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Fehmida Sleemi, Joan D. Borum, and Edward J. Wasilewski, Jr.
A bout 2.8 million workers in private industry and State and local governments are covered by major collective bargaining agreements scheduled to expire or reopen in 1991. Such agreements, covering 1,000 or more workers, account for one-third of the 8.5 million such workers under all major agreements. Workers whose contracts are on the 1991 bargaining calendar are almost evenly split between private industry and government. This is the first year, since data on government contracts were added to the major collective bargaining agreement series in 1985, that State and local government has accounted for more than 36 percent of the workers covered by major agreements scheduled for negotiation. The larger proportion of government workers in 1991 reflects a bargaining schedule involving more government workers (1,349,000) and fewer private industry workers (1,470,000) than at any time since the series' inception. (See tables 1 and 2.)
In State and local government, bargaining in 1991 will involve about 52 percent of the 2.6 million workers under major agreements, the largest proportion since 1985. The 738,000 State government workers covered by contracts slated for negotiation are mostly in New York, California, Florida, and Pennsylvania. Bargaining activity in local government involves 612,000 workers who are geographically dispersed, with the largest group (87,000) located in Los Angeles County.
In private industry, bargaining will cover about 25 percent of the 5.9 million workers, the smallest proportion in at least a decade. Three-fifths (901,000) of the workers whose contracts are scheduled for renegotiation in 1991 are in nonmanufacturing industries. The largest numbers are in construction (250,000 workers), wholesale and retail trade (195,000 workers), trucking (187,000 workers) and mining (65,000 workers). In manufacturing, 570,000 workers are under contracts up for renegotiation. The largest numbers are in apparel (138,000 workers) and electronic and electrical equipment (121,000 workers).
This excerpt is from an article published in the January 1991 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. The full text of the article is available in Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format (PDF). See How to view a PDF file for more information.
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