United steelworker negotiating with Goodyear

Question

In what way did the choices that the United Steelworker faced in negotiating with goodyear reflect the fundemental trade-off that any union must face?

Answer 1

In one of his papers, William A. Sundstrom (Santa Clara University) analyzes the economic incentives facing white unionists when they choose between policies of integration and exclusion of black workers. For any union, racial exclusion involves a fundamental trade-off: if minorities can effectively be excluded from some or all of the occupations represented by the union, the total labor supply is diminished and there may be upward pressure on white unionists' wages (i.e., white workers' wages increase); at the same time, whites may sacrifice bargaining power if minority workers will not join in actual or potential strikes. If whites have a marginal preference to organize other whites first, the exclusion decision will depend on the union's optimal membership size and the number of black workers already in the market. This is not to deny the importance of stronger racist motives, but to emphasize how strategic interests may or may not reinforce them in the behavior of unions and employers.