Meaning
An arrangement, usually struck in secret, that gives unusually favourable terms to one side at the expense of others who ought to have been protected - workers, competitors, or the public. Whether the beneficiary is a union negotiator taking kickbacks or a contractor with political friends, the deal is sweet only for the insiders. Always an accusation; it implies secret terms and a betrayed third party. In strict labor history it names the corrupt union contract specifically. Regional use: General English; American labor origin.
Origin
American labor combat of the 1940s coined it: a sweetheart contract was one between an employer and a compliant or bought union that served management rather than the members, typically involving kickbacks or special treatment for the negotiator. The dated record begins with the San Francisco grocery disputes of 1947, where owners accused rivals who had given in to union demands of signing sweetheart deals, and the Indianapolis laundry hearings of 1949, where a lawyer defended an AFL contract against exactly that charge. Congress answered the abuses with the Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959, aimed at sweetheart contracts and other corrupt union dealings, and the phrase has since spread to no-bid government contracts, generous tax inducements, and class-action settlements that enrich lawyers more than claimants. Cambridge labels it disapproving: an agreement advantageous to the parties but unfair to competitors.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- sweetheart agreement
- sweetheart contract
- sweetheart deals
Usage Examples
- Auditors called the tolling contract a sweetheart deal, since the minister's cousin's firm was the only bidder.
- The old sweetheart contracts kept wages flat for decades while the union president's accounts grew.
- Cities now publish every tax abatement, making sweetheart deals harder to sign quietly.