Whipsawing is when workers within a company compete with each other to perform work cheaper. It may involve successive surprise strikes by a union against one after another of the various employers in an industry or in an employer's association so that no employer knows which one will be "sawed off" next.
Whipsawing is also reeferred to as "leapfrogging. Whipsawing may consist of a practice in which one in a group of several unions dealing with the same employer refuses to settle until it receives better wages or benefits than have been settled on with the other unions.
