While spending thirty years as a working autoworker, Mike Parker had as much or more influence on members of other unions than most full-time labor educators.

A good example was the impact of his 1985 book, Inside the Circle: A Union Guide to Quality of Work Life. The book appeared at a time when employers in both union and nonunion workplaces were promoting labor-management collaboration during a decade of terrible concession bargaining, lost strikes, and decertification drives.

This olive branch from management took multiple forms — “quality circles,” “employee involvement” groups, participation teams, and joint problem-solving committees. The ensuing “quality-of-work-life (QWL) process” was widely hailed as ushering in a new era of peaceful labor relations in which traditional “adversarial bargaining” would be replaced by labor-management cooperation.