The Effect of Prevailing Wage Regulations on Contractor Bid Participation and Behavior: A Comparison of Palo Alto,California with Four Nearby Prevailing Wage Municipalities

This sample of bids by union and nonunion contractors on and off municipal prevailing wage projects in the San Francisco Bay area of California provides the first empirical evidence examining the effects of prevailing wage regulations on contractor participation and bidding behavior. The data show that the presence of prevailing wage regulations does not decrease the number of bidders nor alter the bidding behavior of contractors relative to the engineer's estimate of the value of the project. Furthermore, in this heavily unionized area during an upswing in the business cycle, the presence of prevailing wage regulations did not discourage the participation of nonunion contractors nor reduce their chances of winning work.     

Employment and Local Public Sector Unions

This study examines the longitudinal effects of unionization on employment levels in 13, 749 departments of city and county government with unchanged union status between 1977 and 1982. The resluts demonstrate that, holding constant 1977 employment per capita, 1982 employment pr capita is 3.1 per cent higher in departments with bargaining units, compared to nonunion department. Employment levels in departments with nonbargaining associations are equal to nonunion levels, but associations may increase employment relative to levels employers would choose because they also set compensation above nonunion levels. The political context of local public sector employment is probably responsible for these effects.     

Trade Union Decline and Union Wage Effects in Australia

Union density in Australia fell precipitously in the 1990s. This study investigates how union wage effects may have changed as a result. The findings from 1993 data suggest that union/nonunion wage differentials were very small, especially among workers in high-density industries. By 2001 the overall union wage effect had increased significantly; however, the union/nonunion wage differential was no longer correlated with union density at the industry level.     

Environment, Corporate Ideology, and Employee Involvement Programs

Corporations are implementing employee involvement programs in both union and nonunion settings in response to growing environmental pressures. This study examines the relationships among environmental pressures, corporate ideology, and participative practices in union and nonunion settings and tests two industrial relations models. Questionnaires measuring environmental pressures, corporate ideology, and participation were completed and returned by the Vice President of Human Resources (or similar corporate executive) in 159 of the largest manufacturing companies in the United States. Multiple regression results show that environmental pressures exert little effect on corporate ideology, but ideology has a significant effect on participative practices in both union and nonunion settings.     

Unions and Employment Growth

Employment grows about 4 percentage points per year more slowly in union than in nonunion plants. This first examination of union employment effects at the plant level suggests that unionized plants face substantial competitive pressure. As much as 61 percent of the decline in the present unionized may be accounted for by slower employment growth in union plants     

Environment, Corporate Ideology, and Employee Involvement Programs

Corporations are implementing employee involvement programs in both union and nonunion settings in response to growing environmental pressures. This study examines the relationships among environmental pressures, corporate ideology, and participative practices in union and nonunion settings and tests two industrial relations models. Questionnaires measuring environmental pressures, corporate ideology, and participation were completed and returned by the Vice President of Human Resources (or similar corporate executive) in 159 of the largest manufacturing companies in the United States. Multiple regression results show that environmental pressures exert little effect on corporate ideology, but ideology has a significant effect on participative practices in both union and nonunion settings.     

Race Discrimination and Union Voice

This work reports patterns of complaints about racial discrimination that appear consistent with the social mechanism of "voice." Black union members are subject to less racial discrimination but are no less likely to identify themselves as victims of discrimination than black nonunion members. Indeed, black women members are more likely to claim discrimination than their nonunion counterparts. White union members are much more likely to identify themselves as victims of discrimination than non-members even controlling for the erosion of typical racial wage differentials. These findings remain robust across a variety of specifications and suggest that there is something unique about the union setting that encourages complaints.     

Twin Tracks—Employee Representation at Eurotunnel Revisited

The introduction of the European Directive on Information and Consultation and the recent implementation of the Information and Consultation of Employees (ICE) Regulations into United Kingdom (UK) law have increased the focus on workplace representation arrangements. This paper examines the interplay between nonunion and union representative arrangements at Eurotunnel (UK) and assesses their effectiveness in representing the needs of employees over a 5‐year period. Importantly, the paper also examines the opportunities and challenges of both nonunion representation (NER) and union voice arrangements. The findings show that the effectiveness of nonunion structures as bodies representing the interests of employees in filling the lack of representation is questionable. However, union recognition through an employer–union partnership agreement has also raised important issues regarding the effectiveness, impact, and legitimacy of unions at Eurotunnel. The main implication of this research is that the existence of a mechanism—union or nonunion—for communication between management and employees at the workplace may not be a sufficient condition for effective representation of employee interests. In addition, while trade unions may provide greater voice than nonunion arrangements (thus the reluctance of management to accept such voice arrangements), the strength of voice is dependent on the legitimacy and effectiveness of trade unions in representing employees’ interests at the workplace. And that in turn depends on the union being perceived by the workforce as both representative and able to act independently. If the union cannot, it will not meet the needs of either employees or management—and could run the risk of being supplanted under the provisions of the new EU Directive on Information and Consultation with tougher requirements for compliance in terms of procedures for consultation and information disclosure.     

Measurement of Compensation: Union and Nonunion

For many purposes, the economic impact of unions is better measured by the proportion of union wages in total payrolls rather than by the proportion of unionized employees in the overall workforce. We use recently available Current Population Survey data to generate estimates of the former. We also show that published data from the Survey on median union and nonunion wages produce substantially larger estimates of the union 1 nonunion wage differential than figures based on mean wages. Finally, we note that the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Employment Cost Index gives undue weight to the union sector because of its Laspeyres methodology.     

The Impact of Human Resource Policies on Union Organizing

Using newly available data from the Conference Board on employer human resource policies, certification election outcomes, and union organization of new company facilities, we find that the logic of "union substitution" efforts by employers is supported: Companies having or encouraging employee communication and participation programs, including nonunion grievance procedures, are more successful in maintaining nonunion status than are companies without such programs. However, certain human resource policies, such as work sharing (as an alternative to layoffs), may actually enhance chances of union success.     

Compensating Wage Differentials in the Union and Nonunion Sectors

This paper tests for the existence of structurally different compensating payments in the union and nonunion sectors of the economy. Significant differences may stem from the different mechanisms by which such payments are determined: markets are the primary mechanism in the nonunion sector, while Political processes play a major role in the union sector. The empirical results provide tentative support for the structural differences hypothesis; They also reveal an absence of positive and significant compensating payments in nonunion labor markets.     

Unionization and Productivity: Evidence from Charter Schools

This paper studies the relationship between teacher unionization and student achievement. Generally stable patterns of teacher unionization since the 1970s have historically presented challenges in measuring the effects of unionization on educational production. However, the blossoming of the charter school sector in recent decades provides fertile ground for study because while most charters are nonunion, teachers at some charters have unionized. Using a generalized difference‐in‐difference approach combining California union certification data with student achievement data from 2003–2012, we find that, aside from a one‐year dip in achievement associated with the unionization process itself, unionization does not affect student achievement.     

Unions and Firm Profits

This study examines the effect of unionization on manufacturing firm profits, extending earlier research by combining industry-level and firm-level measures of unionization. Using several profit measures, we find that quasi-rents from firm investments in intangible assets are a relatively greater source of union profit effects than product market concentration and that union profit effects occur largely in the first 10 percent of firm coverage, suggesting spillover effects on nonunion employees.     

Enterprise Unions in the United States

Through a case study of a large industrial company ( TRW ) , this paper examines the history and functioning of independent local unions ( ILUs ). TRW's ILU plant wages were about the same as those at affiliated union plants and higher than those at nonunion plants. The premium explains why TRW and other companies discarded ILUs in favor of a "new" nonunion model. Yet ILUs can remedy some of the defects in that model and thus belong on the policy and research agenda     

Managerial Responsiveness to Union and Nonunion Worker Voice in Britain

Over the last two decades, there has been a switch in British workplaces away from union voice and representative worker voice more generally toward direct employee involvement and nonunion representative forms of voice. This article assesses the implications of this switch for the effectiveness of worker voice, as measured by employee perceptions of managerial responsiveness. In general, perceptions of managerial responsiveness are better among employees with nonunion voice than they are among employees with union voice.     

Is the New Deal System Collapsing? With What Might It Be Replaced?

The prevailing “New Deal” system of industrial relations laws and practices is working poorly, especially since private-sector union density has declined. Both law and practice have failed to adjust to changing economic and technological conditions. The modest reforms recommended by the Dunlop Commission might have made some slight difference; however, these will not be enacted. The future may see more nonunion forms of representation and greater government regulation of employment conditions.     

The Union Wage Effect in Japan

Previous studies point to Japanese labor unions’ lack of bargaining power that results from their organization at an enterprise level. However, a detailed examination of the institutional setting backed by the Labor Standard Law and Trade Union Law reveals that unions have strong bargaining power against deteriorating work conditions. This paper examines the effect of unions on wages using the Japanese General Social Surveys 2000–2003, which cover a period of economic stagnation. We find a robust union wage premium for both males and females. A Cotton–Neumark decomposition reveals that about one‐fifth of union workers’ higher wage is explained by the difference in the union and nonunion wage structures. We also can confirm the union wage compression effect using the DiNardo, Fortin, and Lemieux (1996 ) method. Union workers are likely to think that they will not find jobs with similar compensation packages if they leave their current jobs. In summary, unions in Japan contribute to an increase in the average wage and compress the wage distribution among their workers. This result is reconciled with previous findings by considering the uniqueness of the macroeconomic conditions of the sample period.     

A Two–Tier Wage Structure in a Nonunion Firm

This study examines the perceptions of nonunion workers in a permanent two–tier wage structure. Consistent with the predictions of equity and justice theories, low–tier employees are found to be more likely to perceive the wage structure as unfair, have lower pay satisfaction and organizational commitment, and report poorer worker–management relations than high– tier employees. These attitudes may make nonunion firms more vulnerable to certification campaigns since they are the same factors that have been repeatedly linked to employee intentions to vote for a union.     

Experience with Company Unions and their Treatment under the Wagner Act: A Four Frames of Reference Analysis

This paper reexamines American experience with company unions (also known as nonunion employee representation plans) before they were banned by the Wagner Act (1935). For the half‐century following the passage of the act, labor historians and industrial relations scholars painted a bleak portrait of company unions as anti‐union sham organizations. Since the 1980s, additional research has documented a more positive side; similarly, concern has grown that the Wagner Act's ban is stifling legitimate employee participation programs. This paper brings new theoretical and empirical evidence to both historical and legal parts of this debate, including examination of company unions through individualist, unitarist, pluralist, and radical frames; demonstration that the pluralists’ view of company unions was more diverse and positive than conventionally portrayed; presentation of new historical evidence and testimony on the company union experience; and a substantially revisionist assessment of the merits of the Wagner Act's ban. In particular, the conclusion is that, given any reasonable weighting of the four frames, the company union ban is overly restrictive and should be modified so companies can implement the positive side of nonunion employee committees but not the negative. The paper ends by noting that the unbalanced and narrowly critical treatment of company unions in the mainline industrial relations tradition is a case study of the field's perhaps fatal post–World War II core intellectual‐normative contradiction—professed inclusiveness of all frames of employment relations but, in practice, attention to and preference for a narrow union‐centric version of one frame.