Toward Identifying the Determinants of Public-Employee Unions' Involvement in Political Activities

Abstract

Public-employee unions' political activities directly affect collective bargaining outcomes, yet we know little about the determinants of such activities. In this paper, we present a model that specifies public-employee unions' political activities to be a function of organizational characteristics of cities, institutional features of labor management relations, and various environmental factors. We tested the model using municipal-level data collected by the International City Management Association. The findings support several conclusions regarding public-employee unions' political activities. First, factors that determine unions' involvement in electoral politics differ from those that determine unions' involvement in legislative politics. Second, electoral political activities appear to be used as a complement to collective bargaining. Third, who serves as chief negotiator for a city significantly affects unions' participation in political activities.