Is it Deft or Daft to Cooperate

Abstract

The use of pressure tactics by unions has become increasingly untenable. Factors such as membership decline, management resistance, global competi­ tion, and futile strikes indicate that union survival depends on adaptation. This article examines the need for unions to shift their emphasis toward coopera­ tion rather than confrontation. Collective bargaining, the core function of American unions, has received some heavy blows in recent years. A few unions have begun to resemble a boxer who has taken too many punches and seems ready to fall to the canvas. Not only have significant concessions been made in negotiations, but in pivotal confrontations— the air traffic controllers, Eastern Airlines, TWA, Caterpillar—unions have suf­ fered painful setbacks. A lesson that comes out of these struggles is that in the contemporary economic and political environment strikes have become unusually risky for unions and in most circumstances had best be avoided. Another lesson is that changes in variables such as markets, technology, and the work force neces­ sitate adaptation by unions for survival. This article examines a key aspect of that adaptation: cooperation between labor and management.