Union Attitudes Toward Management Cooperation

Abstract

Much has been written in recent years about the need for unions and managements in the United States to move beyond traditional collective bargaining and begin working together cooperatively to establish creative new programs which will increase productivity and improve the quality of working life.In this context, many authors have criticized union leaders for being hostile toward cooperative efforts, intimidated by prospects of increased productivity, and indifferent toward workers' needs for greater psychic satisfaction from their work.1Some of these criticisms have been directed toward national union leaders who, it is said, are seriously out of touch with their constituencies' opinions and needs.But how do local union leaders and activists feel toward their unions becoming involved in issues pertaining to productivity and quality of work?What sorts of issues do they feel can best be handled by traditional collective bargaining and which, if any, by other techniques, such as joint cooperative programs?What factors determine how they feel in specific situations? Sample and MethodologyOur study was designed to explore these questions with 211 local leaders and activists from various unions located throughout New York State. 2 About one-half of the respondents 1 See, for example, Work in America (Cambridge, Mass.: