Bargaining Power Of Trade Unions Research Articles

Whistleblower Rights and Protection in The Workplace: the Role of Trade Unions in Poland Selected Issues

The article discusses selected problems related to trade unions’ functions and their future role in the protection of whistleblowers. The author analyzes the current provisions of the Act on Trade Unions concerning the functioning of trade unions in protecting whistleblowers in the workplace, reporting irregularities (illegal, unethical or otherwise inappropriate activities) and the use of collective bargaining power of trade unions. Workers’ representatives have an express right to assist whistleblowers as defined by national law. The author states that the functions of trade unions under trade union law in Poland in reporting irregularities are often perceived as signaling and, consequently, limited.

Labour Market Regulation and Business Entry

Regulation of labour markets is often viewed as being hostile to entrepreneurship. Several studies investigate the effects of labour market institutions on entrepreneurship in terms of self-employment but there is a relatively small number of international studies relating labour market institutions to business creation. This paper empirically investigates the impact of labour market institutions (the bargaining power of trade unions, unemployment benefits and labour income taxation) on business entry in chosen OECD countries over the period 1995-2007. To take into account a specific structure of time-series cross-section data, the regression equation that explains business entry is estimated by two alternative approaches: the feasible generalized least squares approach proposed by Parks (1967) and the panel corrected standard errors approach proposed by Beck and Katz (1995). The regression analysis gives mixed results about the impact of union bargaining power, unemployment benefits and labour income taxation on business entry. The business entry rate is negatively associated with obstacles to getting a credit and the size of country’s population, but positively associated with trade openness.

The Mark-Ups in the Spanish Economy: International Comparison and Recent Evolution

This paper estimates the steady state mark-ups of 23 branches of activity in seven developed countries (USA, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy and Spain). The empirical methodology departs from the Hall (1988) seminal approach and incorporates the possibility of non-competitive labour markets. Besides, it is used a time varying parameter (TVP) estimation technique in order to compute the evolution of steady state mark-ups. Looking at the constant parameter estimations, it emerges a clear dichotomy between two groups of countries: USA and UK, with the lowest mark-ups, and Japan and Germany, in the other side of the spectrum; Italy and Spain keep an intermediate position. With respect to the bargaining power of trade unions, the dichotomy between Anglo-Saxon countries, where it is almost inexistent, and Central European countries is even more marked. Allowing these parameters to evolve in time, the results are also interesting: there have been increases in mark ups in Italy, France and Germany; on the contrary, in USA, Japan, UK and Spain they have diminished. In the case of the bargaining power of the trade unions, all these countries have shown reductions since 1980, with the only exception of Germany. Finally, the paper finds a quite robust inverse relation between productivity growth, mark ups and the bargaining power of trade unions, although the quantitative effects are moderated.

Labor Market Characteristics and Cross-Country Differences in Cost Stickiness

This paper studies the impact of country-specific labor market characteristics on the degree of asymmetric cost behavior (i.e., cost stickiness) of firms' operating expense. We hypothesize that four important aspects of a labor market, namely, the overall bargaining power of trade unions, the extent of centralization and coordination in collective bargaining, the level of unemployment benefits, and the strictness of employment protection legislation, affect the flexibility of firms in adjusting labor resources and wage rates, hence driving the amount of cost changes as total activity levels change. Using a large cross-sectional sample of firms from nineteen OECD countries over the most recent 10-year period 1996-2005, we find that the cross-country variations in cost stickiness in operating expense are significantly associated with these labor market characteristics as expected, after controlling for firm-level determinants of cost stickiness,. Our results indicate that labor market structure and polices are important determinants of cost stickiness.

The contradictions of flexibility: Labour control and resistance in the Los Angeles banking industry

There is widespread agreement that employers are seeking more ‘flexibility’ in their relations with labour and that the economic climate of the past 20 years or so has proved particularly favourable to employers as high unemployment and changes in labour market regulations have weakened the bargaining power of trade unions. In this paper, however, I examine the contradictions embedded in labour market flexibility, and some points of leverage for labour, by examining the recent extension of part time and hourly work in the banking industry in Los Angeles. Unlike other industries, which can opt periodically to relocate in order to refashion their employment relations, the viability of the largest retail banks in Los Angeles is tied to their presence and visibility in Los Angeles and other urban centres throughout California. Banks must, in essence, reconstruct their employment relations in situ. To do this, banks have experimented by recruiting a very different labour supply to staff the part time and temporary positions now being created in branches to replace full time positions. This form of external flexibility is generating some unintended outcomes, however, in the form of higher turnover and problems with labour control. By way of conclusion, I suggest that this ‘labour fix’ in Los Angeles may simply reflect the depth of the ongoing crisis in the banking industry, and not its resolution.