Employment Relations and Earnings

Abstract

As this chapter is being written, a skilled production workers’ union for a major defense contractor is seriously considering its employer’s proposal of a two-dollar-an-hour wage cut. The employer has offered to reconsider a proposed move to the Sunbelt if the union agrees to the cut; it is considered likely that the union will. In the same state, a union of public-sector professional workers is voting on whether to offer to forgo a 6% raise contractually scheduled to go into effect this month. The union’s bargaining unit wants to offer to sacrifice the raise in return for a 12-month guarantee of no layoffs. It is doubtful whether the employer will agree, and many of the professional employees fear that they will be forced to take the substantial raise instead. At the same time, all over the country, college seniors are weighing employment prospects more than ever in terms of nonmonetary considerations.