ABSTRACT
The federal government became an active and effective intervenor in all aspects of the industrial process, especially labor relations, in the thirties and during World War II. Out of the adversary relationship of labor and management grew a cooperative system in which the participants, whatever their natural inclination, learned to work and live and grow together: collective bargaining. The reaction of labor and management has been shock and occasionally intransigent opposition. Food industry management is necessarily concerned about consumer demands, and labor fears the encroachments of non-union competition, whose pressures they would be foolish to ignore. The dialogue and cooperation that Bridges helped initiate made it possible for the parties to solve some seemingly intractable problems. The food industry committee was in a position to obtain union and management agreement on a common understanding of how the regulations should be applied and to present Occupational Safety and Health Administration with a joint position.
