bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Wage Comparability in the U.S. Postal Service
Authors: Perloff Jeffrey M. , Wachter Michael L.
Published: June 2015

Federal law requires that the U.S. Postal Service pay wages comparable to those paid in the private sector. The authors argue that the appropriate test of that concept is a comparison of the wages paid to all comparably skilled workers, not only to white male workers in the private sector. By that standard, the authors conclude, from an analysis of CPS data, that in 1978 postal workers enjoyed a 21 percent wage advantage. They also point to the low quit rates and long employment queues in the Postal Service as evidence confirming that the wage of postal workers is well above that of comparable workers elsewhere. The authors predict that since the mail transmission market has become increasingly competitive, either the wage advantage of postal workers will decline or postal jobs will continue to shift to the private sector.
Trends in Union Organizing Expenditures, 1953–1977
Authors: Voos Paula B.
Published: June 2015

This paper tests the charge by some observers that one reason for the decline in unions' share of private sector employment has been a decline in their commitment to growth. The author presents several measures of the organizing expenditures of 27 national unions, representing about one-half of all union members in this country, over the 1953–77 period. These data show that organizing expenditures rose significantly over that period, whether measured in current or constant dollars, although they declined slightly as a proportion of total union expenditures.
An Empirical Assessment of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act
Authors: Schuster Michael , Miller Christopher S.
Published: June 2015

This paper presents the results of a content analysis of 153 federal court cases in which complainants charged a violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. The results show that 57 percent of the cases were brought on behalf of white men in professional and managerial occupations; employers won nearly two of every three cases; women were more successful plaintiffs than men; more cases originated in the South than in any other region; and government-initiated cases succeeded more often than those initiated by individual plaintiffs.
Income Splitting and Women's Labor-Force Participation
Authors: Leuthold Jane H.
Published: June 2015

The federal personal income tax law allows married couples to split their joint income and be taxed as if each spouse earned half the income. This study uses data from the 1979 Michigan Survey of Income Dynamics to test the effect of income splitting on the labor-force participation of wives. The results of a probit estimation show that the elimination of income splitting would probably increase significantly the labor-force participation of married women.
The Failure to Negotiate First Contracts: Determinants and Policy Implications
Authors: Cooke William N.
Published: June 2015

This study examines why unions, after winning certification rights, fail to secure agreements in roughly one of every four first-contract negotiations. Hypotheses are derived from Chamberlain's theory that the relative power of the negotiating parties is a function of the costs of agreeing and disagreeing, costs that are shaped by economic, legal, and organizational factors. The author analyzes data through 1982 on 118 cases in which unions had won NLRB elections in Indiana in the years 1979 and 1980. He finds that an employer's discrimination against union activists and his refusal to bargain, measured by section 8(a)(3) and 8(a)(5) charges deemed meritorious by the regional office of the NLRB, have substantial negative effects on the probability that a first contract will be reached. Similarly, negative efffects result from lengthy delay in the NLRB's resolution of employer objections and challenges to lost elections. On the other hand, unions are also more likely to obtain first contracts when firms pay wages well above the industry average, when national union representatives participate in negotiations, and when bargaining units are relatively large and cohesive.
The Attitudes of Union and Nonunion Male Workers toward Union Representation
Authors: Hills Stephen M.
Published: June 2015

This study finds striking differences in attitudes toward union representation between union and nonunion workers in the U.S. labor force. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of 1980 show that if a certification election were held at the workplace of the men aged 28 to 38 who were sampled, 87 percent of those already covered by a union contract said they would vote for union representation, whereas only 27 percent of the nonunion workers said they would do so. Among the nonunion workers, however, attitudes differed sharply by race and industry, as pro-union attitudes were more widespread among blacks than whites and among workers in government and construction than those in other industries. The author tested the effect of several possible determinants of attitudes, such as degree of job satisfaction, occupation, pay rate, and region of residence. Many of these factors were significantly related to union attitudes, but including them in a multivariate analysis did little to change the differences in attitude across industries.
Accounting for the Decline in Union Membership, 1950–1980
Authors: Dickens William T. , Leonard Jonathan S.
Published: June 2015

This study analyzes the components of the post-1950 trends in the share of the private work force organized by unions, which rose from 1950 to 1954 and then fell steadily to 1980. The authors decompose the sources of growth and decline into changes in organizing activity, success in certification elections, losses from decertification elections, and net growth due to economic causes—the last a residual measure designed to capture the effect of factors such as plant closings, layoffs, and new hires. They find that all factors except decertifications accounted for a substantial part of the decline since 1954. When the level of aggregate economic activity is held constant, loss of membership due to other economic causes shows no downward trend, a finding that challenges the view that the decline in the unionized share of the work force has been due primarily to a secular decline in employment in the strongly unionized industries.
The Evolution of Labor Market Structure: The California Canning Industry
Authors: Brown Martin , Philips Peter
Published: June 2015

This paper presents a historical explanation of the evolution of labor market structure and wage differentials in the California canning industry. Beginning in the late 1800s, the power of craft labor within the canneries combined with the growth of a canned goods market to stimulate mechanization, which in turn raised the cost of a casual labor force and led to nascent labor market structure. Unionization in the 1930s, itself a partial product of previous mechanization, reshaped and institutionalized informal internal labor markets. Wages both within the canneries and between canning and agriculture responded to the evolving institutions and structural characteristics of the cannery labor market.
The Effects of Right-to-Work Laws: A Review of the Literature
Authors: Moore William J. , Newman Robert J.
Published: June 2015

This paper reviews the several studies that have assessed the impact of right-to-work (RTW) laws on union membership, wages, and industry location. The authors show that the considerable difference in findings among these studies results largely from whether a study treats the presence or absence of an RTW law as an exogenous variable or one jointly endogenous with the extent of unionism in a state. Studies using the latter approach, which the authors believe preferable, have primarily concluded that the effects of RTW laws are more symbolic than substantive.
Federal-Employee Unions and Political Action
Authors: Masters Marick F.
Published: June 2015

This study examines the political role of the three largest nonpostal unions in the federal sector between 1977 and 1981. The author shows that although these unions engaged in a variety of electoral and lobbying pursuits, their commitment of resources to political action has been surprisingly modest. Moreover, despite legislative records that are numerically impressive, these unions suffered serious defeats on several important issues during the period studied.
The Narcotic Effect of Impasse-Resolution Procedures
Authors: Chelius James R. , Extejt Marian M.
Published: June 2015

Two previous studies of bargaining by police and firefighters in New York State, by Kochan and Baderschneider and by Butler and Ehrenberg, agreed there had been a positive narcotic effect in the early years under the state's Taylor Act, but they disagreed over the existence and direction of any narcotic effect during the later years. This paper refines the test for determining the presence and direction of a narcotic effect and applies this test to the New York data analyzed in the previous studies and to new data on public sector bargaining in Iowa, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. The results suggest that the troublesome positive narcotic effect disappears after the first years of bargaining under a public sector law.
The NLRB, Labor Courts, and Industrial Tribunals: A Selective Comparison
Authors: Aaron Benjamin
Published: June 2015

This paper compares the National Labor Relations Board with the French, West German, and Swedish labor courts and the British industrial tribunals. Attributes compared are composition, the effects of politicization on membership appointment and the quality of decisions, the procedural importance of conciliation, and delays. The author concludes that, questions of efficiency and equity aside, substituting a European-model labor court system for the system the NLRA instituted is impracticable for political, structural, and other reasons. He also suggests that many of the perceived shortcomings of the NLRB result from employers' increasing resistance to unionism and violation of the NLRA.
Arbitrator Decision Making: When are Final Offers Important?
Authors: Bazerman Max H. , Farber Henry S.
Published: June 2015

Analysis of the wages awarded by 64 arbitrators in 25 simulated interest arbitration cases strongly supports a model in which arbitrators, in determining an award, are influenced both by the facts of the case and by the offers of the parties. The arbitrators clearly weighted the facts more heavily than the offers in all cases. In addition, the importance of the facts relative to the offers increased as the offers diverged, suggesting that arbitrators' decisions were influenced more by reasonable offers than by unreasonable offers. The results contradict the naive split-the-difference view of arbitrator behavior in conventional arbitration that has led to the development of final-offer arbitration.
Plant-Level Concession Bargaining
Authors: Cappelli Peter
Published: June 2015

The author investigates the reasons for the diversity in concession bargaining experience among plants in the meatpacking and tire industries. In 1981 negotiations, about one-third of the plants in each industry engaged in concession bargaining and the others did not. The author hypothesizes that this pattern resulted from interplant differences in the likelihood of layoffs or shutdowns, measured by factors such as plant age and size, relative wage level, and nature of product. Regression analysis of the data from union and employer sources supports the author's hypothesis.
Are Targeted Wage Subsidies Harmful? Evidence from a Wage Voucher Experiment
Authors: Burtless Gary
Published: June 2015

This paper presents the results of a controlled experiment designed to test the effectiveness of a targeted wage subsidy program. Such programs are intended to increase the employment of target group workers by offering employers reimbursement for part of those workers' wages. In the Dayton, Ohio, experiment, however, job seekers given experimental vouchers identifying them to employers as eligible for a generous wage subsidy were significantly less likely to find employment than were job seekers without vouchers. The author speculates that the vouchers had a stigmatizing effect and provided a screening device with which employers discriminated against economically disadvantaged workers.
A Conceptualization of Collective Bargaining Power
Authors: Leap Terry L. , Grigsby David W.
Published: June 2015

Although power relationships have a significant impact on outcomes in collective negotiation, few theoretical treatments of the determinants of power in collective bargaining have been developed. Building on a general theory of bargaining power developed by Bacharach and Lawler, the authors present a comprehensive model of power in collective bargaining. They suggest that power stems from multiple legal, economic, social, and structural sources that are controllable to varying degrees by union and management. When combined with certain “transformational factors,” such as commitment to the bargaining relationship and information available to the parties, potential bargaining power is converted to the actual power that union and management negotiators bring to bear on a collective bargaining relationship. Practical applications and suggestions for further research are discussed.
Labor Market Transitions: Cyclic, Trend, and Seasonal Effects for Prime-Age Men
Authors: Moser James W.
Published: June 2015

Drawing on unpublished Current Population Survey sources, this article investigates the movements (transitions) of men aged 25–44 among three labor market categories—employment, unemployment, and nonparticipation—from June 1967 through December 1978. The estimating equation treats a transition probability as a function of an aggregate cyclical indicator, a quadratic time trend, and a set of monthly dummies. Of the three variables, seasonality had the greatest effect on transition probabilities; trend ran a close second; and cyclical factors, a distant third. From the findings that the probability of moving from unemployment to employment declined sharply over the period and that trend factors were much more important than cyclical factors, the author concludes that structural unemployment has been worsening.
The Extent and Impact of Educational Policy Bargaining
Authors: Goldschmidt Steven M. , Stuart Leland E.
Published: June 2015

The authors examine a national sample of 80 collective bargaining agreements negotiated in 1981–82 by teacher organizations and school boards in large U.S. public school districts to determine how great was the educational policy content of those agreements. They find that educational policy provisions, defined as those that affect educational programs more than teachers' working conditions, are far more extensive than previous studies suggest. Of the contracts sampled, 46 percent are found to contain provisions regulating the curriculum; 59 percent, provisions regulating student placement; and 96 percent, provisions regulating teacher placement. The authors conclude that this extensive policy bargaining has reduced the capacity of many school districts to respond to changing expectations for public education.
Post-Institutionalism in Labor Economics: The Forties and Fifties Revisited
Authors: Segal Martin
Published: June 2015

This paper describes and evaluates the analytical model of the labor market developed by prominent labor economists of the 1940s and 1950s. The author argues that the post-institutionalist model made significant and lasting contributions to the analysis of labor mobility and the process of job search; to the formulation of models of union policies and the evaluation of the impact of collective bargaining; to the analysis of the factors that shape internal wage structure and contribute to the rise of internal labor markets; and, by its emphasis on the critical role played by the forces of demand, to the analysis of the wage determination process.
The Effects of Corporate Strategy and Workplace Innovations on Union Representation
Authors: Kochan Thomas A. , McKersie Robert B. , Chalykoff John
Published: June 2015

This paper explores the decline of union membership within partially organized firms. Using data from two Conference Board surveys of labor relations practices (1977 and 1983), the authors test a series of propositions concerning the effects of corporate industrial relations values and strategies and workplace innovations on union representation and membership. The results show that whereas the average firm reduced the number of workers represented by unions by approximately 977 from 1977 to 1983, firms that placed a high priority on union avoidance reduced union representation by an average of 2,647 workers over the same period. Moreover, the typical firm that emphasized union avoidance reduced the probability that its new facilities would be organized from approximately 15 percent to less than 1 percent.
Unions, Pension Wealth, and Age-Compensation Profiles
Authors: Allen Steven G. , Clark Robert L.
Published: June 2015

This paper examines the effect of unions on both the magnitude and distribution of pension benefits. An analysis of experience during 1973–79 under a sample of defined benefit plans shows that beneficiaries retire at an earlier age under collectively bargained plans than under other plans, receive larger benefits when they retire, and receive larger increases in their benefits after they retire. Also, benefit differentials within and across cohorts of retirees are smaller among union than nonunion beneficiaries. The average union-nonunion differential is therefore greater in total compensation (wages plus pension benefits) than in wages alone. Because pension benefits grow more rapidly with years of service in the nonunion sector, however, the total compensation differential narrows with age more quickly than the wage differential.
Concentration in the Labor Market for Public School Teachers
Authors: Luizer James , Thornton Robert
Published: June 2015

Recent studies that have investigated the relationship between the monopsony power of school districts and teachers' salaries have reached conflicting conclusions. The authors of this paper argue that the discrepancies among previous studies may be due to the arbitrary demarcation of the boundaries of teacher labor markets and the use of faulty measures of monopsony. Using a new procedure for defining teacher labor market boundaries and several alternative indices of concentration, this study finds evidence of monopsonistic activity in local teacher labor markets in Pennsylvania. The monopsony wage effects are small, however, and are present mainly at the mid-to-upper ranges of the bachelor's degree salary scale.
Feedback and Grievance Resolution
Authors: Knight Thomas R.
Published: June 2015

This paper assesses the contribution to grievance negotiations of participants' use of feedback about previous grievance settlements and arbitration decisions. Analysis of survey data collected from a sample of management and union grievance participants at three organizational levels supports the central proposition of systems theory that feedback contributes to the system's effectiveness, measured here as the estimated and observed rate of grievance resolution. Significant variance in the use and impact of feedback is found, however, across union and management respondents and organizational levels.
Congressional Voting on Labor Issues: The Role of PACS
Authors: Saltzman Gregory M.
Published: June 2015

This study measures the impact of labor and corporate political action committee (PAC) contributions on the voting of members of the House of Representatives on labor issues during 1979–80. It also analyzes the allocation of labor PAC contributions among House candidates. PAC contributions were found to have a significant direct effect on roll-call voting, even controlling for the Representative's political party and characteristics of the constituency. Since PAC money also affects roll-call voting indirectly (by influencing which party wins elections), the overall impact of PAC money on Congressional voting is probably substantial. The author also finds that labor PACs have focused more on influencing the outcome of elections than on currying favor with powerful members of the House who are likely to be re-elected anyway.
Managerial Perceptions of the Economic Impact of Labor Relations Programs
Authors: Voos Paula B.
Published: June 2015

Managers of unionized Wisconsin firms were surveyed in 1984 concerning their companies' experiences with gainsharing programs, profit-sharing plans, employee stock-ownership plans, employee participation programs, joint union-management committees at the plant level, and communitywide union-management cooperation committees. Managers assessed gainsharing, profit-sharing, and participation programs as improving company performance more than the other types of programs. The local community cooperation committees were perceived as having no effect on firm performance.
Union Effects on Job Attitudes
Authors: Schwochau Susan
Published: June 2015

This paper examines differences in the reported job satisfaction of union members and nonmembers using a multiple equation model that treats union membership, wage rates, and reported satisfaction as endogenously determined. The results indicate that union members differ from nonmembers in how they assess their satisfaction with supervision, co-workers, and job content. Consistent with prior research, union members are found to report lower levels of satisfaction than nonmembers. Although many studies have attributed such findings to the availability of the “voice” option in unionized settings, analyses of the effects of employer tenure and grievance procedure use lend only partial support to the “exit-voice” hypothesis.
The Effect of Union Characteristics on the Outcome of NLRB Certification Elections
Authors: Maranto Cheryl L. , Fiorito Jack
Published: June 2015

This paper examines the determinants of National Labor Relations Board certification election outcomes in individual election units between 1972 and 1980. Particular emphasis is given to the role of national union characteristics in determining union success or failure. The authors find that union success in organizing both blue- and white-collar workers is influenced positively by union size and internal democracy and negatively by strike activity and the centralization of its decision making. Benefits provided directly to members by unions significantly increase, and higher dues significantly reduce, white-collar organizing success, whereas the same factors have no significant effect on blue-collar organizing.
Participation in Local Unions: A Comparison of Black and White Members
Authors: Hoyman Michele M. , Stallworth Lamont
Published: June 2015

This article compares the participation of black and white union members in their local unions. Using more detailed measures of union participation than those employed in earlier studies, and focusing on members, not just leaders, the authors find little difference between the extent of participation by blacks and that by whites. This surprising result, which contradicts the finding of previous studies that blacks participate in unions less than whites, holds even with controls for gender, salary, education, number of years as a member, the presence of friends in the union, the strength of a sense of efficacy, confidence in the ability to gain local union office, and the liberalness of attitudes about civil rights.
Union Political Activities: A Review of the Empirical Literature
Authors: Masters Marick F. , Delaney John Thomas
Published: June 2015

The authors of this literature review find that empirical research on unions' political activity since World War II has failed to answer many important questions. Not only have researchers neglected some issues outright, but disparate data sources and statistical methods, lack of a guiding theory, inconsistent findings, and hidden normative assumptions about the propriety of unions' political involvement limit the generalizability of reported results. The review nevertheless confirms that union members and leaders often differ in political orientation, though the extent of disagreement varies across political issues. Also, unions apparently have been more successful at achieving political objectives only weakly supported by their members than at achieving the objectives their members strongly support.
Immigrants, Minorities, and Labor Market Competition
Authors: Borjas George J.
Published: June 2015

This paper investigates the extent of labor market competition among immigrants, minorities, and the native population. An analysis of 1980 U.S. Census data reveals that immigrants tend to be substitutes for some labor market groups and complements for others. The effects of shifts in immigrant supply on the earnings of native-born men are, however, very small. On the other hand, increases in the supply of immigrants do have a sizable impact on the earnings of immigrants themselves: an increase of 10 percent in the supply of immigrants, for example, reduces the immigrant wage by about 10 percent.
The Impact of Late Nineteenth-Century Unions on Labor Earnings and Hours: Iowa in 1894
Authors: Eichengreen Barry
Published: June 2015

This paper presents an analysis of data on male workers taken from an 1894 survey of the Iowa labor market. Consistent with the results of earlier research by Paul Douglas, the author finds evidence of a statistically significant and economically important union earnings premium. The analysis also shows that late nineteenth-century unionism, like unionism in the twentieth century, tended to reduce wage dispersion. On the other hand, the author finds no evidence that late nineteenth-century unions reduced the length of the workday for union members compared to nonunion workers.
Transfer Payment Diversion for Small Business Development: British and French Experience
Authors: Bendick Marc , Egan Mary Lou
Published: June 2015

Government programs in Britain and France allow the unemployed to receive transfer payments while they attempt to create their own employment through new small businesses. This study finds that businesses formed under those programs, even more than most small enterprises, generate only limited incomes and unstable employment for their proprietors. Also, program participants most in need of help in finding stable employment—those with the sparsest qualifications and resources—are precisely those whose businesses are most likely to fail. The authors therefore conclude that policy makers should not expect this approach, now under consideration by Congress, to provide major assistance to the disadvantaged or long-term unemployed.
Union Characteristics and Bargaining Outcomes
Authors: Fiorito Jack , Hendricks Wallace E.
Published: June 2015

This paper investigates the impact of union militancy, size, centralization, and democracy on wages, fringe benefits, and other bargaining outcomes. Using data on bargaining outcomes at the bargaining unit level in conjunction with data on comparative union characteristics, the authors find strong evidence that union characteristics affect bargaining outcomes. Determining the exact nature of those effects is complicated by several problems—notably, the difficulty of distinguishing effects on outcomes from effects on goals, the possibility of reverse causality, and complex interactions between such organizational characteristics as democracy and centralization. The findings do suggest, however, that organizational complexity reduces union bargaining effectiveness, whereas democracy and centralization tend to change the shape of outcomes as opposed to their size.
Strike Activity, Worker Militancy, and Productivity Change in Manufacturing, 1961–1981
Authors: Flaherty Sean
Published: June 2015

The author hypothesizes a two-way causality between intracontractual strikes and productivity change in U.S. manufacturing: on the one hand, strikes during the term of a contract, which are thought to reflect more broadly practiced shop floor militancy, slow the pace of productivity growth; and on the other hand, periods of rapid productivity growth provoke increased intracontractual strike activity, among other forms of shop floor protest. The model is tested with quarterly data from 1961 through 1981. Modified two-stage least squares estimates support the hypothesis of two-way causality. A specific finding is that shop floor confrontation played a significant role in the slump in manufacturing productivity that began in the mid-1960s, but not in the more precipitous productivity slowdown of the post-1973 years.
Is the Army College Fund Meeting its Objectives?
Authors: Tannen Michael B.
Published: June 2015

The Army College Fund is a program started in 1981 that offers post-service educational benefits to eligible recruits. It was hoped that the program would increase the quality of Army recruits by attracting more of the college-oriented. Using data from three Army sources, the author examines enrollment and financial participation in the program from 1981 to 1985. He finds that enrollment grew rapidly during that time and that the quality of Army recruits, as measured by Armed Forces Qualification Test scores, also dramatically increased. The program may turn out to be more expensive than anticipated, however, because the number of participating soldiers—those making the co-payments necessary to receive benefits later—has exceeded expectations.
Canadian Union-Nonunion Wage Differentials
Authors: Grant E. Kenneth , Swidinsky Robert , Vanderkamp John
Published: June 2015

Using extensive Canadian longitudinal data from the years 1969–71, the authors estimate union-nonunion wage differentials of 12–14 percent for 1969 and 13–16 percent for 1970. These estimates are not adjusted for selectivity because three different tests to identify selectivity yield no evidence of selectivity bias. The authors argue that although testing for selectivity is often essential, selectivity adjustments have resulted in greatly inflated estimates of union-nonunion wage differentials in some studies and should therefore be used with caution.
Declining Unionization in Construction: The Facts and the Reasons
Authors: Allen Steven G.
Published: June 2015

This paper examines the forces behind the decline in the union share of construction employment from almost one-half in 1966 to less than one-third in 1983. The percentage of construction workers employed by union contractors has declined even further because the fraction of union members working in the open shop sector rose from 29 to 46 percent between 1973 and 1981. The growth of the union-nonunion wage gap between 1967 and 1973 contributed to the initial decline in the percentage unionized, but that gap did not widen after 1973 and actually has narrowed substantially since 1978. Probably more influential has been the erosion of the productivity advantage of union contractors, which dropped substantially between 1972 and 1977 and vanished by 1982.
The Impact of Unions on the Voting Behavior of Their Members
Authors: Juravich Tom , Shergold Peter R.
Published: June 2015

Based on a survey of members of AFL-CIO-affiliated unions in Pennsylvania, this paper investigates the influence of unions on how their members voted in the 1984 Presidential election. The authors find that unions had little effect on the number of members who voted but surprisingly strong influence on the Presidential choice of those who did vote. Union members who actively participated in their union, held union leadership positions, and reported that they had received literature or telephone calls about the election from their union were significantly more likely than other members to support the candidate endorsed by their union (Mondale). The electronic media influenced voting behavior significantly, but traditional forms of union communication were more influential than many believe.
Trends in Earnings Differentials by Gender, 1971–1981
Authors: Blau Francine D. , Beller Andrea H.
Published: June 2015

Using data from the Current Population Surveys, the authors examine earnings differentials by gender for 1971 and 1981. Most observers, focusing on the median annual earnings of year-round, full-time workers, have concluded that the earnings differential did not change over that decade. Using a different method to adjust for gender differences in hours and weeks worked, the authors find, on the contrary, that the female-male earnings ratio significantly increased during the 1970s. The results suggest that declining gender role specialization and declining discrimination (as conventionally measured) contributed to the observed trend. Two factors that worked in the opposite direction, though to smaller effect, were declines in women's relative returns to education and to employment in male jobs and integrated jobs.
Inequality in the Working Class: The Unanticipated Consequences of Union Organization and Strikes
Authors: Rubin Beth A.
Published: June 2015

This paper explores one possible explanation for the uniquely apolitical character of the U.S. labor movement compared to the labor movements of other Western capitalist democracies. Employing a neo-Marxist class perspective, the author examines the relationship of union density (union members as a percentage of the nonagricultural work force) and of strike frequency to the distribution of earned income in the United States from 1949 to 1976. Time-series regression analysis of the quintile distribution of earned income and the Gini index of the inequality of earned income shows that union density has had mixed effects on inequality, with higher union density tending to redistribute income from middle-income workers to both the least prosperous and most prosperous workers, whereas higher strike frequency has tended to reduce income inequality generally. The author suggests that union organization may be a source of divisiveness within the working class in the postwar era.
Do Job Opportunities Decline with Age?
Authors: Hutchens Robert M.
Published: June 2015

This paper presents a new form of evidence supporting the hypothesis that job opportunities decline with age. Segregation curves computed from the January 1983 Current Population Survey reveal that newly hired old workers tend to be clustered in a smaller set of industries and occupations than both newly hired young workers and all old workers.
Changes in Pension Incentives through Time
Authors: Mitchell Olivia S. , Luzadis Rebecca A.
Published: June 2015

A common assumption in the compensation and retirement literature, often necessitated by lack of data, is that company-sponsored pensions are static institutions. The present paper, a study of the pension plans at 14 companies for the years 1960, 1970, and 1980, challenges this assumption, showing that pension schemes are actually quite dynamic over time. Specifically, the authors find that in 1960 all 14 pension plans tended to reward delayed retirement, but by 1980 many of the union plans actively encouraged early retirement. Nonunion plans in the sample, however, rewarded deferred retirement in all three years. The observed changes in pension incentives may have resulted in part from statutory increases in the age at which workers can be forced to retire by an employer.
Labor Market Conditions and the Reemployment of Displaced Workers
Authors: Howland Marie , Peterson George E.
Published: June 2015

The authors of this study use data from the January 1984 Current Population Survey to examine the impact of local labor market conditions on the financial losses of displaced manufacturing workers. They find that strong overall growth in the local economy reduced the economic losses of white-collar workers whose industry of displacement was declining, but not of blue-collar workers in the same situation. Most older, poorly educated blue-collar workers with long tenure at their pre-layoff job suffered large financial losses even when displaced in a growing local economy. All workers, including those who were young and well-educated, suffered large financial losses when located in a depressed local economy.
Public Policies to Help Dual-Earner Families Meet the Demands of the Work World
Authors: Cook Alice H.
Published: June 2015

This paper focuses on the problems of families in which both spouses work, which have grown rapidly as a percentage of all families in recent decades. The author argues that the United States has been conspicuous among advanced industrialized countries in failing to develop national policies responsive to the needs of such families, and that the few enlightened employers, states, municipalities, and private organizations that have attempted to correct for that omission have been able to do so only incompletely. She cites examples of programs in some European countries that provide for child care, maternity and parental leave, leave for care of sick family members, transportation to and from work, and special housing, and argues that the proven experience of other countries should be helpful in fashioning needed programs of this sort in the United States.
Unionization and Shareholder Interests
Authors: Becker Brian E. , Olson Craig A.
Published: June 2015

Drawing on agency theory, this study examines union-nonunion differences in the allocation of both firm profits and business risk to employees and shareholders. Using a sample of more than 1,000 large private sector firms, the authors find that over the period 1970–81 shareholders in unionized firms assumed less of the firm's business risk than shareholders in nonunion firms. This finding is interpreted as evidence that managers of unionized firms attempted to minimize agency costs by capitalizing on the incentive effects of risksharing. In addition, risk-adjusted returns to shareholders were lower in unionized firms than in nonunion firms. The authors view the relatively poor performance of union firms as a primary motivating factor behind the restructuring of the American industrial relations system during the period studied.
The Effect of Collective Bargaining on Salaries in Higher Education
Authors: Barbezat Debra A.
Published: June 2015

Using data from a 1977 survey of faculty from 158 U.S. colleges and universities, the author estimates that the proportional salary advantage to unionized faculty members was typically less than two percent. That differential varied considerably, however, with the length of time the institution had been organized. In addition, unionization increased the return to seniority and decreased the return to several measures of merit, including number of publications and general post-degree experience.
Controlling Corruption in the Construction Industry: The Quebec Approach
Authors: Sexton Jean
Published: June 2015

Between 1968 and 1975, the Province of Quebec instituted several laws to combat violence and corruption in its construction industry. Among them were a requirement that all construction workers belong to a union, and all contractors to the sole employers' association; province-wide coverage of construction workers and employers by a single collective agreement at any given time; the presumption of guilt of anyone charged with criminal activities in the industry; mandated multiple sources of manpower, to prevent monopolies in manpower allocation; mandatory elections of union stewards, to prevent abuses by appointed stewards; the barring from union office of those with criminal records; and government trusteeship of several union locals. The author credits these measures with dramatically reducing violence and corruption, but cautions that they might not be readily transferable to labor relations systems outside Quebec.
The Mandatory-Permissive Distinction and Collective Bargaining Outcomes
Authors: Delaney John Thomas , Sockell Donna
Published: June 2015

The authors use union contract and laboratory experiment data to assess whether the distinction between mandatory and permissive bargaining subjects affects collective bargaining outcomes. In general, the findings suggest that the distinction has an impact. The contract analysis suggests that bargaining differs across contracts that include permissive items and contracts that exclude permissive items. Further, an analysis of the potential impact of the distinction in a controlled setting indicates that unions negotiate less favorable nonwage bargaining outcomes when an issue's legal status is permissive or unknown than when it is mandatory.
Organizing the Organizers: Professional Staff Unionism in the American Labor Movement
Authors: Clark Paul F.
Published: June 2015

This study summarizes the history of bargaining units formed to represent professional employees of American unions and presents the results of a 1987–88 survey of officers of 40 such professional staff unions. These special unions, which date to the early 1950s, resemble conventional unions in the bargaining issues that are most important to them (job security and salaries), as well as in their relationships with management (in this case, union leaders), which range from amicable to antagonistic. They differ sharply, however, in their infrequent use of strikes. Professional staff unionism is most common in large, industrial unions, less common in smaller industrial, professional, and service unions, and virtually nonexistent in the building trades.
Historical Limits on Neoclassical Strike Theories: Evidence from French Coal Mining, 1890–1935
Authors: Cohn Samuel , Eaton Adrienne
Published: June 2015

This study analyzes the determinants of strikes in French coal mining over the period 1890–1935. The results indicate that factors emphasized by traditional bargaining power models were more important determinants of strikes in that setting than was economic variability. This finding supports the hypothesis that neoclassical theories of strikes—Hicksian theories that strikes are a function of the parties' lack of information about the economic environment in which bargaining takes place—are inappropriate in some historical and political contexts. Specifically, the authors argue that the many settings where (as in the case considered) strikes are politically motivated, firms have simple economic structures, and collective bargaining is poorly institutionalized should provide evidence discontinuing neoclassical predictions.
Reckoning with Company Unions: The Case of Thompson Products, 1934–1964
Authors: Jacoby Sanford M.
Published: June 2015

This study of company unionism at Thompson Products (today TRW) calls into question the usual characterization of company unions as uniformly ineffectual and short-lived. The company unions examined in this study were fostered and overseen by Thompson's managers with the undoubted purpose of keeping national unions out of the company's work force. But the author also finds that they evolved into organizations that successfully met their members' needs, partly because of external pressures, such as government scrutiny and competition from national unions, and partly because of some internal factors, such as the workers' unusual degree of loyalty to the firm. The author suggests that some variant of the company union might be a viable complement to the progressive nonunion model that is common today.
“Light Manufacturing”: The Feminization of American Office Work, 1900–1930
Authors: Strom Sharon Hartman
Published: June 2015

This study challenges the impression left by most historical accounts of office work that the feminization of office work was total, inevitable, and somehow “natural.” The author argues that when business machines and rationalized systems of office work came together (around 1900), women were initially chosen to fill many of the new jobs partly because of the long-standing use of women in similarly routinized “light manufacturing”; and they were subsequently hired in ever-greater numbers primarily because the pervasive discrimination that denied them most career opportunities ensured that they would accept low wages. The feminization of office work was not, however, as extensive as the literature generally claims. By using the marriage bar, employers were able to create an office work force segmented by gender, with more prestigious job titles and almost all promotion opportunities reserved for men.
Emergency Strikes Revisited
Authors: Rehmus Charles M.
Published: June 2015

From 1946 to the 1970s, the emergency strike procedures of the Taft-Hartley Act, special health care boards, and railroad and airline emergency boards under the Railway Labor Act were all used frequently in strike situations. By the 1980s, the use of these procedures had declined substantially in railroads and ceased almost entirely in other industries; Congressional action to delay or end rail stoppages has, however, become relatively common. The author documents and analyzes these trends, concluding that amending existing legislation to accommodate to the changed conditions is almost certainly undesirable.
Assessing Worker Attitudes under a Two-Tier Wage Plan
Authors: Cappelli Peter , Sherer Peter D.
Published: June 2015

This study examines data from a 1985 survey of employee attitudes at an airline that had introduced a merging (or temporary) two-tier pay plan the year before. The authors find, contrary to popular wisdom, that lower-wage ‘B’ tier workers felt significantly more satisfied with their pay, work, and supervision, more optimistic about future pay, more confident of their job security, and more committed to the company and union than ‘A’ tier workers. The authors suggest that ‘B’ tier workers have lower expectations than ‘A’ tier workers, partly because of their self-selection into jobs with reduced starting wages and partly because of the reference groups with which they evaluate their situations, which differ from ‘A’ tier workers' reference groups.
The Impact of the Mariel Boatlift on the Miami Labor Market
Authors: Card David
Published: June 2015

Using data from the Current Population Survey, this paper describes the effect of the Mariel Boatlift of 1980 on the Miami labor market. The Mariel immigrants increased the Miami labor force by 7%, and the percentage increase in labor supply to less-skilled occupations and industries was even greater because most of the immigrants were relatively unskilled. Nevertheless, the Mariel influx appears to have had virtually no effect on the wages or unemployment rates of less-skilled workers, even among Cubans who had immigrated earlier. The author suggests that the ability of Miami's labor market to rapidly absorb the Mariel immigrants was largely owing to its adjustment to other large waves of immigrants in the two decades before the Mariel Boatlift.
Political Climate and Two Airline Strikes: Century Air in 1932 and Continental Airlines in 1983–85
Authors: Cohen Isaac
Published: June 2015

This study contrasts two airline strikes that took place 51 years apart: the Continental strike of 1983–85 and the Century strike of 1932. Despite strong resemblances between the two strikes—for example, each was provoked by the actions of a corporate raider (Errett Cord in 1932, Frank Lorenzo in 1983–85), was led by pilots, was triggered by deep wage cuts, and was debated in special congressional hearings—management lost in 1932 and won in 1983–85. The author argues that the different outcomes are largely accountable to different political climates: the political climate of the 1930s favored government regulation and unionization, whereas that of the 1980s favored a free market and deregulation.