[Excerpt] Collective bargaining relationships in the U.S. have been evolving in response to a hyper-competitive and globalized economy. From one narrow perspective, relationships between labor and management appear to have entered a remarkably peaceful era. In 2007, our Agency recorded only 173 work stoppages ending in the fiscal year, the fewest ever in our history and a drop of nearly 95 percent from 1977. However, despite the statistical appearance of calm, labor relations and collective bargaining in general are rapidly evolving, which places extraordinary pressure on traditional collective bargaining relationships.