Constraints on White-Collar Union Bargaining

Abstract

As a profession, we owe a great deal to those researchers who have developed theories of union growth and bargaining strategies, particularly Dunlop, Perleman, Davis, Shister, Bernstein and Bain. In the more specialized area of white collar union growth a debt is owed particularly to the last of these men, G.S. Bain, and in the Australian context at a more empirical level to R.M. Martin. From their work, a considerable knowledge of the institutions and mechanics of union growth and function has been gained. To date however we have a better understanding of the bargaining strategies of the so-called, bluecollar union than we have of the bargaining strageties of the white-collar union (W.C.T.U.). This comment is not designed to denigrate previous research, but rather to suggest that the slow accumulation of data about W.C.T.U.'s strategies and the peculiar constraints on their bargaining functions is the next step.