Steelworkers Experimental Agreement | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Steelworkers Experimental Agreement

United States 1973

Synopsis

After decades of using nationwide strikes as a collective bargaining tool, the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) in 1973 entered into an "Experimental Negotiating Agreement" with the major U.S. steel companies. Under this agreement, the union forfeited the right to strike nationwide in favor of binding arbitration. The steel companies on their part agreed to a yearly 3 percent wage increase and to end stockpiling products. This was the first time a key labor union and an entire industry agreed on their own to settle bargaining conflicts through arbitration. The agreement occurred at a time of growing foreign competition in the steel industry. Despite the perception of increased job security, some rank and file USWA members criticized the secrecy with which the agreement was enacted. The agreement preceded a major depression in the steel industry.

Timeline

• 1958: China's Mao Zedong proclaims the Great Leap Forward, a program of enforced rapid industrialization that will end a year later, a miserable failure.
• 1963: Assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas on 22 November.
• 1968: Communist victories in the Tet offensive mark the turning point in the Vietnam War, and influence a growing lack of confidence in the war, not only among America's youth, but within the establishment as well.
• 1973:

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