Turning the tide

Labor unions in the 1990s face tremendous challenges on all fronts. Intensive international and domestic competition, industrial deregulation, and slow economic growth have weakened their collective bargaining position. Organizing new members and retaining existing ones have been made difficult by the changing expectations of workers and the limitations of current labor laws. Together, these forces have led to declining membership and influence. These difficult circumstances, however, do not signal the end of unionism, or mandate a universal response from all unions. Instead, they herald an era of choices. David Weil presents a pathbreaking framework to guide union leaders in these complex times. Drawing on the ideas of strategic planning developed in the private sector, Weil provides labor leaders with the tools to assess the critical features of their environment, and to design and implement economically sustainable collective bargaining agreements, organizing drives, and other innovative programs. Weil explains the impact of economic, technologic, governmental, and labor market forces on union strategy. He details the obstacles to new initiatives and offers methods to overcome them, from adapting the union's organizational structure to redirecting its internal financial resources. Based on his work with national, regional, and local unions as well as his academic expertise in labor relations and economics, Weil presents a rich combination of practical experience, academic evidence, and illustrative case studies from the construction, manufacturing, service and public sectors. He demonstrates how unions have succeeded by creating economically sustainable collective bargaining agreements and organizing initiatives. In Turning the Tide, labor leaders and scholars of industrial relations will find exciting new approaches to strengthen unions and labor-management relations for the next decade.