bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Bargaining Laws as a Cause and Consequence of the Growth of Teacher Unionism
Authors: Saltzman Gregory M.
Published: June 2015

This study analyzes state-level data for 1959–78 to determine whether the rapid growth of teacher unionism during those years was primarily a result or a cause of the public sector bargaining laws adopted during the same period. The author finds, contrary to the view of some scholars, that the enactment of laws requiring public sector employers to bargain with majority representatives of their employees was the single most important cause of the growth in the proportion of teachers covered by union contracts. Although the growth in teacher unionism in turn encouraged the adoption of some new or stronger bargaining laws, this effect was relatively weak. More important predictors of new bargaining laws included the extent of political patronage in a state and the bargaining laws adopted by neighboring states.
Unionism among Professional Employees in the Private Sector
Authors: Aronson Robert L.
Published: June 2015

This study appraises the potential for union growth among professional employees in the private sector. It utilizes several data sources that permit estimates of the number of employees in 1978 who met the complex legal criteria for representation in professional units, and it also analyzes data on NLRB election results for 1973–79. The author concludes that unionism among private-sector professionals has been growing more rapidly than generally assumed, but the number of professionals who remain to be organized is relatively small.
Seniority versus Ability in Promotion Decisions
Authors: Mills D. Quinn
Published: June 2015

Responses to a telephone survey of managers in 276 companies show that in those companies the senior employee is more likely to be promoted over the junior employee in cases in which the vacancy is posted, the relevant employment unit is small, the position is not managerial, and the manager feels required by company policy to select senior applicants. Unionism is not a significant independent factor. The author concludes that employees are often advanced to higher paying jobs not because of their superior skill, ability, or performance, as the human capital model may imply, but because of their greater length of service.
Union Membership in the United States, 1973–1981
Authors: Kokkelenberg Edward C. , Sockell Donna R.
Published: June 2015

This paper reports estimates of union membership gathered from May Current Population Surveys, from 1973 to 1981. The authors present data by occupation, industry, selected states and SMSAs, race, gender, and educational attainment. The paper both extends and differs from that by Freeman and Medoff, which presents unionism estimates for the private sector for 1968–75. To facilitate longitudinal analysis, this paper reports three-year moving averages of occupational and industry data and annual estimates of demographic classifications. The data include public sector as well as private sector workers, and they exclude workers not covered by the National Labor Relations Act. Also, the authors provide only union-membership estimates, not estimates on workers covered by union contracts. This paper suggests that the percentage of all workers that are unionized in the United States remained fairly constant over the 1973–81 period.
Internal Labor Markets in Retailing: The Early Years
Authors: Carter Michael J. , Carter Susan B.
Published: June 2015

This study of two New York City department stores shows that, contrary to the implications of previous studies, internal labor markets existed before World War I, outside heavy industry, and in the absence of overt worker discontent. Among male office employees in one store, the internal market was marked by job ladders, relatively high wages, and many senior employees. In the other store, female employees in both the office and sales divisions were in a mixed situation, characterized by rudimentary job ladders and pay increasing with seniority but low average wages and no protection against arbitrary dismissal. The authors hypothesize that classic internal markets exist only where workers possess the collective power to impose substantial turnover costs on the employer.
The Effect of Unions on the Employment of Blacks, Hispanics, and Women
Authors: Leonard Jonathan S.
Published: June 2015

To investigate whether unions have helped or hindered the employment prospects of minorities and women, the author analyzes data on 1,273 California manufacturing plants for the period 1974–80. The main finding is that, with the exception of Hispanic females, unions have not been a significant impediment to minority or female blue-collar employment. In the case of black males, the employment share has increased significantly faster in union than in nonunion plants. Despite seniority provisions that might be expected to reduce minority and female employment during recessions such as those in 1974 and 1979, minorities and women as a bloc increased their share of union employment from 1974 to 1980. The author concludes that unions have not generally hindered the employment growth of minorities and women.
The Impact of Computers on the Employment of Clerks and Managers
Authors: Osterman Paul
Published: June 2015

This paper investigates how the increased use of computers affects clerical and managerial employment. The author hypothesizes that the much-discussed displacement effect—computers taking over for clerks—is offset at least in part by complementary effects. For example, computers may increase clerical and managerial employment by lowering unit cost, thus expanding production, and by inducing structural reorganization of the firm. Analyzing new data from a national survey of computer installations by industry, the author finds that the net effect of computers in 1972–78 was to depress the employment of clerks and managers substantially, but that the pattern over time—a larger displacement effect in the first few years, followed by increased clerical and managerial employment—supports the bureaucratic reorganization hypothesis.
Predictors of Individual Propensity to Strike
Authors: Martin James E.
Published: June 2015

This article examines willingness to strike among 141 nonprofessional public school employees shortly before expiration of their contracts. A questionnaire asked respondents how many days they would participate in: any strike called by their union, regardless of the issue (or issues); a strike for a low (10%) wage increase; and a strike for a high (24%) wage increase. The results suggest that the individual worker characteristics predictive of willingness to strike vary substantially among different strike goals. For example, it appears that militancy is related to striking for a high wage increase, faithful union participation to striking in support of the union, and neither to striking for a low wage increase, suggesting that, contrary to a common assumption, not all strikes are sustained by “militant” workers.
The Critical Wage, Unemployment Duration, and Wage Expectations: The Case of Chile
Authors: Maani Sholeh A. , Studenmund A. H.
Published: June 2015

This study tests the relevance of the job search model to understanding unemployment in developing countries by utilizing a 1982 data set describing unemployed men in Chile. The findings indicate that the model is relevant to a developing country: the job seekers studied based their critical wages on their perceptions of their own productivity, economic resources, and search costs, and they reduced their wage requirements as the duration of their unemployment increased. The authors also show, in the first direct test of this question, that the critical wage and the expected wage are determined jointly and that the expected wage is adjusted to duration of unemployment mainly in response to the fall in the critical wage.
Unions, Establishment Size, and Intra-Industry Threat Effects
Authors: Podgursky Michael
Published: June 2015

Using a sample of data on private-sector production workers from a May–June 1979 matched Current Population Survey, this study finds that whether a worker is covered by a union contract, and the proportion of an industry's production workers covered by union contracts, have significantly different effects on worker earnings across establishments of different size. The pattern of findings suggests that large nonunion employers tend to match the union wage scale at all levels of unionism in their industry; medium-size nonunion employers match the union scale only as the union presence in their industry looms large; and small nonunion employers maintain wages below the union rate at all levels of union organization of their industry.
Imperfect Information and Strikes: An Analysis of Canadian Experience, 1967–82
Authors: Cousineau Jean-Michel , Lacroix Robert
Published: June 2015

To test their hypothesis that the propensity to strike is affected less by the actual balance of bargaining power than by the parties' uncertainty about their relative power, the authors perform a probit analysis of data on 1,871 collective agreements negotiated in the Canadian manufacturing sector between 1967 and 1982. They find, consistent with their hypothesis, that some characteristics of individual bargaining units, the relevant industries, and the economy as a whole that affect both the quantity and reliability of information needed to assess relative bargaining power do have significant value in predicting strike incidence across industries and over time.
The Degree of Indexation in Major U.S. Union Contracts
Authors: Kaufman Roger T. , Woglom Geoffrey
Published: June 2015

The authors propose that the most appropriate measure of the degree of indexation in a union contract is the marginal elasticity of the average expected wage during the life of the contract with respect to unanticipated changes in the price level. They present estimates of this elasticity for 68 U.S. contracts negotiated between 1971 and 1983 with cost-of-living escalators. The average degree of indexation in the sample, .48, is considerably smaller than previous estimates of similar marginal elasticities because the estimation method more accurately incorporates caps, minimum COLAs, and the exact specification of the COLA clauses.
The Impact of Deregulation on the Employment and Wages of Airline Mechanics
Authors: Card David
Published: June 2015

This paper describes the effects of deregulation on negotiated wage rates and employment levels of aircraft mechanics in the scheduled airline industry between 1978 and 1984. A firm-by-firm analysis of the established trunk airlines shows relatively small changes in real wage rates since 1978, and only recent changes in interfirm wage differentials. Employment growth rates, however, have varied widely, both among the established trunk airlines and between them and the new-entrant and former local service airlines. The data suggest that deregulation shifted 5,000 to 7,000 maintenance jobs from the established trunks to the smaller airlines. The shift may have reduced average hourly earnings of mechanics in the industry by as much as 5 percent below the level they would have reached in the absence of deregulation.
Competition, Racism, and Hiring Practices among California Manufacturers, 1860–1882
Authors: Brown Martin , Philips Peter
Published: June 2015

This paper examines the participation of Chinese men in four California industries in the late 1800s to determine the relationship between product market structure and racist hiring practices. Because white women, a traditional source of cheap labor, were scarce in post-Gold Rush California, white employers hired Chinese men, despite widespread anti-Chinese racism. As white women became plentiful, the canning and woolen mills industries began to switch to them, whereas the more competitive shoe and cigar industries continued to employ Chinese men. Factors other than market structure, however, resulted in particularly virulent anti-Chinese attitudes in the more competitive industries, and those attitudes indirectly stimulated the exclusionary hiring practices in the less competitive industries.
The Structural Determinants of Union Bargaining Power
Authors: Mishel Lawrence
Published: June 2015

This paper investigates the structural determinants of variation in union power across manufacturing industries. Using a pooled sample of unionized establishments from the Expenditure on Employee Compensation Surveys of 1968–72, the author estimates wage equations augmented with measures of product market structure, bargaining structure, and the size distribution of unions. The results suggest that union wage gains are greatest where discretionary pricing power enhances employers' ability to pay and where unions achieve high coverage, practice centralized bargaining, and avoid union fragmentation. On the other hand, centralized bargaining provides no advantage in competitive industries.
The Effect of Unions on Productivity in a Multinational Manufacturing Firm
Authors: Mefford Robert N.
Published: June 2015

This paper examines the effect of unions on productivity in 31 plants of a large multinational firm in the years 1975–82. The plants, 60 percent of which are unionized, all produce a similar line of products using material-intensive, labor-intensive, low-technology methods. Results obtained by estimating a translog production function indicate that unionization's overall effect on productivity is positive. Specific findings are that unionization increases the capital-labor ratio and improves management performance, but it also raises the absenteeism rate. A net positive effect on productivity remains even when these channels of union influence are controlled for, a result that, the author suggests, may reflect an improved labor relations climate or improved labor quality associated with unionization.
Concession Bargaining: The Impact on Shareholders' Equity
Authors: Becker Brian E.
Published: June 2015

This analysis of bargaining settlements in 1982–83 shows that, on average, shareholders in those firms that negotiated concessionary settlements enjoyed an 8 to 10 percent increase in the value of their holdings. The author interprets this result to mean not that the value of the firm increased, but rather that concessions enlarged the shareholders' portion of the firm's value at the expense of the workers' portion. On the other hand, concession bargaining does not seem to have reallocated business risk between shareholders and labor. Finally, the evidence suggests that firm-specific sources of risk can explain, in part, not only the magnitude of the concession effects but also the probability that concession bargaining will occur.
Teacher Unions and the Productivity of Public Schools
Authors: Eberts Randall W. , Stone Joe A.
Published: June 2015

Do teacher unions affect the productivity of public schools? The authors examine this question using individual student data from the Sustaining Effects Survey sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. Holding resources constant and using achievement gains on standardized tests as the measure of output, they find that union districts are seven percent more productive for average students. For the minority of students who are significantly above or below average, however, nonunion districts are more productive by about the same margin, apparently because teacher unions reduce the use of specialized instructional techniques. This result is consistent with the view that unions tend to standardize the workplace. Across all students, the average union productivity advantage is three percent.
Supervisory Participation in Professional Associations: Implications of North Shore University Hospital
Authors: Lee Barbara A. , Parker Joan
Published: June 2015

A recent ruling by a circuit court—in NLRB v. North Shore University Hospital—prohibited a professional association from serving as a collective bargaining agent of a unit of registered nurses because the court found that statutory supervisors participated in the governance of the association. In this article, the authors analyze the case law concerning supervisory participation in professional associations; discuss nursing representation cases prior to North Shore; describe the responses of nurses' professional associations to North Shore in three states; and discuss the implications of North Shore and related decisions for the representation rights of professional employees. They also propose an analytical model for the NLRB to follow in determining whether supervisory participation in a professional association so endangers the collective bargaining process as to warrant disqualification of that association as a statutory representative.
The Importance of Lifetime Jobs: Differences between Union and Nonunion Workers
Authors: Addison John T. , Castro Alberto C.
Published: June 2015

The authors use CPS micro data to derive estimates of retention rates and eventual lifetime tenure probabilities for union and nonunion workers. Although both groups enjoy a considerable degree of near-lifetime employment (defined as eventual tenure of 20+ years with the firm), union workers evince measurably higher eventual tenure than their nonunion counterparts, especially among those with lower current tenure. A separate analysis suggests that this outcome may result in part from better job matching for union than for nonunion workers. The authors hypothesize that union workers enjoy an informational advantage in the labor market.
New Measures of the Propensity to Strike during Contract Negotiations, 1971–1980
Authors: Gramm Cynthia L.
Published: June 2015

This paper presents new measures—by month, industry, and union—of the percentage of labor contract negotiations in the United States that result in a strike. The measures are derived from a single, comprehensive sample of 6,046 contract negotiations occurring in 1971–80 in bargaining units of 1,000 or more workers. These data are superior to those used in previous studies because they measure strike probabilities (or propensities) directly rather than by proxy. The data show that strikes occurred in 13.25 percent of all negotiations analyzed, but this strike rate varied substantially across years, industries, and unions.
The Propensity of Permanently Disabled Workers to Hire Lawyers
Authors: Borba Philip S. , Appel David
Published: June 2015

Although a major objective of workers' compensation insurance has been to reduce the financial and legal uncertainties that work-related injuries can occasion for employers and employees, a significant proportion of claimants with permanent injuries contest the benefit award. The authors of this study use a sample of 1,060 California workers with permanent injuries to identify the factors that influence the propensity to hire an attorney. The results suggest that educational level, union membership, the seriousness of the injury, and the availability to the injured worker of additional sources of income are all positively related to the propensity to hire an attorney. The findings also suggest that injured workers satisfied with the employer's and insurer's handling of the claim are less likely than other workers to hire an attorney.
The Economic Consequences of Labor Mobility
Authors: Ruhm Christopher J.
Published: June 2015

Unlike most previous research on the relative changes in earnings of job stayers and job changers, this study examines the variance in earnings changes rather than simply average changes, men and women rather than only men, and the five-year period following job change rather than only the first year or two. The author finds great variability in earnings changes both within and across race and gender groups. Notably, men gained more from quits and, except in the case of low-wage workers, lost less from layoffs than women. Also, men suffered a much smaller penalty than women for repeated job changes. For all groups, the percentage difference between earnings before and after leaving a job generally persisted for several years.
Do Unions Capture Monopoly Profits?
Authors: Hirsch Barry T. , Connolly Robert A.
Published: June 2015

This paper challenges the conclusion reached in recent studies that unions reduce profits exclusively in highly concentrated industries. From their review of previous studies and their analysis of 1977 data on 367 Fortune 500 firms, the authors conclude that there is no convincing evidence that concentration produces monopoly profits for unions to capture. Moreover, they find that the union wage effect is not greater in concentrated industries, as suggested by the hypothesis that unions capture concentration-related profits. Evidence is found suggesting that a firm's market share, its expenditures on research and development, and its protection from foreign competition provide more likely sources for union rents than does industry concentration.
Determinants of Chief Executive Officer Compensation
Authors: Deckop John R.
Published: June 2015

This study investigates correlates of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) compensation, with particular emphasis on measures of firm performance. An analysis of data from 120 firms in 1977–81 shows that, contrary to the findings of some other studies, CEOs were not given an incentive through compensation to increase the size of the firm at the expense of profit. Rather, CEO compensation was positively related to profit as a percentage of sales. Also, CEOs recruited from outside the firm earned significantly more than internally promoted CEOs, and both of those groups earned significantly more than CEOs who were founders of the firm. The market equity value of the firm and the CEO's age and years of service as a CEO had little effect on compensation.
The Effect of Grievants' Gender on Arbitrators' Decisions
Authors: Bemmels Brian
Published: June 2015

This study investigates the effect of the gender of grievants on the decisions of arbitrators in 104 discharge cases. The results indicate that, other things equal, women were twice as likely as men to have their grievance sustained; in cases where the grievance was sustained, women were 2.7 times more likely than men to receive a full reinstatement rather than a partial reinstatement; and in cases where suspension was imposed in place of discharge, women received, on average, a suspension 2.1 months shorter than men. These results are consistent with those of studies of the treatment of women in the criminal justice system.
Bargaining and the Determinants of Teacher Salaries
Authors: Easton Todd
Published: June 2015

This study examines the impact of collective bargaining on salary setting in public school districts. Using a 1969–82 sample of Oregon school districts, the author focuses particularly on the roles of two factors before and after the introduction of collective bargaining: salary comparisons between school districts and school districts' ability and willingness to pay for education. No evidence is found that ability and willingness to pay influenced salary setting either before or after collective bargaining began, suggesting that bargaining does not serve to widen the gap in educational opportunity between wealthy and poor districts. On the other hand, inter-district salary comparisons significantly influenced salary setting throughout the period, but bargaining had little effect on the influence of that factor.
The New York Agency Shop Fee and the Constitution after Ellis and Hudson
Authors: Briffault Richard
Published: June 2015

In its recent Ellis and Hudson decisions, the Supreme Court imposed new substantive restrictions and procedural requirements on states that authorize, and public employee unions that utilize, agency shop fees. Focusing on New York State, this study analyzes the consequences for the collection and expenditure of agency fees of the Supreme Court's new emphasis on the First Amendment basis for dissenting employees' rights. The author finds that Ellis and Hudson cast doubt on the constitutionality of some current agency fee practices. He concludes that New York's Public Employment Relations Board will have to take a more active role in policing agency fee standards and procedures than it has until now if the agency fee in New York is to withstand First Amendment scrutiny.
Determinants of the Compensation and Mobility of School Superintendents
Authors: Ehrenberg Ronald G. , Chaykowski Richard P. , Ehrenberg Randy A.
Published: June 2015

Analyzing 1978–83 panel data from more than 700 New York State school districts, the authors find evidence that school superintendents were rewarded, both by higher salary increases and by enhanced opportunities to move to better-paying jobs, for having low school tax rates and high educational achievement within their districts, relative to the values of those variables in comparable school districts in the state. The rewards were, however, quite small. The analysis also suggests that the superintendents themselves did not significantly influence either school tax rates or educational test scores in their districts.
Predicted Future Earnings and Choice of College Major
Authors: Berger Mark C.
Published: June 2015

Using Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Young Men, the author of this paper examines the relationship between predicted future earnings for five broad fields of study and college students' choice of major. Conditional logit models of major choice that incorporate alternative predicted earnings variables are specified and estimated. The results indicate that, holding family background characteristics constant, individuals are likely to choose majors offering greater streams of future earnings rather than, as some have argued, majors with higher beginning earnings at the time of the choice. It is also found that earnings profiles corrected for self-selection bias have flattened for more recent graduates in business, liberal arts, and education. The life-cycle earnings in these disciplines appear to be more severely depressed than those in science and engineering.
The Importance of Strike Size in Strike Research
Authors: Skeels Jack W. , McGrath Paul , Arshanapalli Gangadha
Published: June 2015

This analysis of 1953–81 Department of Labor strike data demonstrates that strike samples selected on the basis of various size criteria (ranging from 25 or more workers involved to 5,000 or more workers involved) are not representative of all U.S. strikes. “Small” strikes are found to differ significantly from “large” strikes, whatever the size criterion, in terms of industry, strike issue, region of the country, and contract status. The authors question the generalizability of findings of strike research using post-1981 Department of Labor data, which have been collected using an inclusion criterion of 1,000 or more workers involved.
Providing Business Information to Production Workers: Correlates of Compensation and Profitability
Authors: Kleiner Morris M. , Bouillon Marvin L.
Published: June 2015

This study investigates some of the effects of a company's providing production workers with information on its financial condition, productivity, and relative standing in the labor market. Analyzing survey responses of business executives from 106 firms together with financial data on the companies from COMPUSTAT II for 1984, the authors find that information-sharing was positively related to the level of wages and benefits and unrelated to productivity in both union and nonunion businesses, and that it had a significant negative relationship to profits and cash flows in nonunion businesses.
The Effect of AMA Membership on Physicians' Earnings
Authors: Ohsfeldt Robert L.
Published: June 2015

This study explores earnings differences between physicians who are members of the American Medical Association and physicians who are not AMA members. Nonmembers earn, on average, about 22 percent less per hour of medical practice than members. An estimate of the earnings effect of AMA membership incorporating the simultaneous determination of earnings and membership suggests, however, that membership per se increases physicians' hourly practice earnings only by about 2.7 percent.
Running the Gauntlet: British Trade Unions under Thatcher, 1979–1988
Authors: Towers Brian
Published: June 2015

This article describes and appraises the difficulties experienced by British unions since 1979. During that period, union membership has declined over 20 percent and three successive Conservative governments have enacted labor legislation opposed by unions. The author views the government's strongly unfavorable treatment of unions as a powerful force, but argues that economic and structural changes, such as the growth of temporary and part-time workers and the decline of the manufacturing sector, are likely to have more lasting adverse effects. Unions are adopting various strategies to try to counteract the decline of their membership, including innovative organizing methods and expanded services for members. The fate of the unions will depend, the author concludes, on the success of those strategies, changes in the British economy, and the Labour Party's fortunes in future general elections.
Concession Bargaining in the Ocean-Going Maritime Industry
Authors: Donn Clifford B.
Published: June 2015

The U.S.-flag maritime fleet has been in gradual decline throughout the postwar period, but that decline accelerated in the 1980s, with employment levels being particularly hard-hit. As a result, maritime collective bargaining entered a concessionary phase, with widespread concessions in staffing, work rules, and wages and benefits. The author finds that these recent concessions have come both in standard multi-employer agreements and in departures from those agreements on an employer-by-employer and vessel-by-vessel basis. He argues that these concessions, despite their extensiveness, will not be sufficient to halt the industry's decline in the absence of changes in public policy toward the maritime industry.
The Influence of Attitudes and Normative Pressures on Voting Decisions in a Union Certification Election
Authors: Montgomery B. Ruth
Published: June 2015

This paper investigates how both attitudes and normative pressures influenced the voting decisions of public university clerical workers in a December 1984 union representation election. Not surprisingly, the voters' attitudes, shaped by the results they expected to follow from union certification and their evaluation of those results as good or bad, appear to have been an important determinant of voting intentions and, in turn, actual votes. Also influential, although less so, was normative pressure, a function of how the voters thought others (family, co-workers, other clericals, supervisors, and other management staff) wished them to vote and how strongly they were inclined to satisfy those wishes.
Who Uses Interest Arbitration? The Case of British Columbia's Teachers, 1947–1981
Authors: Currie Janet
Published: June 2015

Several researchers have attempted to identify the circumstances under which parties subject to compulsory interest arbitration will actually push a contract dispute to arbitration. In this paper, a simple model that incorporates elements of the leading hypotheses is tested using a unique data set spanning 35 years of compulsory conventional arbitration experience among teachers in British Columbia. The strongest empirical finding is that bargaining units that used arbitration in the previous round of negotiations were at least ten percent more likely than other units to use it in the current round. On the other hand, variables intended to capture attitudes toward risk, changes in the degree of uncertainty associated with arbitral outcomes, differing beliefs about likely arbitral outcomes, and principal-agent problems were found to have little impact on the estimated probability of using arbitration.
The Impact of Bargainer Experience on Teacher Strikes
Authors: Montgomery Edward , Benedict Mary Ellen
Published: June 2015

Using data on Pennsylvania public schools for the period 1978–84, the authors investigate the effects of bargainer experience on the frequency and duration of strikes. They find that increases in the negotiation experience of the chief or principal bargainer on either side, as well as increases in the experience of the two bargainers combined, reduce both the frequency and duration of strikes, suggesting that experienced bargainers are more adept than inexperienced bargainers at learning the minimum payoffs demanded by their opponents and conveying their own true positions. Also, strikes are less likely to occur the more equal the experience levels of the two chief bargainers.
The Waterfront Commission of the Port of New York: A History and Appraisal
Authors: Levy Peter B.
Published: June 2015

This study recounts the history and evaluates the record of the Waterfront Commission of the Port of New York, established in 1953 to rid the port of organized crime. The agency's ambitious purpose has not been realized, the author finds; for example, in the 1970s an FBI investigation resulted in indictments and convictions of many figures in the New York-New Jersey longshore industry, including the vice-president of the International Longshoremen's Association. The Commission has, however, successfully combatted many blatant forms of corruption that were once commonplace, and in the process significantly improved the longshoremen's working conditions. The Commission's experiences may, the author concludes, be useful in showing what can and cannot be done by government intervention to stem organized crime in an industry.
The Role of Discrimination in Determining Occupational Structure
Authors: Gill Andrew M.
Published: June 2015

The author of this study attempts to isolate the role of discrimination in determining racial differences in occupational structure. Logit techniques are used to identify and distinguish between determinants of the probability that an individual will choose an occupation and the probability that an individual will be hired for a desired job. The empirical results indicate that much of the under-representation of blacks in managerial, sales and clerical, and craft occupations can be attributed to employment discrimination. These findings thus seriously challenge human capital models, which treat occupational distribution as resulting from individual choice.
Labor History, Industrial Relations, and the Crisis of American Labor
Authors: Brody David
Published: June 2015

In this look at the disciplinary history of industrial relations and labor history, the author focuses on the long period of disassociation between the two fields and the growing contact between them in the 1980s. He suggests that industrial relations scholars became more receptive to historical modes of thought when events such as the decline in union membership (starting in the mid-1970s) and the sharp recession of 1981–82 proved that industrial relations could not be treated like a static system, describable by invariant laws of labor economics. Similarly, he argues, labor historians, who were able to concentrate on writing “history from the bottom up” during the era of mature collective bargaining, have recently shown a revived interest in the study of institutions, politics, and power.
Models of Man in Industrial Relations Research
Authors: Kaufman Bruce E.
Published: June 2015

The author attempts to identify the essential characteristics that distinguish behavioral from nonbehavioral research in industrial relations. He argues that behavioral research is distinguished from nonbehavioral research by the psychological model of man that is contained in the theoretical framework used to deduce or test hypotheses. More specifically, the “behavioral man” of behavioral research and the “economic man” of nonbehavioral research differ in the assumptions they embody about human motivation and cognition. The author cites examples from the literature to support his contention that the choice between these alternative models significantly affects predictions of industrial relations outcomes.
Do Union Organizers Matter? Individual Differences, Campaign Practices, and Representation Election Outcomes
Authors: Reed Thomas F.
Published: June 2015

Although many studies have investigated the determinants of union representation election outcomes, none has examined union organizers' influence on those outcomes. Based on a literature review and interviews with the directors of organizing of eight unions, the author of this study hypothesizes that certain personal characteristics of organizers are associated with success in organizing campaigns. An analysis of survey questionnaires completed by 64 organizers supports the general hypothesis that some personal and demographic characteristics of organizers affect both the percentage of pro-union votes and election outcomes.
Associate Membership: Unionism or Consumerism?
Authors: Jarley Paul , Fiorito Jack
Published: June 2015

Analyzing data from the Union Image Survey (a 1984 Harris poll examining workers' attitudes toward various forms of employee organization), the authors compare the motives and characteristics of workers who expressed a desire to join an associate membership program with those of workers who indicated a readiness to vote for traditional union representation. The results confirm the hypothesis that workers' interest in the types of consumer benefits offered by associate membership programs was strongly related to their interest in joining such programs but not to their readiness to vote for a union. On the other hand, general attitudes toward unions significantly affected both choices.
Gumbo Politics: Unions, Business, and Louisiana Right-to-Work Legislation
Authors: Canak William , Miller Berkeley
Published: June 2015

The authors examine business community involvement; in right-to-work (RTW) campaigns in Louisiana during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1970s. They find that the entire business community supported RTW in the 1940s and 1970s. In the 1950s, some small businesses and major corporations avoided public involvement due to fear of retaliation by unions or the Long government of that era, but those same companies helped initiate and organize the campaigns of the 1940s and 1970s. RTW campaign successes were linked to interunion conflict and social conditions that weakened coalitions of unions and their allies. In each decade, RTW campaigns were influenced by national and international economic and political factors.
The Consistency and Predictability of Grievance Arbitration Awards
Authors: Thornton Robert J. , Zirkel Perry A.
Published: June 2015

In this study of the consistency and predictability of grievance arbitration awards, 177 arbitrators named awards and 188 management and union representatives predicted awards for six hypothetical cases—-three variants of a just-cause dismissal case and three of a contract interpretation case. The awards were quite variable: in one variant of each case, somewhat more than 70% of the arbitrators agreed on the award, but in all other instances the level of agreement was below 57%. This inconsistency does not appear to be related to the arbitrator's age, gender, educational degree, or experience. On the other hand, the authors find that the distribution of predictions by management representatives corresponded fairly well to the distribution of awards.
Contingent Pay and Managerial Performance
Authors: Kahn Lawrence M. , Sherer Peter D.
Published: June 2015

This paper uses longitudinal data on managers from one company to examine the relationship between financial incentives and performance. One important finding is that bonuses for managers who are in high-level positions, work at corporate headquarters, and have low seniority are more sensitive to performance than are the bonuses given to managers without those three characteristics. A second important finding is that the managers for whom bonuses are most sensitive to performance have higher subsequent performance levels than other managers, even when past performance levels are controlled for. Merit pay, in contrast to bonuses, appears to be awarded on the same basis across managerial levels, plant locations, and seniority levels, and differences in the sensitivity of merit pay to performance appear to have no significant effect on subsequent performance.
The Structure of Supervision and Pay in Hospitals
Authors: Groshen Erica L. , Krueger Alan B.
Published: June 2015

Using BLS data on 300 hospitals in 1985, the authors examine pay in four occupations, with a particular focus on the effect of supervision on the pay of nonsupervisory employees. There was a strong hospital-specific effect on wages that cut across occupations; thus, if a hospital paid relatively high wages to one occupation, it was likely to pay high wages to workers in other occupations as well. The inter-occupational pattern of the ratio of supervisors to staff, on the other hand, was much less uniform among hospitals. The wages of staff nurses tended to fall with the extent of supervision, suggesting that workers do not receive a compensating wage premium in return for closer supervision.
Profitability and Compensation Adjustments in the Retail Food Industry
Authors: Ichniowski Casey , Delaney John Thomas
Published: June 2015

This paper uses longitudinal data provided by a large unionized grocery store chain to examine the relationship between profitability and compensation adjustments between 1976 and 1985. Consistent with the predictions of a Nash bargaining model, negotiated compensation adjustments were inversely related to the pre-negotiation operating income of the relevant stores. Concessionary compensation adjustments in response to relatively low levels of prior profitability occurred in the first year of contracts and subsequent compensation growth was unaffected by differences in prior profitability. Decreases in compensation rates led to significant improvements in subsequent economic performance. Estimates of this relationship, however, indicate that the impact of compensation adjustments on profitability changes was less than dollar-for-dollar.
Merit Pay Practices: Implications for Pay-Performance Relationships
Authors: Schwab Donald P. , Olson Craig A.
Published: June 2015

This study uses a Monte Carlo simulation to examine how the relationship between pay and performance is affected by the pay system, measurement error in appraising performance, the consistency of true performance over time, and the rules governing promotion decisions. The authors find that conventional merit systems achieve a considerably better link between pay and performance than does a bonus system with periodic adjustments in base wages. A bonus system without periodic base wage adjustments also performs less well than conventional merit systems, because merit systems benefit from the consistency of true performance over time. One surprising finding is that even very substantial error in the measurement of performance has only a modest effect on the pay-performance correlation.
Profit Sharing and Employment Stability
Authors: Chelius James , Smith Robert S.
Published: June 2015

This paper tests the hypothesis that workers whose compensation packages contain a profit-sharing component are less susceptible to layoff in the face of negative shocks to product demand than are workers paid a fixed, time-based wage. The theory is tested on two data sets, one a household survey and the other a survey of small businesses conducted by the authors. The characteristics of profit sharing among small businesses by and large meet the theoretical requirements for stabilizing employment, and the authors do find evidence in both samples to support the hypothesis; the evidence, however, is of borderline statistical significance and is therefore more suggestive than definitive.
Compensation Policy and Firm Performance: An Annotated Bibliography of Machine-Readable Data Files
Authors: Hotchkiss Julie L.
Published: June 2015

This paper presents detailed descriptions of 24 machine-readable data files that could be used in empirical studies of the relationship between compensation policy and firm performance. Also included are the addresses of the organizations (mostly government agencies) that create and distribute the files and, in most cases, of specific persons to contact in order to obtain the data. The author also provides information on data available from six private consulting firms.
Bargaining Laws and Unionization in the Local Public Sector
Authors: Zax Jeffrey S. , Ichniowski Casey
Published: June 2015

This paper analyzes the effects of bargaining law characteristics on rates of unionization in over 10,000 local government departments, representing five different government services, that were without bargaining units in 1977. Duty-to-bargain laws significantly increased the probability of bargaining union formation between 1977 and 1982. The results of the analysis reject the hypotheses that this effect reflects only underlying union strength, the release of pent-up demand for unionization, or the transformation of nonbargaining unions into bargaining unions. The changes in unionization attributable to duty-to-bargain laws are so large that they account for nearly all of the differences in average unionization rates between states with and without these laws.
Toward Explaining Earlier Retirement after 1970
Authors: Ippolito Richard A.
Published: June 2015

This study investigates why, after 15 years of virtual stability, U.S. labor force participation rates for men aged 55 to 64 fell by approximately 20% from 1970 through 1986. The author's analysis of rule changes in the social security system and pension plans suggests that part of this reduction was caused by an increase in social security benefits by almost 50% during the 1970s (half of which is not reflected in legislation), which worked to create unexpected wealth effects similar to those that characterized the system during the early 1950s; but an equally important cause was a widespread change in private pension plan rules toward encouraging earlier retirement. These conclusions challenge the common notion that earlier retirement is largely a supply-side phenomenon.
The Extent and Determinants of Local Union Control of Participative Programs
Authors: Eaton Adrienne E.
Published: June 2015

This paper examines the responses of 86 local unions to participative programs such as Employee Involvement. Representatives of the unions were surveyed regarding the level of union involvement in and control over programs in their workplaces. Survey results indicate that there is significant variation among local unions in the level of control achieved. Multivariate analysis suggests that union control over participative programs is less a function of bargaining power than of local union resources, international union policies toward participative programs, and perceptions of the threat the program poses to the union.
Does Centralized Collective Bargaining Promote Wage Restraint? The Case of Israel
Authors: Brauer David A.
Published: June 2015

This study examines whether centralized collective bargaining promoted wage restraint in Israel in the period 1968–84. Wage determination in Israel appears to be highly centralized, and the author shows that wage increases under central settlements during the period studied were almost invariably consistent with the goal of preserving competitiveness. Except in periods when there was consensus among major interest groups that sacrifice was necessary, however, wage drift tended to render the central federation's exercise of restraint ineffective. These results, the author concludes, support the view that consensus, and not the structure of collective bargaining per se, is the key to success in “corporatist” economies.