A method and apparatus for managing contention among users for access to serialized resources in a system cluster containing multiple systems. Each user has an assigned need that is independent of contention of the user for a resource and may be either a holder or a waiter for a resource it is seeking to access. A local system stores local cluster data indicating a grouping of the resources into local clusters on the basis of contention on the local system and indicating for each local cluster the assigned need of a waiter for resources in the cluster. The local system receives remote cluster data from remote systems in the system cluster, which it combines with the local cluster data to generate composite cluster data. A holder on the local system of a resource in a composite cluster is managed in accordance with the composite cluster data for the cluster.