The strike is the most dramatic form that labor-management relations take. A nationwide and industry-wide stoppage in a basic industry may do more than capture the imagination; it may also shut off goods or services vital to the health and safety of millions of people. This, in essence, is the national emergency dispute issue.Like most great policy questions in a democratic society, it is more readily framed than resolved. This is because the emergency problem provides an arena for a set of irreconcilable convictions that most reasonable Americans share. In the great stoppage in a key industry we find the union insisting upon its right to strike, the employer insisting upon his right to run his business without government regimentation, and the community insisting upon its right to an uninterrupted flow of goods or services necessary to the public health and safety. Admittedly, there are no pat answers. Policy must be shaped out of conflicting values and imperfect knowledge.
