| Summary: | Part of a special section on technological change and employment conditions in traditionally heavily unionized industries. The writers consider technological advances and labor relations in the U.S. railroad and port industries, two industries in which labor-saving technological advances prompted the adoption of a defensive strategy by labor. They contend that job protection anticipated rather than merely reacted to technological change and also foresaw other potential unidentified threats to employment. They assert that, by way of unusually restrictive work rules and compensation arrangements for affected workers, the unions tackled technological change largely indirectly, not by banning it but by constraining or delaying the productivity and cost improvements it made possible.
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