Section Sixemployees will see unionization as instrumental to their job
security or as a futile effort.
In the past, unions were often able to confine layoffs to
the most junior employees, as the vast numbers of layoffs were
conducted according to inverse seniority.^71 They were
successful to the extent that they could organize extensively in
an industry and make all competitors pay the same wages and
offer similar working conditions. Their strategy was to “take
wages out of competition.”^72 The cost of wage increases and
favorable terms of employment were then largely passed on to
consumers in the form of price increases. However, with
today’s international marketplace, the power of unions has
declined. Unions cannot organize all international manu-
facturers in a given industry, as demonstrated by abortive
attempts at multinational union coop-eration.^73 As a result,
there will be adverse employment effects to the extent that
employment security agreements put domestic manufacturers
at a disadvantage to international competitors. Further, unions
seem to be unable to prevent domestic manufacturing
companies from shifting production facilities to other countries.
It will be interesting to see whether unions will be able to
devise strategies to help employees obtain greater job security.