| Summary, etc. |
The ingredients of labor-management relations are varied and complex, tied up with the historical, cultural, political and legal threads of our society. In a very real sense, the history of these relations is simply an image of a broad spectrum of our development: of state, as well as nation.<br/><br/>In October 1960, about 508,000 persons worked in non-agri cultural employment in Colorado: in mining, contract construction, manufacturing, transportation, public utilities, wholesale and retail trade, finance, insurance, real estate, service and government. Roughly, about 110 thousand of them, 22 per cent, were members of unions. Their employment conditions are determined by bargaining col lectively with employers through the unions which represent them, and by legislation adopted by the state General Assembly. Others in non-unionized establishments, work under personnel policies set by their employers, and protective labor legislation.<br/><br/>The relationships and problems existing and arising between employees, unions and managements, are the subject matter of labor relations. This is what this book is about. It is primarily concerned with these relations as they exist in Colorado.<br/><br/>The story is rich in human interest. It begins with a review of the past, of the problems which face a maturing labor movement, and the challenges of the future.<br/><br/>It then turns to an extensive description of the environment in Colorado starting around 1880, in which labor relations had its be ginning: the background of the population, the makeup of the labor force, the economics of wages and hours, the struggles of early union ization. This climate-turbulent, seething, shifting, changing-sets the stage for the slow evolution of labor relations in this state. |
