ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the emerging attitudes of working Americans in terms of several aspects to which we may refer in shorthand form: the challenge of authority; the loss of confidence in institutions; the resistance to change and the slower pace of change in the work place than in society at large. The new issues on the bargaining table are remarkably qualitative as compared to the largely quantitative concern with higher wages expressed in the past. The changing attitudes of labor and management have therefore created a new cultural dimension in the bargaining system that in turn synergistically affects these attitudes. Changing attitudes toward work, combined with the revolution in social values, have raised new interest in improving the quality of work life. The labor force participation rate of men aged 55 to 64 has declined sharply— from 89 percent to 80 percent in 1977. This withdrawal of men in the prime of their working lives is a remarkable fact.
