Not so exceptional? Prosocial influences on union support among US workers

US unions have often been characterized as ‘exceptional’ in their weakness and conservatism compared to their Western European counterparts. American organized labor is associated with a ‘business unionism’ philosophy that assumes American workers are only pragmatic and materialistic, seeing their unions as vehicles for improving the terms and conditions of employment at their workplaces. Such an analysis omits the potential power of a belief that unions work to improve society. Applying an experimental vignette design based on a survey of over 1000 employed persons, this article examines whether ‘workplace instrumentality’ is the only motivation for workers to support unions. The authors consider the likelihood of voting yes in a union representation election to test the efficacy of two less studied predictors – perceiving unions as positively influencing society and perceiving them as facilitating workers’ voice in union policies and practices. Logistic regression shows that the most influential beliefs associated with union support were that unions improve terms and conditions of employment for represented workers (‘union instrumentality’), that unions positively influence society (‘prosocial unionism’), and that unions offer workers substantial influence on union policies and practices (‘worker say’). Researchers and union organizing campaigns should consider devoting greater attention to the social benefits of unionism and to union democracy.

Assessing Employee Support during Union Organizing Campaigns

Many labor unions assess support among prospective members to guide decision making during organizing campaigns, and to predict voting in representation elections. However, research on the actual practice of how unions make assessments is limited. We fill this void through a study that combined quantitative and qualitative analysis of the assessment activities. The quantitative portion involved a survey of eligible voters in the 2010 flight attendant representation election at Delta Air Lines. The qualitative portion involved in-depth interviews with staff involved in that campaign and organizing directors or key organizing staff in nine of the largest labor unions in the United States. We focus on the factors that influence the accuracy of assessment predictions, describe practices currently being used to predict votes in these campaigns, and discuss future research needs.

What Professionals Want: Union and Employer Tactics in Representation Elections of Professional Workers

Using matched data from an original survey administered to organizers throughout the United States and election reports from the National Labor Relations Board, the author analyzes organizing campaigns of professional and non-professional workers. Professional workers have long been thought of as difficult to organize, yet they are strategically important to unions given their growing numbers in today’s economy. The author assesses whether unions and employers use different approaches in their organizing drives for professionals. An interactive model is used to test whether professionals’ distinct identity moderates the effect of common determinants of a representation election on the election outcome. The results show the benefit of an interactive model, as it highlights the importance of developing a campaign strategy unique to the group being organized.

The Liebman Board: The NLRA, at Its Heart a Human Rights Law

This chapter emphasizes Chairman Liebman’s Board’s efforts to bring the statute’s workers’ rights emphasis back to life through case decisions, fuller use of the NLRB’s remedy power, and rule-making that would have required most private sector employers to post a notice at the workplace informing workers of their rights under the Act and would have streamlined the NLRB’s representation election process by eliminating unnecessary delays.

Congruent Representation: Election Cycle in Poland 2009-2011

The article presents the results of research on the congruence of the political representation formed in elections held in the years 2009-2011 in Poland. The election cycle included the European Parliamentary elections in 2009, the Polish presidential election, elections to local government in 2010, and the parliamentary elections in 2011. The median citizen, median voter, and their positions on the left-right scale were used as tools for examining congruence. Studies have proven that in Poland, the median citizen and the median voter are positioned on the right side of the left-right scale. The legislature and executive authorities chosen in the elections are located left of the median citizen and the median voter. Studies have not demonstrated the existence of any impact of the electoral system on the positioning of the median citizen and the median voter.

GTE Union Organization A Case Study

On November 19, 1993 the following notice was sent to the office of the general manager of GTE Supply Company in Tampa, Florida:Gentlemen:A petition for certification as collective bargaining representative of certain of your employees has been filed with this office, pursuant to the Labor Management Relations Act, as amended. A copy of the petition is enclosed. Should you desire further information before a Board Agent communicates with you, telephone or write the office to which the case is being assigned, referring to the above case name and number" (United States of America, 1993).This letter was the beginning of the final phase of long-term labor unrest at GTE Supply. The labor conflict began over five years earlier, and culminated in a third union representation election in January 1994.

A House Divided

Mixed-member electoral systems embrace two views of representation by electing some legislators in single-member district elections and others in a proportional representation election. This can potentially create a “mandate divide” in legislatures, because single-member district legislators have an incentive to embrace parochial issues and proportional representation legislators have an incentive to center on national issues. Previous studies of this question have only found limited evidence of its existence. The author argues that the level of party system institutionalization will fundamentally determine whether a mandate divide will exist in a mixed-member legislature. Using roll-call voting data from the Hungarian National Assembly, the Russian Duma, and the Ukrainian Rada, the author analyzes patterns of party discipline in each legislature. The empirical results show that a mandate divide only existed in the legislature with the most weakly institutionalized party system, the Russian Duma.