Origins of Negotiation

The first U.S strike occurred in the late eighteenth century (the Philadelphia cordwainers), and many other "turnouts" followed during the first half of the nineteenth century. These disputes were neither preceded by nor settled by negotiation. Negotiation is a two party transaction whereby both parties intend to resolve a conflict. Employers unilaterally established a scale of wages. If the wages were unacceptable, journeymen drew up higher scale, sometimes inserting it into a Bible on which each worker swore that he or she should not work for less. The scale was presented to the employer, and if he or she did not agree, the workers "turn out" and stayed out until one side or the other caved in. There were no counter proposals, no discussions, no negotiations.

Horance Greeley, who was simultaneously a union sympathizer and an employer, found a better way. In 1850, he told a workers' mass meeting. " I do not agree that the journeymen should dictate a scale, but they should get the employers to agree to some scale." A few years later, Greeley proposed that workers come to negotiations with statistics and arguments supporting the fairness of their cause. He set the United States on the course known to the twentieth century as collective bargaining.