Catherwood LibraryILR School

A new expression is making the rounds in the nation?s automotive capital: ?Hollywood strike,? as in, ?just for show.? That saying is likely to gain currency after the United Automobile Workers reached a tentative agreement Wednesday with Chrysler, only six hours after union leaders sent Chrysler?s 45,000 workers to the picket lines. Just last month, the U.A.W. struck General Motors and settled two days later, despite the union?s declaring at the outset of the strike that the two sides were far apart on fundamental issues. The brief walkouts appear to have emerged as a way for both union leaders and company managers, at a time of deep troubles in their industry, to prove to their constituents that they got the best deal they could under the circumstances, without the damage of an all-out war.