Is There a Future for Labor‐Management Cooperation?

• Date: 01 December 2015
• Published date: 01 December 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21151

C R Q, vol. 33, supplement 1, Winter 2015 S95

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. and the Association for Confl ict Resolution

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/crq.21151

Is There a Future for Labor-Management

Cooperation?

Marick F. Masters

Robert Albright

Raymond Gibney Jr.

Christina Merchant dedicated her working life to promoting confl ict

management and labor-management cooperation. Unfortunately, the

environment today does not seem hospitable to such cooperation. A

massive assault is being waged against unions and collective bargain-

ing, which begs the question of whether cooperation has a future. At

the grassroots level, there is clearly a need for collaboration, where the

parties can make a real diff erence.

The late Professor Christina Merchant dedicated her working life to

labor-management cooperation. She served in various distinguished

capacities during the heyday of such cooperative endeavors involving the

private and public sectors. At the Maxwell School at Syracuse University,

Merchant brought her wealth of knowledge and practical experience to

the classroom to educate another generation on the theory and practice of

confl ict management and labor-management cooperation.

Unfortunately, cooperation is not a term that aptly depicts the current

state of labor-management relations. An escalating attack is being waged

on labor unions at multiple levels. Policymakers declaim that unions enjoy

“monopoly” rights that infringe on individual freedoms and extract eco-

nomic rents at the expense of taxpayers and consumers. Employers vig-

orously oppose, often with the assistance of these same policymakers,

union-organizing eff orts, and they locate or source businesses where labor

costs are comparatively cheaper and operations are not burdened with

US-based unions.  e result of this long-standing opposition along with