nominee for president. Whether the result will be a Democratic-Labor party contending for electoral and legislative victories or a politically weakened labor movement that is simply another minority lobby cannot now be predicted with assurance.

KASSALOW, EVERETT M.

doi: 10.1177/0002716284473001006pmid: N/A

The unions in advanced, industrialized societies are likely to face conditions in the coming decade that will be far less favorable than those in the decades immediately following World War II. Growing economic competition from newly industrializing nations, the onset of major structural reform and shrinking employment in a number of older industries, the shift to services, and some unfavorable demographic trends—all of these forces are likely to be operating in most of the advanced, democratic countries. While the responses of West European unions may tend to be similar to those in the United States, in some respects, important differences can also be anticipated. Differences in union institutions and tradition, as well as in bargaining systems and relationships with employers, help explain these likely divergences in development.

SCHWARTZ, ARTHUR R.; HOYMAN, MICHELE M.

doi: 10.1177/0002716284473001007pmid: N/A

This article analyzes recent changes in the leadership of international unions. There has been a trend toward leaders who are lifetime bureaucrats rather than rank-and-file members with charisma. This change toward more technocratic leadership is due to the different environment and new challenges that labor currently faces. The United Mine Workers is a good example of a union that has had many changes in the type of person who has become president, from the labor giant John L. Lewis to the 33-year-old lawyer Richard Trumka. The United Auto Workers is an example of a union whose leadership has been consistently drawn from the union hierarchy. The AFL-CIO has made a change in leadership from George Meany to the labor bureaucrat Lane Kirkland. There will probably be an increase in the number of women and minorities in top leadership positions in unions, but this will be a gradual increase.

CUTCHER-GERSHENFELD, JOEL

doi: 10.1177/0002716284473001008pmid: N/A

Area labor-management committees (ALMCs) have been established in over 40 American communities. These committees have the potential, not always realized, to improve dramatically the legitimacy and power accorded to unions at the community level. While separate from the collective bargaining process, ALMCs do contribute to improved communications and other changes at the bargaining table. They also can serve as a unique forum to assist local employers and unions interested in establishing work-site labor-management committees and in exploring the quality of work-life. Finally, these local labor management organizations stand as a microcosm and as a potentially important element in a national industrial policy.

KORNBLUH, HY

doi: 10.1177/0002716284473001009pmid: N/A

The concept of increasing the participation of workers in decisions affecting their work lives is appearing more often on the labor-management agenda. The reasons for management interest include the need for (1) increasing productivity and quality; (2) increasing the quality of work life for the new worker, who is more educated, with a good work ethic but alienated and unmotivated under current management practice; and (3) meeting foreign competition. Problems may arise for firms involved in forms of participation such as quality circles and quality of work life programs, when management aims of a streamlined work force and control of worker innovations clash with the workers' expectations of work place democracy inherent in such programs. A dilemma is posed for unions when the new forms of participation undermine the union, or maintain or create so-called union-free environments. Many unions are now playing a more active role in these programs. More aggressive approaches to bargaining on work environment and other issues reflect movement by some unions to a more proactive philosophy of the union's role in participation-enhancing strategies.

KISTLER, ALAN

doi: 10.1177/0002716284473001010pmid: N/A

Among unorganized workers there exists widespread prounion sentiment and interest in workers' rights. Serious obstacles, particularly in the private sector, frequently prevent translation of those sentiments into collective bargaining. Intensified, often illegal, employer resistance, and the inadequacy of the collective bargaining legal apparatus combine to deny workers their right to determine freely whether they want union representation. Many employers seek delays to defuse organizing efforts; others violate employee organizing and collective bargaining rights through illegal discharges or refusal to bargain. Illegal antiunion consultant activity subverts congressionally established national labor policy to encourage the practice of collective bargaining. New organizing approaches are developing in response to such obstacles and to the changing composition and aspirations of the work force while traditional methodology is being strengthened. The primary challenges to organizing in this decade will be the adversity of employer opposition and the changing character of work in America.