Preserving the Pattern

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between membership mobi lization, collective bargaining strategies, and union revitalization. The Paper, Allied-Chemical, and Energy (PACE) Workers Inter national Union waged a successful, five-year comprehensive cam paign against Crown Central Petroleum. Critical to the success of the union's comprehensive campaign was the role of locked-out union members, the use of strategic corporate research and an un wavering commitment to fight at all levels of the national union. The case reveals that the nature of bargaining power entails more than the ability to sustain a protracted dispute. Bargaining power was built on a much broader network of actors and included a diverse, interconnected set of pressure tactics. Finally, the poten tial for comprehensive campaigns to spur union revitalization is limited by the isolation of such strategies from the core of tradi tional union practices.