Unfinished Business

Writing in the New York Times, dateline Cambridge, Mass., March 23, 1977, A.H. Raskin reported as follows: "Never had so many secretaries of labor, Democratic and Republican, been gathered under one roof. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology had invited all the holders of that office since the Kennedy administration to come in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the institute's Industrial Relations Section and the 25th anniversary of its Alfred P. Sloan School of Management. The secretaries' specific assignment was to outline their 'unfinished agenda' for American industrial relations. To keep the appraisal from getting too ingrown, the cabinet-level perspective was balanced by an independent assessment of the state of collective bargaining, labor law, and the economy as seen by a panel of high-ranking corporate and union officials." Unfinished Business records the proceedings of this celebration.