The Effects of Corporate Strategy and Workplace Innovations on Union Representation

ILR Review ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 487-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Kochan ◽  
Robert B. McKersie ◽  
John Chalykoff
Keyword(s):  
Union Membership ◽  
Corporate Strategy ◽  
Labor Relations ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Union Representation ◽  
Union Avoidance ◽  
Using Data ◽  
New Facilities

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.

Structural and Market Predictors of Corporate Labor Relations Strategies

ILR Review ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 280-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
William N. Cooke ◽  
David G. Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Capital Investment ◽  
Mixed Strategy ◽  
Labor Relations ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Import Penetration ◽  
Logit Estimation ◽  
Union Avoidance ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Market Pressures ◽  
A Company

The authors develop a model predicting which of three broad labor-relations strategies—union avoidance, union-management collaboration, or a mixed strategy combining elements of union avoidance and collaboration—a company will adopt. A multinomial logit estimation using data on 58 large unionized manufacturing corporations confirms that market pressures and structural characteristics of the company are important predictors of strategy choice. Specifically, the worse the market conditions (as gauged by import penetration and industry employment), the more likely executives will choose union avoidance over collaboration and mixed strategies. Collaboration is more likely to be chosen the greater the percent of plants unionized and the higher the ratio of cost of goods to sales. The choice of the mixed strategy is more likely the higher the labor intensity, capital investment, and number of plants.

scholarly journals Managerial views on compulsory unionism in New Zealand

1970 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Geare
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
The Impact

The New Zealand industrial relations literature contains a number of propositions concerning the impact or desirability of having compulsory union membership. This paper discusses the propositions, and reports on the response of a sample of 461 New Zealand managers, examining the significance of their attitudes.

Organized Labor and Social Conflict in Japan

2020 ◽  
pp. 40-53
Author(s):  
Saori Shibata
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
Labor Relations ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Organized Labor ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Classic Model

This chapter analyzes the development of the Japanese labor movement throughout the postwar period. With some exceptions, workers in Japan have been predominantly organized in unions that have had a commitment to a relatively non-confrontational approach toward industrial relations. This organization has come to be challenged in more recent years, however, since the classic model of Japanese labor relations has faced increasing strain as part of the wider changes to the Japanese model of capitalism. Alongside this historical overview of organized labor, the chapter also considers the development of other (non-labor) social movements. This includes those movements that have emerged to promote the interests of social groups whose interests overlap with those of labor but who might not immediately identify themselves as part of the labor movement, such as the homeless, unemployed, and students. The trajectory of social conflict in Japan during the past thirty years has seen a move away from the classic model of social compromise. Various types of social conflict—both inside and outside of the workplace, and involving either workers or those less typically identified with organized labor—have become increasingly common.

Purging the Trade Unions

2020 ◽  
pp. 343-373
Author(s):  
Ewing Mahoney
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Service Trade ◽  
Public Sector Employment ◽  
Legal Foundations ◽  
Legal Position

This chapter looks at government attempts to ban trade unions, considering the steps that were taken in lieu of an outright ban on trade union membership. Consistently with other measures taken at the time under the cover of security, government intervention to deal with the alleged menace of Communist infiltration of the civil service trade unions did not take the form of legislation. The legal position reflected both the lack of legal regulation of industrial relations generally and the lack of legal regulation of public-sector employment in particular. In practice, governments rarely needed to reveal or justify the legal foundations for their actions. The benefit for government is that although security policies might well be announced and made public, there would be little accountability thereafter if operated unobtrusively.

Job Applicant Screening by a Japanese Transplant: A Union-Avoidance Tactic

ILR Review ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory M. Saltzman
Keyword(s):  
Outcome Data ◽  
Job Applicants ◽  
Job Applicant ◽  
Applicant Screening ◽  
Weak Evidence ◽  
Job Offers ◽  
Union Representation ◽  
Auto Parts ◽  
Union Avoidance

The author examines efforts by managers of a Japanese-owned auto parts plant to avoid hiring union sympathizers in 1993–94. Data from confidential questionnaires in which job applicants stated whether they would vote for union representation in their current or most recent job were matched with outcome data provided by management. Pro-union applicants were much more likely than other applicants to withdraw their applications or quit shortly after being hired. The author finds only weak evidence, however, that management overtly favored antiunion job applicants in making job offers.

Industrial Relations Around the World: Labor Relations for Multinational Companies.

ILR Review ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 185
Author(s):  
John P. Windmuller ◽  
Miriam Rothman ◽  
Dennis R. Briscoe ◽  
Raoul C. B. Nacamulli
Keyword(s):  
Labor Relations ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Multinational Companies ◽  
The World

The role of collective bargaining in addressing flexibility and security

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Paolucci
Keyword(s):  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Organizational Characteristics ◽  
Considerable Degree ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Union Representation ◽  
Multi Level

This article examines the role of collective bargaining in addressing flexibility and security in the chemical and pharmaceutical sector in Italy and Denmark. My multi-level and comparative focus on collective bargaining highlights that sector-level industrial relations institutions account for a considerable degree of within-country homogeneity in the content of company agreements over issues of flexibility and security. Moreover, it shows that the degree of company-level heterogeneity is conditioned primarily by firm-level contingencies: union representation and organizational characteristics. This means that at company level, both institutional and non-institutional structures are important explanatory variables.

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