Since the late 1970s, archaeology has grown into an industry whose practitioners work in both public and private sectors. As an industry, modern archeology is commonly known as Cultural Resources Management, or CRM. CRM emerged from a surplus of employment opportunities made available to archeologists after the passing of National heritage legislation. This legislation defines the importance of discovering, documenting, and recovering the places and objects associated with people and events important to United States' history. As there are many different people who are considered to be important to United States' history (e.g., past presidents, Native Americans), there are as many different archeologists seeking to participate in its interpretation, each with various educational and experience backgrounds. While CRM has been successful in partially piecing back together history, its practitioners confront numerous challenges. These challenges are often associated with meeting the standards outlined by the legislation but also include challenges associated with industry personnel. In some cases, the industry's efforts to meet these standards have led to labor problems. As a result, many CRM employees today see a separation between industry managers and industry laborers that has made it increasingly difficult to fulfill the goals of the legislation and to ultimately contribute to our understanding of the past. Primarily, the role and contribution of field technicians to CRM is being debated by many CRM practitioners. This thesis explores the relationship between the two primary CRM personnel parties - the managers and laborers in an effort to define the labor problems confronting CRM personnel, how they have evolved, and what solutions are available to them (both managers and laborers). To this end, I surveyed industry managers and field technicians to better understand how each perceives the role of field technicians. Challenges confronting CRM personnel will be shown to partially stem from low industry wages, deficient safety policies and procedures, out-dated academic curricula, and a lack of communication between managers and field technicians. Investigations of the relationship between management and labor provide a unique opportunity to explore a multitude of questions related to CRM employment over the past two decades and in the future. / Graduation date: 2001