Normally most news about labor developments reflect the unwise labor policies pursued at every level of the Obama administration from the President down through the National Labor Relations Board.  It is good therefore to report that there has been some pushback on these issues which might indicate that the President might run into some serious headwinds on this issue.

The two concrete events are these.  First, yesterday, the Communications Workers of America decided to call off the strike and return to work, without a new contract.  The loss of leverage is of course the shattering defeat that I had predicted on this issue, when I wrote that in this instance Collective Bargaining = Collective Suicide.  The CWA is to be commended for coming to this realization sooner rather than later.  But the long term prospects have not changed.  The decline in landline services will lead to an inexorable decline of the number of union workers that will have jobs in the sector.  The more accommodating the CWA, the longer it will keep its members working.  The hawk strategy cannot work when everyone knows that the economics are squarely against you.

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