A Look at What’s in Store for Business and Workers : It won’t be dull, that’s for sure. The new year will see dramatic changes for U.S. industry and the American worker. Business writers at The Times polled experts on what is likely to happen in 1989. Here is their report. : WORKPLACE

In the event of a recession, the working world could face a blood bath. With many big companies buried under debt acquired in undergoing--or fending off--takeovers, the pressure to slice costs could savage work forces barely recovered from the downsizings of the early 1980s. The importance of the plant-closing legislation so shrilly debated in 1988 would become bitterly evident as firms started posting the required 60-day notices of shutdowns and job cutbacks.

Should the economy remain on an even keel, however, expect a renewed clamor for revisions in the contract between American workers and their employers. Congress again will consider increasing the minimum wage, broadening federal support for child-care programs and mandating that employers give workers time off to care for children or elderly parents. The skyrocketing cost of basic health benefits, though, means employers will be asking workers to shoulder more of the expense of medical care.

In California, the arcane and costly Workers’ compensation system could emerge from the bureaucratic shadows to become the subject of a high stakes tug-of-war, including warring ballot initiatives.