Abstract
This article reviews the struggle in the steel industry since World War II over management's attempt to impose a 'productivity deal' that would tie wages to productivity. Approaching productivity bargaining as a strategy of cap ital, two periods are identified. Until 1959, steel workers resisted the 'deal' while winning substantial gains through collective bargaining. Thereafter, manage ment, in collusion with the state, used the union to help impose the productivity deal. Finally, the conception of collective bargaining as a relationship between classes upon which the analysis is based is related to Marx's analysis of the wage- form and distinguished from other approaches.