American Steel Industry Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

American Steel Industry - Research Paper Example One of the industrial relations patterns that have emerged and which the international leadership of the united steelworkers of America appears to be advocating is a new cooperative partnership, modeled after the 1986 National Steel Agreement. This new industrial relations model includes significant quality and flexibility-enhancing work restructuring coupled with an increased share of compensation linked to firm performance and productivity in exchange for job security guarantees and unprecedented employee and union participation and information sharing at all levels of the company (Anon 2). Economic, technological and institutional changes in the 1980s have fundamentally transformed the industrial relations system in the American steel industry. Prior to the 1980s, the bargaining structure in steel matched the concentrated and centralized nature of the industry as a whole. Not only did a multi-employer bargain set the pattern for the wider industry, but also there was coordination of pay for particular jobs through the co-operative arrangements. The inaccessibility to potential entrants of requisite iron ore supplies of high grade has imposed a major barrier to entry to the American steel industry. In the period since the reconstruction of Europe and Japan following the Second World War, earlier reductions in tariffs on steel have invited the influx of foreign supplies; until at present foreign producers are supplying an appreciable minor fraction of the American market. These foreign suppliers are drawing on iron ore reserves that have not been generally accessible to potential entrant firms that might have produced steel in America. As a result, the barrier to entry to the American steel market that depended on the close holding of domestically available iron ore deposits by established American firms has been appreciably reduced. American steel