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What Do Unions do?
... The extent to which the trade union is perceived as a burden or asset depends significantly on management response. Freeman and Medoff (1984) indicate two main approaches: the Monopoly Face and the Collective Voice (Also known as "The Institutional Response Face").According to Monopoly Face, union work rules have adverse effects on productivity and on lack of employment in the organized sector. Union wage affects make recruiting new employees prohibitive. ...
... In addition, managers frequently complain about inflexible operations and work disruptions due to unions. Social critics paint unions as socially unresponsive, elitist, and non-democratic (Freeman and Medoff, 1984).According to Lewin (2005), unions achieve higher, above market, collectively bargained pay and benefit rates for their members. Yet unionism is also negatively associated with organizational research, development expenditures, capital investment, profitability, and market value. ...
... In parallel, less union resignations results in higher selectivity during recruiting and greater investment in training. As a result, the labor forces isomer stable, professional, and efficient, reducing organizational expenses (Freeman and Medoff, 1984). In addition, trade unions protect employees from the brunt of certain management decisions while enabling the voicing of employee opinions, both in the context of the work place and the external political field. ...
Trade Unions: Promoting or Withholding Solutions in Management–Union Conflicts? Analysis of Employee and Manager Perceptions
Roni Mash, Ph.D; Michal Gutman Kremer
Abstract
Purpose - To examine differences in symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress between victims and perpetrators of intimate partner violence and to examine the relationship between psychological difficulties and the role of victim and perpetrator of IPV, taking into account the form of violent behaviour. Design - A total of 347 participants formed three groups of subjects: victims, perpetrators and two control groups of participants. The Revised Conflict Tactics Scale was used intimate partner violence. Negative emotional states were assessed with The Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale. Findings - The results of the analyses showed that victims of IPV had higher scores on depression and anxiety compared to the perpetrators of IPV. Victims and perpetrators of IPV had significantly higher level of depression, anxiety and stress in comparison to the control group. Statistically significant correlations were found between depression, anxiety and stress and perpetration as well as victimization for all examined type of IPV. Research implication - The results of this study point out the importance of focusing the attention on examining the mental health of the perpetrators, not only on victims.
Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jssw.v4n1a15
Trade Unions: Promoting or Withholding Solutions in Management–Union Conflicts? Analysis of Employee and Manager Perceptions
Roni Mash, Ph.D; Michal Gutman Kremer
Abstract
Purpose - To examine differences in symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress between victims and perpetrators of intimate partner violence and to examine the relationship between psychological difficulties and the role of victim and perpetrator of IPV, taking into account the form of violent behaviour. Design - A total of 347 participants formed three groups of subjects: victims, perpetrators and two control groups of participants. The Revised Conflict Tactics Scale was used intimate partner violence. Negative emotional states were assessed with The Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale. Findings - The results of the analyses showed that victims of IPV had higher scores on depression and anxiety compared to the perpetrators of IPV. Victims and perpetrators of IPV had significantly higher level of depression, anxiety and stress in comparison to the control group. Statistically significant correlations were found between depression, anxiety and stress and perpetration as well as victimization for all examined type of IPV. Research implication - The results of this study point out the importance of focusing the attention on examining the mental health of the perpetrators, not only on victims.
Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jssw.v4n1a15
... Traditionally, unions had been considered "bad", in terms of the economic efficiency by the mainstream economists. But the seminal work by Freeman and Medoff (1984) challenged this view. According to them, unions indeed have a "monopoly" face, but they do have a "collective voice" face as well, which may enhance the economic efficiency (Table 2). ...
... Source: Freeman and Medoff (1984), p. 13. ...
... Probably, "Unionism per se is neither a plus nor a minus to productivity. What matters is how unions and management interact at the workplace" (Freeman and Medoff (1984)). ...
... Contrary, we have information about the initiator of the establishing process and we show that the management is involved in around one third of all cases and has in a minority of cases motivated workers to establish a works council. This finding allows differentiations about the quality of intra-firm industrial relations, specifically managerial response which is considered as the most important factor in collective voice theory (Freeman and Medoff 1984, Bryson 2004, Addison 2009). ...
... A lower turnover suggests lower hiring and training costs and less disruption in the functioning of works groups. The likelihood that workers and firms remain together for a long period increase the incentive for investments in skills specific to the enterprise, which also raise productivity (Freeman and Medoff 1984). ...
... Third, it is conceivable that the union effect is a true causal effect arising from unions' voice function. This function, as described by Freeman and Medoff (1984) and others, leads unions to foment dissatisfaction with a view to strengthening the bargaining hand of the union in negotiations with the employer. ...
... 14 Our chief assumption in framing this analysis is that pay satisfaction is formed by a rational evaluation that takes account of both current pay and future predicted pay from a given employment/job. Employees entering a unionized situation can on average expect a union premium or mark-up (Freeman and Medoff, 1984), and the prediction is therefore that pay satisfaction will be increased. This will not necessarily continue subsequently unless union bargaining is able to make further gains relative to the initial mark-up. ...
The links between unionization and job satisfaction remain controversial. In keeping with the existing literature we find
statistically significant negative correlations between unionization and overall job satisfaction. However, failure to account
for fixed unobservable differences between covered and uncovered employees leads to a systematic underestimate of the effects
of coverage on both overall job satisfaction and satisfaction facets for both union members and non-members. Once one accounts
for these differences between covered and uncovered employees, union coverage is positively and significantly associated with
satisfaction with pay and hours of work. Examination of the pay satisfaction effect indicates this is apparent for employees
who attain coverage in the same job and for those who become covered when switching employers, but the effect is not apparent
for job switchers who remain with the same employer. Furthermore, the ‘new’ coverage effect on pay satisfaction dissipates
over time.
... The canonical exit, voice, and loyalty model by Albert Hirschman (1970) predicted that employees who are more loyal will opt to stay and voice discontent when they experience it. Freeman and Medoff (1984) applied Hirschman's model and found that unionism reduces turnover and permanent separations and raises job tenure by providing voice options as alternatives to exit. ...
Using survey data from China, the author examines how migrant workers respond to violations of labor law in their workplaces. The central puzzle is why, given apparent widespread violations, some workers choose not to pursue remedies. Findings show that only 25% of surveyed workers who experience labor law violations interpret their experiences as labor rights violations. The author argues that the social nature of the employment relationship explains some of this gap: Although workers who share local identities with their employers are more likely to work without employment contracts, they are significantly less likely to interpret these conditions as a violation of their labor rights and interests. This article extends the research on grievance behavior by drawing on research from the sociology of law and immigration to understand how these subjective interpretative processes and social identities outside of the workplace influence grievance behaviors.
... Voice was firstly conceptualized by Hirschman (1970) as voting behavior. Freeman and Medoff (1984), and Farrell (1983) analyzed the term in work settings and defined as "sharing constructive ideas and opinions with managers and coworkers which might contribute company's growth and development" (Morrison, 2011, 374). The term voice is based on the idea that; managers are not able to cope with every work issue by themselves, they will need the support and help from their coworkers. ...
... The term derives from the Latin " satis " meaning " enough " : respondents to survey questions are being asked to assess the adequacy of their job, implicitly against some unspecified reference point such as the features of that job in a prior period, the features of jobs held by other employees, or the features of a job that the individual might ideally like. In the empirical literature, feelings of job dissatisfaction have been linked to labour market behaviours, notably quits (Freeman, 1978;Freeman and Medoff, 1984;Clark et al., 1998;Clark, 2001;Green, 2010). ...
This article uses linked employer–employee data to investigate the relationship between employees’ subjective well-being and workplace performance in Britain. The analyses show a clear, positive and statistically significant relationship between the average level of job satisfaction at the workplace and workplace performance. The relationship is present in both cross-sectional and panel analyses and is robust to various estimation methods and model specifications. In contrast, we find no association between levels of job-related affect and workplace performance. Ours is the first study of its kind for Britain to use nationally representative data and it provides novel findings regarding the importance of worker job satisfaction in explaining workplace performance. The findings suggest that there is a prima facie case for employers to maintain and raise levels of job satisfaction among their employees. They also indicate that initiatives to raise aggregate job satisfaction should feature in policy discussions around how to improve levels of productivity and growth.
... la búsqueda de rentas por parte de los trabajadores, con resultados no concluyentes (Freeman y Medoff, 1984). Con un conjunto de estimaciones adicionales (cuadro 5) analizamos el papel de la tecnología. ...
Resumen
El objetivo principal de este artículo es determinar en qué medida la legislación de protección del empleo temporal afectó a la productividad total de los factores (TFP) en 14 países europeos y diez sectores de 1995 a 2007, mediante estimaciones de diferencias en diferencias. Según los resultados, la desreglamentación del empleo temporal afectó negativamente al crecimiento de la TFP en estas economías, así como en los sectores con mayor propensión al empleo temporal. Además, se observa que la desreglamentación del empleo temporal desalienta la formación y la adquisición de competencias específicas de la empresa, lo cual afecta a su vez a la productividad.
... The strong union membership numbers reflect the fact that the Culinary Union has been able to ensure high wages and good benefits for its members. Many scholars have shown a substantial wage premium exists for unionised workers (Freeman and Medoff 1984;Hirsch and Macpherson 2001;Blanchflower and Bryson 2002). However, Schmitt (2008) shows that the effect is not homogeneous across all workers; instead, he finds that the union wage premium is substantially higher for low-wage workers than it is for the average worker. ...
Most visitors to Las Vegas stay on " the Strip "-a four mile stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South, on which they find many of the world's largest hotels. Tourists come here not only to gamble, but to partake in the spectacle that is Las Vegas – scaled replicas of the Egyptian pyramids, Venetian canals, and the Statue of Liberty-all only a few minutes walk from each other. The Mirage, the hotel which started the contemporary wave of themed resorts in Las Vegas, hosts an artificial volcano in front of the hotel which "erupts" periodically during the evening while emitting the scent of Piña Colada. Most visitors anticipate the spectacle they will see in Las Vegas as tourist books and websites guide their gaze to the pre-approved sights of Las Vegas. Although Las Vegas is often portrayed as such, the city is not just a space of consumption, but a space of production as well. It is a peculiar space where these aspects of society are constantly negotiated – a space where capital becomes fixed in the urban landscape, a space of tourist consumption of spectacle and thrill, and a space of near constant interactive labour. Like other tourist cities, a large portion of the economy involves the almost simultaneous consumption and production of hospitality services. Waitresses have to be co-present to serve a meal, dealers have to be at the table to deal the cards, and receptionists must be at the desk to check in new customers (McDowell 2009). However, despite the proximity, most visitors will be unaware that the staff of the hotels, restaurants and casinos they frequent – the housekeepers, waiters, bell hops, bartenders, desk clerks, and cooks-are likely to be relatively well-paid, unionised workers. The one exception is when the normal 2 functioning of the hospitality industry erupts into heated labour protest on the streets and pavements of the City – creating another type of spectacle on the Las Vegas Strip. Like the carefully timed explosions of Mirage volcano, this eruption of labour power is not some innate force of nature, but is planned, strategic, and performative. This spectacle makes visible the institutional and cultural embeddedness of labour and is also intended to disrupt the pre-ordained tourist gaze. Where they differ is that the eruption of labour power has the potential to permanently and radically alter the economic landscape of the city. <INSERT IMAGE 12.1 HERE>
... Literature suggests that there are mutual gains for organisations and employees arising from employee voice. For employers, employee voice can improve a firm's decisionmaking, correct errors and wrongdoing, enhance productivity, generate innovation and organisational change and reduce labour turnover (Beer and Eisenstat, 2000;Huang et al., 2005;Freeman and Medoff, 1984;Perlow and Williams, 2003). For employees, research suggests the absence of voice has a negative impact on employee trust, morale and motivation (Vakola and Bouradas, 2005). ...
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to present an exploratory study of employee voice and silence in international auditing firms. The authors examine two key questions: what is the propensity of employees in training to speak up on workplace problems and how would management react to employees in training speaking up on workplace problems?
Design/methodology/approach
– The authors compare and contrast the views of employees on training contracts with management including partners. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with eight managers/partners and 20 employees working in six large auditing firms in Ireland.
Findings
– The authors find that employees on training contracts have a high propensity to remain silent on workplace problems. Quiescent and acquiescent forms of silence were evident. Management expressed willingness to act on employee voice on workplace problems concerning business improvements and employee performance but were very resistant to voice in regard to a change in working conditions or a managers’ performance. Employees and management couched employee voice in terms of technical knowledge exchange rather than being associated with employee dissatisfaction or having a say in decision making.
Originality/value
– The authors highlight how new professional employees are socialised into understanding that employee voice is not a democratic right and the paper provides insight on the important role of partners as owner/managers in perpetuating employee silence. Previous research on owner/managers has tended to focus on small businesses while the auditing firms in this study have large numbers of employees.
... Moreover, each inspection costs the principal h 5 0.16, and the noise level in the Fermi function given by Eq. 1 is K 5 0.1. Parameters r (the probability that P will inspect) and c (the level of pecuniary compensation) may vary within [0, 1]. ...
Scientific Reports 5: Article number: 8881; 10.1038/srep08881 published online: March062015; updated: July102015
The original version of this Article contained a typographical error in the spelling of the author Fahad M. Al-Marzouki, which was incorrectly given as Fahd M. Al-Marzouki. This has now been corrected in the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.
Objetiva, principalmente, perscrutar a questão sindical das empregadas e empregados domésticos após a emenda constitucional nº 72, a qual criou uma miríade de novos direitos para esses empregados. A metodologia utilizada consiste em promover uma análise conceitual das categorias econômica e profissional desse setor para poder compreender as peculiaridades do trabalho doméstico e de sua sindicalização. Os resultados obtidos apontam para a contradição existente entre a obrigatoriedade das negociações coletivas a serem engendradas entre as respectivas categorias domésticas, dada a impossibilidade fática de liame subjetivo entre os integrantes da categoria econômica. Conclui que a emenda em relevo cria um problema prático para a sindicalização destas empregadas e destes empregados, gerando uma confusa situação jurídica no plano do direito coletivo do trabalho.
Labor unions are the quintessential collective means by which workers in the capitalist employment relationship seek to represent their interests. Although labor unions act in the political arena and are often allied to particular political parties, the fundamental basis of their influence and presence is to be found within the workplace. Yet labor unions have in most countries experienced profound decline in recent decades, so whether they can continue to provide this historical role remains open to question.
Most studies of worker participation examine either formal participatory structures or informal participation. Yet, increasingly, works councils and other formal participatory bodies are operating in parallel with collective bargaining or are filling the void left by its decline. Moreover, these bodies are sprouting in workplaces in which workers have long held a modicum of influence, authority, and production- or service-related information. This study leverages a case from the health care sector to examine the interaction between formal and informal worker participation. Seeking to determine whether or not these two forces—each independently shown to benefit production or service delivery—complement or undermine one another, we find evidence for the latter. In the case of the 27 primary care departments that we study, formal structures appeared to help less-participatory departments improve their performance. However, these same structures also appeared to impede those departments with previously high levels of informal participation. While we remain cautious with respect to generalizability, the case serves as a warning to those seeking to institute participation in an environment in which some workers have long felt they had the requisite authority, influence, and information necessary to perform their jobs effectively.
Does the presence of a unionized nursing workforce retard US hospitals’ transition from paper-based to electronic health records (EHRs)? After tying archival data on hospitals’ structural features and health information technology (IT) investment patterns to self-gathered data on unionism, I find that hospitals that bargain collectively with their registered nurses (RNs) appear to delay or forego the transition away from paper, consistent with existing theory and research in industrial relations and institutional economics. However, this relationship is fully mediated by a hospital's payer mix: those serving a larger share of less lucrative, elderly, disabled and indigent patients are more likely to adopt EHRs if they are unionized than if they are not, a result that holds even at the median payer mix. Indeed, this accords with research on the interplay of labour and technology as the aforementioned dynamics are driven entirely by RN-exclusive bargaining units for whom the new IT serves as a complement rather than as a substitute in production. Given the outsized role that unions play in the US healthcare sector, the overall sluggish performance of the sector, and the expectations that policymakers have for EHRs, evidence that these unions are welfare-enhancing should be welcome news.
This study asks what unions did for Illinois coal miners in the 1880s. It measures the outcomes provided by a traditional union and the Knights of Labor, primarily via difference-in-differences applied to a panel of coal mining counties in Illinois. Neither the traditional union nor the Knights of Labor was able to raise wages, provide benefits, or reduce hours per workday. The traditional union reduced days of work per year. Circumstantial evidence suggests the unions were able to ensure prompt payment of wages due.
This article establishes a link between the degree of productivity dispersion within an industry and collective bargaining coverage of the firms in the industry. In a stylized unionized oligopoly model, we show that differences in productivity levels can affect the design of collective wage contracts a sector-union offers to heterogeneous firms. Using German linked employer–employee data, we test a range of our theoretical hypotheses and find empirical support for them. The dispersion of sector-level labour productivity decreases the likelihood of firms being covered by a collective bargaining agreement on the industry level, but increases the likelihood of firms being covered by firm-level agreements. The results hold for different subsamples and (panel) estimation techniques.
Whether ‘employee ownership’ takes the form of worker cooperatives, co-ownership or simply employee share ownership plans, there are normally high expectations that a range of positive outcomes will result. Yet many empirically based studies tend to find a much more complex picture. An influential segment of that empirical literature has posited the need for a number of mutually reinforcing workforce management components to be in place alongside co-ownership. Drawing on detailed case research in two large and successful co-owned retailers in Spain and Britain this paper examines the role of these wider elements supporting employee ownership. We find that employee ownership can be linked to higher productivity and lower employee turnover, while at the same time being linked to higher absenteeism and mixed effects on attitudes. Expectations held by managers and employees are higher; these expectations are not always fully met. The role of managers was also found to be crucial.
Using the U.S. National Study of the Changing Workforce survey, we show that claims of racial and gender discrimination emerge less frequently in workplaces with established worker voice mechanisms. This result accords with the hypothesis that participation enhances perceptions of workplace fairness. We show that while having a supervisor of the same race or gender is associated with reduced discrimination claims, the role of voice tends to be larger when the race or gender of the supervisor is different from that of the worker. This suggests that voice may be particularly important in heterogeneous workplaces.
A number of contradictory theoretical hypotheses have been advanced about the relationship between unionisation and job satisfaction. In this article, new evidence of the effects of unionisation on job satisfaction is presented using French linked employer–employee data from the 2011 REPONSE Survey. A bivariate probit model is estimated to deal with the reverse causation issue that many previous studies have failed to account for. The results indicate that union members are less satisfied with their jobs than non-members, even after taking into account certain individual characteristics, job attributes and workplace characteristics. However, after controlling for endogeneity of union membership, we find that the difference in job satisfaction between unionised and non-unionised workers disappears because of a selection effect in workplaces covered only by a national/sectoral collective agreement and attributable to a causal effect arising from union's voice function in workplaces covered by a local agreement.
Résumé
Les auteurs examinent les différences de productivité totale des facteurs, ou efficience, entre dix branches d'activité et quatorze pays d'Europe, sur la période 1995–2007. L'objectif est de voir, par la méthode des doubles différences, si la législation protectrice de l'emploi temporaire conditionne cette productivité. Les résultats montrent que la déréglementation de l'emploi temporaire limite les gains de productivité dans les pays d'Europe et que cette libéralisation intéresse les branches d'activité qui recourent le plus intensément au travail temporaire. En outre, les auteurs observent que cette déréglementation affecte les activités de formation et l'acquisition de qualifications spécifiques à l'entreprise.
Using the US National Transit Database 1994–2006, the manuscript empirically tests the influence of several institutional arrangements on labour productivity. The main finding of the paper is that not all flexible institutional arrangements may translate into labour productivity gains in the mass transit. While partial contracting may increase labour productivity in the US transit sector during the study period, the special governance actually decreases labour productivity. The potential implications for improvements in labour productivity are discussed.
The idea of workplace democracy invokes Western democratic ideals, while simultaneously bringing into relief significant social and environmental challenges facing contemporary organizations under neoliberal capitalism, including growing inequality and resource limits threatening indefinite economic expansion. This entry contextualizes workplace democracy philosophically and historically within Western democratic market societies, in the transdisciplinary arena of organizational studies, and especially and within the subdiscipline of organizational communication. This entry explains key efforts to understand and deploy workplace democracy while identifying key models, issues, challenges, and practices across empirical-analytical, interpretive, and critical scholarly traditions.
We investigate the consequences of income inequality on the income tax-to-GDP ratio for 21 OECD countries over a long time period spanning 1870 to 2011. We use several identification strategies, including using unionization as a new IV for inequality. In contrast to predictions from median voter models, we find that rising inequality significantly depresses the income tax ratio. This finding is robust to alternative measures of inequality, treatment for endogeneity, and model specification. The tax ratio increases with the degree of democracy and openness and decreases with urbanization. Inequality also reduces the indirect tax ratio, alters the tax structure, and moderates government spending as a share of GDP.
Collective bargaining is a process through which unionized employees and their employers meet and confer to jointly determine the terms and conditions of employment. The subjects and nature of bargaining are set by national and local laws, which generate different outcomes for public and private employees and across local and national borders. Collective bargaining has a political aspect, especially for public employees, and unions devote considerable efforts to support friendly politicians and legislation. Although the political aspect of collective bargaining has always been controversial, it has received much less attention than the outcomes of labor-management negotiations. In general, workers covered by bargaining typically receive higher wages and better benefits than similar non-covered workers. Because collective bargaining reduces income inequality, it is likely to receive much attention over the next decade.
At the level of theory, the effect of collective bargaining on innovation is contested. The large proponderance of the U.S. evidence clearly points to adverse effects, but other-country experience suggests that certain industrial-relations systems, or the wider regulatory apparatus, might even tip the balance in favor of unions. Our pooled cross- section and difference-in-differences estimates provide some weak evidence that German collective bargaining inhibits innovation. However, in conjunction with workplace representation, there is the suggestion that it might actually foster innovative activity.
In What Do Unions Do? Freeman and Medoff argued that researchers need to focus on both the collective voice face (positive) and monopoly face (negative) of unions in their analyses of organized labor. While economists have used this typology in their research, other fields have generally ignored it. This research explores media coverage of organized labor using an original coding scheme based on the work of Freeman and Medoff. The New York Times’, Washington Post's, and Wall Street Journal's coverage of the Employee Free Choice Act were analyzed to determine if the two-face typology is evident in media coverage of unions, if the articles could be coded reliability using the scheme, and how the results compared to previous content analyses of labor. Results show that the scheme can be used reliably and that, similar to other studies, unions are portrayed negatively. We conclude with suggestions for further research using the two-face typology in the analysis of organized labor.
Despite declining memberships, labor unions still represent large shares of electorates worldwide. Yet their political clout remains contested. To what extent, and in what way, do unions shape workers' political preferences? We address these questions by combining unique survey data of American workers and a set of inferential strategies that exploit two sources of variation: the legal choice that workers face in joining or opting out of unions and the over-time reversal of a union's policy position. Focusing on the issue of trade, we offer evidence that unions influence their members' policy preferences in a significant and theoretically predictable manner. In contrast, we find that self-selection into membership accounts at most for a quarter of the observed “union effect.” The study illuminates the impact of unions in cohering workers' voice and provides insight on the role of information provision in shaping how citizens form policy preferences.
Industrial relations systems differ across countries, yet their outputs converge. Canada and the USA are a striking example. Over the past two decades, private and public membership and density, employer opposition, and bargaining have converged. These findings contradict the conventional wisdom and invalidate the recommendation that the USA emulate Canadian policy.
We estimate dynamic effects of works councils on labour productivity using newly available information from West German establishment panel data. Conditioning on plant fixed effects and control variables, we find negative productivity effects during the first five years after council introduction but a steady and substantial increase in the councils’ productivity effect thereafter. Our findings support a causal interpretation for the positive correlation between council existence and plant productivity that has been frequently reported in previous studies.
Equal pay laws in many OECD countries declare that men and women are entitled to equal pay for the same work. Nonetheless, during the first half of the twentieth century, before the enactment of equal pay laws, employers and employee unions in several countries promoted unequal pay through “family wage” arrangements. This Article seeks to understand the historical and sociological origins of “family wage” arrangements through both a comparative research and an in-depth historical archival research of family wage arrangements in Israel. The research shows that unions played a complex role in promoting family wage arrangements. While their actions reflected their patriarchal understanding of society, unions were also guided by socialist motives.
Unions make differences to employee satisfaction that correspond to their effects on individual economic advantage. Panel data reveal how changes in economic circumstance and changes in job satisfaction are linked to changes in union coverage. When individuals move into a union covered job they receive a wage mark-up and express enhanced pay satisfaction. Conversely, those moving from a union covered job on average lose any mark-up and have significantly reduced satisfaction. Similar findings emerge for working hours. On average individuals prefer shorter hours, something they tend (not) to achieve on moving (out of) into a unionised job, resulting in higher (lower) satisfaction. Switching into union coverage lowers satisfaction with job security, even though coverage has no effect on the risk of unemployment. This is because covered employees suffer greater costs of re-employment for a given level of unemployment risk, partly because of loss of the union mark-up.
Relatively little is known about the complex inter–relationships between the various expressions of workplace conflict. This is an important topic because a full understanding is necessary for successful dispute resolution, to predict future developments such as form or method displacement, and perhaps most significantly, to develop conflict theory. Thus, a key purpose of this chapter is to build theory by examining the relationship between expressions of conflict. Conflict at work (or workplace conflict) has been broadly defined to include such forms as absenteeism, theft, sabotage, turnover, grievances, job actions and strikes. The most studied expressions are undoubtedly grievances and strikes but we know very little about their inter–relationship. Are they complementary or competitive? Are they alternatives or substitutes? The literature provides only anecdotal evidence of their relationship and no theory. Consequently, this chapter develops and tests, at least in an introductory fashion, a theory of workplace conflict that will provide hypotheses about expression relationships. To date scholars from various disciplines have conducted conceptual and empirical studies to address whether, and how, conflict can be managed or resolved (see, for example, De Dreu 2008, Jehn 1997, Morill et al. 2003, Wheeler 1985). But to address these issues, enquiries must be conducted into the nature of workplace conflict and its dynamics. To better understand these latter two issues, it is necessary to consider the literatures on workplace conflict from several disciplines and then integrate their findings into a comprehensive theory (Bendersky 2003, Feuille and Wheeler 1981).
‘The strike is the essence of collective labour activity’, wrote former Clinton National Labour Relation Board recess appointee and legal scholar, Craig Becker (1994: 351). The National Labour Relation Act (NLRA) of 1935, which established the legal basis of collective bargaining for most of the private sector in the US, unequivocally guaranteed the right to strike. Furthermore, Becker notes the Supreme Court, as late as 1963, argued that the NLRA had upheld a system of collective bargaining ‘with the right to strike at its core’. Yet, beginning in the 1980s, the use of the strike has declined from year to year. The number of strikes has fallen from an average of over 5,000 a year in the 1970s to an annual average of fewer than 300 in the 2000s (see Table 13.1). How could such a huge decline in the use of labour’s ‘only true weapon’ (Logan 2008: 171) be explained? Were there alternative forms of industrial action that workers and their unions could deploy to pressure employers in the process of collective bargaining?
Employer opposition to unionisation and collective bargaining in the US is almost certainly stronger and more sophisticated than in any other advanced democratic country (Kochan 2003). Since the 1970s, American employers have waged what Business Week (22 May 1994) has called ‘one of the most successful anti-union wars ever’ with spectacular results — private-sector union density now stands at just 6.9% of the workforce, its lowest level for almost a century. Aggressive employer opposition — facilitated by weak legal protection for labour rights and assisted by internal and external union avoidance experts — is the single major cause of the ‘slow strangulation of private-sector unionism’ (Freeman and Medoff 1984: 211). As long as that opposition continues unchecked — that is, in the absence of comprehensive labour law reform — the future for organised labour in the US seems very bleak. This chapter analyses the evolution of employer opposition in the US over the past decades and examines the techniques employers have used to resist unionisation, by focusing on three key issues: First, analysing the evolution of employers’ use of external union avoidance consultants and law firms from the 1950s to the present. Second, examining the growing use of internal union avoidance specialists by large non-union employers; and finally, discussing the impact of employer opposition, especially that coordinated by internal and external union avoidance experts, upon the outcome of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) union certification elections over the past two decades.
In the following paper, I explore the role of unions in workplace and regional innovation. I link this to the learning region or cluster approach which stresses learning through interaction and its facilitation by social capital. While these approaches are insightful, it is less focused on internal firm organization (see Martin and Sunley, 2002) and in particular, how labor-management relations play a critical role in firm learning and innovation strategies. The literature on unions and innovation has two principal approaches. The first is an equity oriented and industrial relations literature, which finds positive associations between unions and innovation (Freeman and Medoff, 1984; Eaton and Voos, 1992). The second is econometric research, which is generally more mixed in its findings of union impacts on innovation (see Menezes-Filho, 1998; Addison and Hirsch 1989).
We investigate the role of labor unions in the performance of venture capital (VC)-backed firms. Using a large sample of initial public offering firms from 1983 to 2013, we find that VC-backed firms in highly unionized industries have lower Tobin's Q and are less likely to survive. This effect is robust to endogeneity concerns and to controlling for industry and firm characteristics. The findings suggest that strong labor rights impede innovative firms' performance and survival, thereby adversely affecting innovation, economic growth, and employment.
We utilize detailed teacher-level longitudinal data from Washington State to investigate patterns of teacher mobility in districts with different collective bargaining agreement (CBA) transfer provisions. Specifically, we estimate the log odds that teachers of varying experience and effectiveness levels transfer out of their schools to other schools in the district in Washington kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) public schools. We find little consistent evidence relating voluntary transfer provisions in CBAs to patterns in teacher mobility, but do find evidence that patterns in within-district mobility by teacher experience and effectiveness vary between districts that do not use seniority in involuntary transfer decisions and those that use seniority as a tiebreaker or the only factor in these moves. In models that consider teacher experience, the interaction between teacher experience and school disadvantage in teacher transfer decisions is more extreme in districts with strong involuntary seniority transfer protections; novice teachers are even more likely to stay in disadvantaged schools, and veteran teachers are even more likely to leave disadvantaged schools. On the other hand, models that consider value-added measures of teacher effectiveness suggest that more effective teachers are less likely to leave disadvantaged schools in districts that do use seniority in involuntary transfer decisions, that is, seniority transfer provisions could actually make the distribution of output-based measures of quality more equitable. Taken together, these results suggest that seniority transfer provisions may have differential impacts on the distributions of teacher experience and effectiveness.
This article investigates the effects of union and nonunion employee representation (ER) on the use of high-performance work systems (HPWSs) in the French context. We use microdata from a nationally representative survey (REPONSE 2010-11) and estimate models dealing with the potential endogeneity of ER. After controlling for endogeneity and for a range of workplace characteristics, regression analyses suggest that neither union nor nonunion representatives are inherently against the use of HPWSs. Moreover, these forms of ER cannot be regarded as substitutes for one another. Results vary, depending on what type of bundle of practices is considered.
It has become commonplace to attribute the recent increase in European redundancies and long-term unemployment to the ‘rigidity’ of its labour markets in comparison with those in Japan and United States. Yet this popular assertion has been supported by relatively little study of the forces which are ordinarily held to be responsible for these conjectured rigidities.
The compensation paid out to workers reflects (i) the value of their contribution to their firm or organization and (ii) a possible premium because of restrictions on competition. The latter restrictions, which may take the form of corruption or monopolies that preclude labor from freely flowing throughout the economy, allow for various types of rent to be extracted. This essay addresses the way in which rents may arise, the sectors of the labor market that are gaining new opportunities to extract rent, and the sectors of the labor market that are losing the capacity to extract rent. Although it is typically argued that all forms of rent are gradually withering away, the available evidence suggests, to the contrary, that rent destruction is mainly occurring at the bottom of the class structure. At the top of the class structure, new opportunities to collect rent appear to be emerging, opportunities that raise earnings among the already privileged and thus increase income inequality. The foregoing characterization of the evidence, although not without support, is necessarily controversial because of intrinsic difficulties in distinguishing the true marginal contribution of workers from returns that are attributable to market failure.
Keywords:
inequality;
income;
earnings;
labor market;
poverty;
class;
occupation;
stratification;
closure;
redistribution
In the past few years an increasing range of neoclassical labor economists have attempted to model and estimate the behavioral implications of unions. We have seen a burgeoning of new theories of the union based on advances in other fields of economics, e.g., the property rights approach of Martin (1980) or the public goods—collective voice perspective, most recently, of Duncan and Stafford (1980). Similarly, the empirical work, particularly of Freeman, Brown, and Medoff, has raised some interesting issues on the theoretical plane. However, even if Freeman and Medoff (1980) can confidently title their book What Do Unions Do? we are still left with some burning issues of why and how unions do it.
Voter mobilization by unions has garnered some attention from scholars, and is seen as an important political tool. Unions often mobilize voters repeatedly across several campaigns; however, the literature treats mobilization as a singular event. This paper empirically analyzes turnout of 85,064 registered voters over 14 months at five election intervals in Los Angeles, exploring whether union-led mobilization is subject to diminishing returns across multiple elections. Results indicate that diminishing returns occur; three or more contacts are no more beneficial than one or two. Contact in recent elections is more effective than distant contact, and results differ slightly by contact type.
The paper examines if workplace gender diversity offers some explanation for the decline of unions in Britain. Using the WERS2004 linked employer–employee data and alternative econometric estimators it reports an inverse relationship between workplace union density and gender diversity. Gender and ownership status based sub-group analyses suggest the inverse relationship to be stronger for male union members and those in the private sector. Gender group size-based analysis reveals a positive link between workplace union density and gender diversity in workplaces with a female majority. The findings in this paper may mean that unions may need to embrace the changing workplace demography genuinely to improve their fate.
This article investigates the macroeconomic effects of unionization in a Schumpeterian growth model with an endogenous product market structure and a unionized labor market. The endogeneity of the market structure and the trade unionism of the labor market interact and jointly determine the equilibrium unemployment, firm size, number of firms, economic growth, and distribution of income between workers and firms. We show that unionization governs the distribution of income between workers and firms and the unemployment rate, but it does not give rise to any growth effect on the economy. In addition, unionization discourages potential entrants and hence decreases the equilibrium number of firms. These results echo the empirical observation in the sense that unionization raises unemployment and alters the distribution of income between workers and firms, but it does not give rise to a significant, real impact on the firms’ investment and the economy-wide growth.
The labor market is a crucial institution in any economy. It supplies firms with one of the inputs in the production process, labor. Moreover, it allows potential employees to find a job in accord with their preferences and skills. The smooth functioning of the labor market is thus a key piece in order for economic resources to be allocated efficiently. The performance of the labor market has also implications for relevant macroeconomic variables such as productivity, the unemployment rate or inflation.
T his research examines how organizations simultaneously manage their operations and occupational health and safety. Although both safety and operations scholars conduct research in the same operational settings, they have reached different, yet untested, conclusions about the relationship between creating a safe workplace and creating a productive workplace. The results from a series of 10 case studies show that it is possible to create safe and productive workplaces, but that many facilities fail at this task because of problems associated with the culture management creates and the practices management adopts.
The last half century of US labor movement history is characterized by dramatic decline in both density and (since 1979) real numbers. While unions and union federations in the mainstream union movement have attempted to adjust, developments outside their sphere have been especially prominent: the rise of independent unions and the initiation of alternative forms of workers movements. With union decline, community labor organizations [typified by Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)], worker centers, and living wage campaigns have risen to fill the void. These alternate paths for worker representation, like other forms developed in the past, bring new tactics, new activists, and new links to labor struggles and may yet contribute to the future of labor movements in the United States.
Keywords:
labor movement;
unions;
workers;
community labor organizations;
worker centers;
living wage laws
In the classic bestseller, Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman presents his view of the proper role of competitive capitalismâthe organization of economic activity through private enterprise operating in a free marketâas both a device for achieving economic freedom and a necessary condition for political freedom. Beginning with a discussion of principles of a liberal society, Friedman applies them to such constantly pressing problems as monetary policy, discrimination, education, income distribution, welfare, and poverty. "Milton Friedman is one of the nation's outstanding economists, distinguished for remarkable analytical powers and technical virtuosity. He is unfailingly enlightening, independent, courageous, penetrating, and above all, stimulating."-Henry Hazlitt, Newsweek "It is a rare professor who greatly alters the thinking of his professional colleagues. It's an even rarer one who helps transform the world. Friedman has done both."-Stephen Chapman, Chicago Tribune
Introducción al estudio de la economía laboral y las relaciones laborales. El documento está compuesto por los siguientes apartados: El trabajo en la sociedad industrial; La fuerza de trabajo; el mercado de mano de obra; Salarios e ingresos; Las instituciones sindicales; La negociación colectiva; El efecto del sindicato.
This paper offers an explanation of the use of mandatory-retirement clauses in labor contracts. It argues that the date of mandatory retirement is chosen to correspond to the date of voluntary retirement, but the nature of the optimal wage profile results in a discrepancy between spot wage and spot VMP (value of the worker's marginal product). This is because it is preferable to pay workers less than VMP when young and more than VMP when old. By doing so, the "agency" problem is solved, so the contract with mandatory retirement is Pareto efficient. A theory of agency is presented and empirical evidence which supports the hypothesis is provided.
In this paper we focus our attention on the question of whether union/nonunion differences in nonwage outcomes can, in fact, be explained in terms of standard price-theoretic responses to real wage effects, as opposed to the real effect of unionism on economic behavior. We reach three basic conclusions. First, unions and collective bargaining have real economic effects on diverse nonwage variables which cannot be explained either in terms of price-theoretic responses to union wage effects or be attributed to the poor quality of our econometric "experiments". Second, we find that while sensitivity analyses of single-equation results and longitudinal experiments provide valuable checks on cross-sectional findings, multiple-equations approaches produced results which are too sensitive to small changes in models or samples to help resolve the questions of concern. Finally, on the basis of these findings we conclude that the search for an understanding of what unions do requires more than the standard price theoretic "monopoly" model of unionism. New (and/or old) perspectives based on institutional or industrial relations realities, contractarian or property rights theories, or other potential sources of creative views are also needed.
Lecture to the memory of Alfred Nobel, December 8, 1978
Murphy's statement was made at the GM-UAW Contract Anniversary Dinner, in Detroit, Michigan, on February 11, 1977. The text of his comments was provided by the General Motors Corporation Public Relations Library
- Mr
Mr. Murphy's statement was made at the GM-UAW Contract Anniversary Dinner, in Detroit,
Michigan, on February 11, 1977. The text of his comments was provided by the General
Motors Corporation Public Relations Library.
- R B Steiber
- D Q Mckersie
- U S Mills
Steiber, R. B. McKersie and D. Q. Mills, U.S. Industrial Relations 1950–1980: A Critical
Assessment (Madison, Wis.. Industrial Relations Research Association, 1981),47–97, also
provide summaries of recent work.
For examples of economists with generally positive outlooks on labor unions, see The Evolution of Wage Structure
- G Lloyd
- Cynthia H Reynolds
- Taft
For examples of economists with generally positive outlooks on labor unions, see Lloyd G.
Reynolds and Cynthia H. Taft, The Evolution of Wage Structure (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1956);
The Political Economy of Monopoly (Baltimore
- Fritz Machlup
Fritz Machlup, The
Political Economy of Monopoly (Baltimore. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1952).
for a brief description of many Post-1960s studies. H. Gregg Lewis, Union Relative Wage Effects: A Survey (Forthcoming) and
American Economic Review, 65 (May 1975): 23-38, for a brief description of many Post-1960s
studies. H. Gregg Lewis, Union Relative Wage Effects: A Survey (Forthcoming) and R. B.
Efficient Labor Organization University of Pennsylvania Discussion Paper No. 123 (Revised) (Philadelphia: Center for the Study of Organizational Innovation
- E Oliver
- Herbert Williamson
- Simon
Oliver E. Williamson,
"Efficient Labor Organization," University of Pennsylvania Discussion Paper No. 123
(Revised) (Philadelphia: Center for the Study of Organizational Innovation, April 1982),
21–22; and Herbert Simon, "Rational Decision Making in Business Organizations," American
Economic Review 69 (September 1979): 493–513.
Economic Policy for a Free Society
- Simons
Simons, Economic Policy for a Free Society (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948);
Wage Policy and Inflation The Public Stake in Union Power
- Gottfried Haberler
Gottfried Haberler, "Wage Policy and Inflation," in P. D. Bradley, ed., The Public Stake in
Union Power (Charlottesville, Va.. University of Virginia Press, 1959), 63-85; Milton
Friedman and Rose Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom (Chicago. University of Chicago Press,
1962), 123-25, and Free to Choose (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980), 228-47; W.
Competitive Price Setting, Labor Contracts and Trade Unions
- Benjamin Eden
Benjamin Eden, "Competitive Price Setting, Labor Contracts and Trade Unions"
(University of Iowa, mimeographed 1983);
A Tiger by the Tail (London: Institute of Economic Affairs
- F A Hayek
F. A. Hayek, A Tiger by the Tail (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1972), 72.
The results of a recent Gallup poll illustrate the growing ambivalence about unions only 59 percent of people polled approved of unions percent of people polled approved of unions. See The Gallup Index
The results of a recent Gallup poll illustrate the growing ambivalence about unions. In
August, 1978, only 59 percent of people polled approved of unions. By contrast, in January,
1957, 76 percent of people polled approved of unions. See The Gallup Index, August 1978,
Report Number 157.
which guarantees "the right to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection Individuals acting alone are not protected by law. For a more detailed discussion A text of the NLRA is contained in
Protection for collective action without union status is found in section 7 as well, which
guarantees "the right to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective
bargaining or other mutual aid or protection...." Individuals acting alone are not protected by
law. For a more detailed discussion, see Archibald Cox and Derek Bok, Labor Law Cases and
Materials (Mineola, N.Y.: The Foundation Press, 1969),858-904. A text of the NLRA is
contained in A. Cox and D.C. Bok, 1966 Statutory Supplement, Labor Law Cases and
Materials (Brooklyn, N. Y.: The Foundation Press, 1966), 38-59.
Industrial Relations 1950-1980: A Critical Assessment
- R B Steiber
- D Q Mckersie
- U S Mills
Steiber, R. B. McKersie and D. Q. Mills, U.S. Industrial Relations 1950-1980: A Critical
Assessment (Madison, Wis.. Industrial Relations Research Association, 1981),47-97, also
provide summaries of recent work.
Efficient Labor Organization University of Pennsylvania Discussion Paper No. 123 (Revised) (Philadelphia: Center for the Study of Organizational Innovation 21-22; and Herbert Simon
- E Oliver
- Williamson
Oliver E. Williamson,
"Efficient Labor Organization," University of Pennsylvania Discussion Paper No. 123
(Revised) (Philadelphia: Center for the Study of Organizational Innovation, April 1982),
21-22; and Herbert Simon, "Rational Decision Making in Business Organizations," American
Economic Review 69 (September 1979): 493-513.