Such pattern bargaining is expected to raise labor costs across the rest of the industry by equal measures in the coming years as pilots at American, Continental and Northwest also demand raises above the current rates at United and Delta.
42.
The tire workers, like auto workers, freight haulers and other laborers, have long worked under contracts won through pattern bargaining, in which the union wins a contract from one company and expects others in the same industry to follow it.
43.
But an end to pattern bargaining faces major obstacles, including the opposition of many city unions and the likelihood that City Hall would tie any raises above the pattern to concessions that the police and teachers would find hard to accept.
44.
Amtrak had estimated that the emergency board's package would cost about $ 36 million and an additional $ 100 million if the increase became the pattern for 23 other union bargaining units; such " pattern bargaining " is common in the railroad industry.
45.
The pact with the 50, 000 members of the Uniformed Forces Coalition, announced Friday by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, signals that the city and its unions are no longer adhering to their practice of pattern bargaining, in which all the unions get roughly the same deal.
46.
Unhappy about the two-year pay freeze in their contracts, New York City's municipal unions are warning that they will not accept such a freeze again, while several labor leaders are demanding an end to pattern bargaining, in which every union receives the same percentage raise.
47.
"The problem with pattern bargaining, " said Norman Seabrook, president of the Correction Officers'Benevolent Association, " is if the city grabs one union leader and that leader folds under pressure, it can possibly ruin it for hundreds of thousands of hard-working union people in this city ."
48.
So-called pattern bargaining has been the norm in the auto industry for generations but there are so many factors that figure into the target decision that experts say it is far too early to predict which company the union will choose for what it believes will be the best deal.
49.
Labor has confronted big corporations in the past, but in some industries it was able to enhance its power and protect workers'wages and benefits through industrywide contracts or pattern bargaining; the underlying concept was " whatever else you guys compete on, labor costs won't be part of it . " But that's been eroded as companies outsource labor relations along with a lot of their production or services.
