Let’s start with collective bargaining. In Richman’s telling, much of how we behave at the bargaining table today can be traced back to the Treaty of Detroit, the landmark 1950 contract between the Auto Workers (UAW) and the Big Three automakers.
Five years earlier, the UAW had struck, unsuccessfully, for a 30 percent raise and no increase in the price of automobiles. In 1950, in exchange for annual raises and health, vacation, and pension benefits, UAW members gave the companies a management rights clause and five years of labor peace with a no-strike clause. Together, these clauses strongly curtailed auto workers’ voice in shop floor issues that arise mid-contract.
Today, management rights and no-strike clauses are treated as so routine that unions sometimes agree to them prior to settling the rest of the contract.