Some Hidden Costs of Industrial Peace

Abstract

Peaceful union-management relations may frus trate rather than forward the goals of society. Antisocial har mony ranges from outright collusion between union leaders and employers to tacit acceptance of a wage-price spiral that benefits a privileged group at the expense of the many. Un desirable or questionable forms of labor-management harmony include joint acceptance of discriminatory employment prac tices, preserving markets from outside competition, and com bined special-interest lobbying. The movement towards in creasingly refined definitions of national economic goals re quires new institutional arrangements to assure that these goals play some role in union and management decision-making.