The Effect of Hospital Bargaining Unit Structure on Industrial Relations Outcomes

Abstract

Since the passage of the 1974 Health Care Amendments to the National Labor Relations Act, an implicit premise of public policy has been that multiple bargaining units in hospitals would lead to an increased incidence of wage leapfrogging, jurisdictional disputes, and strikes. This examination of two sets of hospitals in 1988, which had bargaining units ranging in number from zero to ten, finds little support for these assumed relationships. Only hospitals with five or six units had wage settlements that were higher than in hospitals with one unit, and then only for two of six occupations studied. Only hospitals with three or four units had more work assignment disputes than hospitals with one unit. Hospitals with four, six, or seven units averaged one more strike than hospitals with one unit over the 1980–88 period, but strikes per contract were higher only for hospitals with six units.