A Management View of Collective Bargaining

• Author: Daniel P. Loomis
• Published date: 01 March 1951
• Date: 01 March 1951
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/000271625127400123
• Subject Matter: Articles

A
Management View of Collective Bargaining
By DANIEL P. LOOMIS
HE
processes of collective bargain-
volume of production and sales of the
T ing have been developing for many
industry and the wage rates and price
years in the United States, but only
structure which it can stand, and the
within the past twenty years has col-
industry is free to govern itself accord-
lective bargaining between management
ingly in fixing its labor contracts.
and labor become a national process in
If those calculations prove to be
this country, a matter of general inter-
wrong, production can be reduced or
est and concern to vast numbers of con-
plants can be shut down completely,
sumers, workers, and employers.
and the industry can trim its sails to
Prior to the passage of the National
fit the situation confronting it. While
Industrial Recovery Act and the Na-
management cannot always avoid losses
tional Labor Relations Act and the
in times of depressed business, it can at
great surge of the Congress of Indus-
least minimize those losses. It can pro-
trial Organizations, collective bargain-
pose adjustments in wage rates to meet
ing and labor-management contracts as
such conditions, and can, if necessary,
we know them today were largely con-
close down until adjustments are made.
fined to the skilled crafts in the Ameri-
In theory, management and labor ne-
can Federation of Labor, the coal
gotiators sitting at the collective bar-
miners, and the railway unions.
gaining table should take all these and
The railroad industry has one of the
many other factors into consideration.
longest records of labor-management re-
Most labor unions of any size have
lations, the first written contract of rec-
competent economists, statisticians, and
ord having been made on the New York
analysts, and men capable of marshal-
Central in 1.875. It also has the longest
ing and presenting facts and arguments
record of attempts to deal with the
on all sides of any question. The ideal
problems of labor-management relations
situation would be for both management
through legislation, the first act dealing
and labor to analyze all the facts avail-
with railroad labor relations having been
able and strive to come up with an an-
passed by the Congress in 1888, just
swer which would be fair to the worker,
one year after the passage of the Inter-
the employer, and the consumer-the
state Commerce Act.
general public who pays the bills.
The problems of collective bargaining
One factor which receives a good deal
necessarily differ from industry to in-
of attention is ability to pay, and- the
dustry, and particularly as between un-
consideration it receives shows wide
regulated industries operating in a free
variation. When a company or an in-
market and highly regulated industries
dustry is exceedingly prosperous the la-
such as public utilities.
bor negotiators are quite likely to argue
long and loudly the question of ability
IN UNREGULATED INDUSTRIES
to pay, as, for example, in the General
In unregulated industries dealing in
Motors negotiations in 1946. Con-
general commodities and sales, both
versely, when a company or an industry
management and labor are free to make
is not in a particularly prosperous- con-
their own calculations as to the future
dition, it is argued that ability to pay...