The Changing Role of Government in Labor Relations

Abstract

Collective bargaining is a continuing bulwark of American society, permitting the fusion of the principles of democracy and of free enterprise within the work place. As the scope of private action in collective bargaining has be come integrally associated with the functioning of our society, governmental scrutiny and policy consideration in labor rela tions has grown. The formulation of governmental policy in labor relations is a particularly difficult matter—continuing careful, unheated, and representative study and consultation are required for the ascertainment of appropriate balance among such factors as constructive collective bargaining, re sponsible trade unions, the rights of union members, and the public interest. Instead, under pressures to restore the bal ance between management and labor and in climatic condi tions of crisis and recrimination, legislation has been enacted which has become the continuing focus of criticism and politi cal activity. The need is for management and labor jointly to aid government to ascertain continuously the proper bal ance between legislative and administrative action and private action in labor relations. Separate pressures by management and labor in the legislative sphere will continue to produce legislation and a climate which will thwart effective collective bargaining.