White-collar refers to employees who typically wear white, collared shirts: professionals, administrators, and office workers. White-collar contrasts with BLUE-COLLAR, the traditional color of clothing worn by ASSEMBLY LINE or other laborers. White-collar is often used to describe specific groups or conditions, including white-collar salaries, crime, UNIONs, and RECESSIONs. A March 6, 1997, Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News headline read “General Motors Struggles to Balance Blue-, White-Collar Salaries.” The article described differences in employee compensation for office versus factory workers. Another article entitled “Crack Down on Corporate Crime” described white-collar crime as the theft of PROPRIETARY INFORMATION, EMBEZZLEMENT, vendor kickbacks, and misappropriation of company funds. Jill Fraser titled her book “White-Collar” Sweatshop: The Deterioration of Work and its Reward in Corporate America, describing office working conditions and motivation of white-collar workers through the fear of LAYOFFs. Another writer, suggesting unions are needed for professional groups as well as industrial workers, posed the question, “Is it Time for White-collar Unions?” During the mid- 1990s, as part of corporate downsizing, many MIDDLE MANAGERS lost their jobs, creating what was called a white-collar recession.