Breakfast With the National Association of Manufacturers

On March 19, 1993, Robert Reich gave a talk at a National Association of Manufacturers "issue breakfast." Here are Reich's two accounts of the episode--a) the original and b) the revised version. We pick up Reich's account starting with a question asked by "John" (all italics and ellipses are in the original):

Rising from the shadows is an ample belly with wide shoulders, arms crossed, head topped with thin strands of white hair. "Mis-ter Secretary"--he spits out each syllable--"is the administration planning to introduce legislation that would prevent us from replacing striking workers?"

The tension that I had carefully swept out of the room is instantly sucked back in. I hesitate. "Your answer, Mr. Secretary?" Jasonowski [sic--Jerry J. Jasinowski, president of the NAM] turns to me, all smiles. It's clear that he and John have planned this.

"Yes." My mind tells me to end it there, but my mouth keeps going. "No one wants to strike, but it's often the only way to get employers to the bargaining table. If employers are free to permanently replace striking workers, then strikes are worthless."

The room erupts. "Wrong!" "Bullshit!" "Go back to Harvard!" So much for step one of the Grand Bargain.

"Please, please, everyone ..." Jasonowski motions for quiet, a seemingly magnanimous gesture, placing him above the fray. A regular statesman, this Jasonowski.

I have taken the bait. John now begins to reel me in. "But Mister Secretary, surely you are aware that in 1938 the Supreme Court said it was perfectly legal to replace striking workers?"

"Yes, technically legal, but rarely done--at least until the nineteen-eighties." I can't win this argument in this room. I want to get out of here. The cigar smoke is making my eyes water. I feel dizzy.

"You've got your facts wrong, Mister Secretary." John won't let go, and Jasonowski is absolutely de-light-ed. He promised his members a good show today, and he's delivering.

I try to remember my coaching for the confirmation: Avoid public confrontations. Tell them what they want to hear without committing yourself. Tell them you look forward to working with them. But I'm hooked. "As a matter of fact, I'm right. Here are the facts. ..." I'm sliding into professor mode, patronizing, pompous. The audience begins to hiss. "Between 1938 and 1981 there are only five cases on record of companies that permanently replaced striking workers. But since 1980, there have been almost a dozen, including notorious ones like Eastern Airlines and Greyhound. And hundreds more have publicly threatened to do so in order to deter strikes." The hissing is becoming so loud that I'm not sure anyone can hear me. I yell, "and that's just plain wrong."

John shouts his response: "In the nineteen-eighties American manufacturing made a comeback!" He's delivering a prepared speech now. "They said we were dead, we couldn't compete. But we're the best in the world. Government should stay the hell out of our business!" Cheers. We're in a boxing arena, John's the champ, and the crowd is loving every minute.

I flash back forty years to the bully who terrorized me at the bus stop--a head taller and built like a tank--and the moment I punched him smack in the nose. "Who made a comeback in the nineteen-eighties?" My fist is clenched. "Sure, you and your shareholders have done fine. But what about your workers? You've restructured, reengineered, and downsized them out of thousands of jobs. And the ones that remain haven't seen a raise in years." Boos, hisses. I swung and missed.

Jasonowski grabs the mike. "Thank you so much, Mr. Secretary."

Now the revised version.

Rising from the shadows is an ample belly with wide shoulders, arms crossed, head topped with thin strands of white hair. John says he represents management in management-labor disputes. He's fired up about striker replacement.

This is the last thing I want to dwell on with this bunch. But John is the first person Jasinowski called on, and he's loaded for bear. He even seems to have prepared a small speech on the subject. I can't help but think the two of them conspired on this.

John begins to quiz me about strikes. He wants to know where I got my data that employers had rarely brought in permanent replacements for their striking workers before the 1980s. He tells me I got my facts wrong. "Hiring permanent replacements, or the threat of hiring permanent replacements, is a key element in the economic system of collective bargaining, where there are risks for both sides," he says, definitively.

The room seems to grow tenser. I don't want to get in a pissing match with John.

He continues: "If there is some study that shows that, if you're privy to some information that the rest of us don't have, we'd certainly like to see that." Then he shifts ground. "1981 tends to be a watershed year that people point to, because it's the time when Ronald Reagan replaced--they like to say 'replaced'--the air-traffic controllers which, again, is really not the case. Those are people who were violating federal law by striking. They were not 'permanently replaced'; they were fired for violating federal law. There really is no parallel between the hiring of economic replacements and what Ronald Reagan did, back in the early eighties."

"John?" I try to stop the tirade.

"But," he continues, "there is no study that I know of that says that employers, before 1981, did not consider the hiring of permanent replacements."

I remember my coaching for the confirmation: Avoid public confrontations. "John, I will get back to you with all the information on it," I say. "That was the information I have. You have different information." I hear hisses from several locations.

In point of fact, between 1938 and 1981 there are few cases on record of companies that permanently replaced striking workers. But since 1981, there have been several, including notorious ones like Eastern Airlines and Greyhound. And hundreds more have publicly threatened to do so in order to deter strikes.

A few questions later, Jasinowski grabs the mike. "Thank you again, Bob, for joining us."