The End of Loyalty: The Rise and Fall of Good Jobs in America

The changing relationship between large American corporations and their workers in the 20th century provides the basis for this thoughtful and enlightening volume by Wartzman (senior advisor, Drucker Inst.). Focusing on four large corporations, including General Motors, General Electric, Kodak, and Coca-Cola, the author examines how both workers and employers mutually developed what he calls a "social contract" that by midcentury had provided a reliable, stable workforce for companies who by then were prospering as never before in the post-World War II economy. In return, workers gained security, solid wages, and excellent benefits. As Wartzman shows, this balance was reached with some difficulty in the years of large-scale unionization marked by often-bitter strikes during the Great Depression. This mutually beneficial relationship between workers and managers became strained within a decade. The remainder of the 20th century saw significant changes that weakened the positions of companies and their employees and virtually eliminated the mutually beneficial contract. Corporations faced technological change, new forms of competition, and restructuring. Workers experienced the effects of these forces in a way that distanced them from their employers and often eliminated their bargaining strength.