Harley Shaiken Union Quotations

It's going to have significant impact on the companies and on the industry. It is a painful option for the union but it is the best option of those available.

The union has very painful choices, but it's managed to preserve important principles in a very turbulent environment. At the end of the day, UAW retirees will still have paid health benefits. Less than before but far more than most Americans have.

The hotels are confronting a union that has significantly more leverage and more imagination than in the past. The union is slowly but surely introducing national bargaining in an industry in which the companies used to tower over the local unions.

This contract could be a watershed event within the telecommunications industry because a major union has used its existing leverage to break into a new area. This isn't simply any company. It's the largest telecommunications employer. On one level it's potentially a watershed event because the union could gain a toehold in the most promising area of telecommunications.

The union was caught in a global hurricane, and they managed to come out of it with minimal structural damage. They preserved key principles; they gave up some money.

This was difficult for the union to do, but the union is being pragmatic. Its goal is to preserve jobs. It realizes the severity of the situation that GM is in.

This is the first pitch in the game of hard ball and I think the union is both angered and not by any means intimidated.

Economic growth in the United States in the 20th century was based on building entrances to the middle class, from Henry Ford in 1913 to strong unions in the '50s and '60s.

Miller, by taking such a visible and hard line, may have underestimated the UAW. The union would like to see a settlement, but not at the cost of 60 years of gains.

Health benefits have been at the top of the list for what unions have sought to hang on to. This reflects how serious union leaders feel this is.