Effect of unions

In the winter of 1995, after 15 months of negotiations, the neww1y unionized workers at a Kmart distribution center in Greensboro, North Carolina were still far from securing their first contract with the Kmart Corporation — and were growing dispirited. The leaders of the Kmart local, mostly young and African American, had fought energetically for more favorable working conditions and increased salaries at the plant for more than two years. In surprisingly rapid and decisive fashion — given a strong anti-union sentiment in North Carolina — they had unionized the distribution center in September of 1993, ~ Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU).l


Though jubilant at this victory, the Kmart union leaders soon realized that, although they had won a major battle, they were far from winning the war. Contract negotiations moved slowly, and the union leaders came to believe that the Kmart management team had no intention of agreeing to any contract. The Kmart local...