Labor Unions Research Articles

Mobilisation towards formal employment in the healthcare system: A qualitative study of community health workers in South Africa.

In low and middle-income countries, community health workers (CHWs) play a critical role in delivering primary healthcare (PHC) services. However, they often receive low stipends, function without resources and have little bargaining power with which to demand better working conditions. Using a qualitative case study methodology, we studied CHWs' conditions of employment, their struggle for recognition as health workers, and their activities to establish labour representation in South Africa. Seven CHW teams located in semi-urban and rural areas of Gauteng and Mpumalanga Provinces were studied. We conducted 43 in-depth interviews, 10 focus groups and 6 observations to gather data from CHWs and their representatives, supervisors and PHC facility staff. The data was analysed using thematic analysis method. In the rural and semi-urban sites, the CHWs were poorly resourced and received meagre remuneration, their employment outsourced, without employment benefits and protection. As a result of these challenges, the CHWs in the semi-urban sites established a task team to represent them. They held meetings and caused disruptions in the health facilities. After numerous unsuccessful attempts to negotiate for improved conditions of employment, the CHWs joined a labour union in order to participate in the local Bargaining Council. Though they were not successful in getting the government to provide permanent employment, the union negotiated an increase in their stipend. After the study ended, during the height of COVID-19 in 2020, when the need for motivated and effective CHWs became more apparent to decision makers, the semi-urban-based teams received permanent employment with a better remuneration. The task team and their protests raised awareness of the plight of the CHWs, and joining a formal union enabled them to negotiate a modest salary increase. However, it was the emergency created by the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic that forced decision-makers to acknowledge their reliance on this community-based cadre.

Agendas on Nursing in South Korea Media: Natural Language Processing and Network Analysis of News From 2005 to 2022.

In recent years, Korean society has increasingly recognized the importance of nurses in the context of population aging and infectious disease control. However, nurses still face difficulties with regard to policy activities that are aimed at improving the nursing workforce structure and working environment. Media coverage plays an important role in public awareness of a particular issue and can be an important strategy in policy activities. This study analyzed data from 18 years of news coverage on nursing-related issues. The focus of this study was to examine the drivers of the social, local, economic, and political agendas that were emphasized in the media by the analysis of main sources and their quotes. This analysis revealed which nursing media agendas were emphasized (eg, social aspects), neglected (eg, policy aspects), and negotiated. Descriptive analysis, natural language processing, and semantic network analysis were applied to analyze data collected from 2005 to 2022. BigKinds were used for the collection of data, automatic multi-categorization of news, named entity recognition of news sources, and extraction and topic modeling of quotes. The main news sources were identified by conducting a 1-mode network analysis with SNAnalyzer. The main agendas of nursing-related news coverage were examined through the qualitative analysis of major sources' quotes by section. The common and individual interests of the top-ranked sources were analyzed through a 2-mode network analysis using UCINET. In total, 128,339 articles from 54 media outlets on nursing-related issues were analyzed. Descriptive analysis showed that nursing-related news was mainly covered in social (99,868/128,339, 77.82%) and local (48,056/128,339, 48.56%) sections, whereas it was rarely covered in economic (9439/128,339, 7.35%) and political (7301/128,339, 5.69%) sections. Furthermore, 445 sources that had made the top 20 list at least once by year and section were analyzed. Other than "nurse," the main sources for each section were "labor union," "local resident," "government," and "Moon Jae-in." "Nursing Bill" emerged as a common interest among nurses and doctors, although the topic did not garner considerable attention from the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Analyzing quotes showed that nurses were portrayed as heroes, laborers, survivors of abuse, and perpetrators. The economic section focused on employment of youth and women in nursing. In the political section, conflicts between nurses and doctors, which may have caused policy confusion, were highlighted. Policy formulation processes were not adequately reported. Media coverage of the enactment of nursing laws tended to relate to confrontations between political parties. The media plays a crucial role in highlighting various aspects of nursing practice. However, policy formulation processes to solve nursing issues were not adequately reported in South Korea. This study suggests that nurses should secure policy compliance by persuading the public to understand their professional perspectives.

Voting for trade protectionist parties: Evidence from nine waves of the European Social Survey

This article empirically investigates the impact of globalization on voting behavior. Specifically, combining individual-level data from the first nine waves of the European Social Survey, party-level information from the Comparative Manifesto Project, and country-level data from Eurostat, we study the individual determinants of the vote for trade protectionist parties. Our findings show, firstly, that protectionist parties mainly receive electoral support from less-educated voters, unemployed individuals, and members of labor unions. Secondly, we test the compensation principle using a macro measure of a country's compensation potential and find, contrary to expectations, no significant evidence that a greater potential to mitigate the labor market adjustment costs resulting from economic openness deters the propensity to vote for protectionist parties in national elections.

Investigation into Digital Skills in the European Union Labor Market: A Case Study of the Banking Sector

The digitization of the economy has emerged as a global trend, particularly pronounced in the past decade and significantly accelerated in the last five years. Recognizing the transformative impact of digitization on the structure of the labor market, the European Union has identified digital skills as crucial elements affecting employment and income distribution. With digital technologies permeating various sectors of the European economy over the past decade, over 40% of EU workers have encountered changes or replacements in the technologies they utilize at work. This paper delves into the political, economic, socio-cultural, and technological factors influencing the development of digital skills within the European Union, employing a PEST analysis framework, with a specific focus on the banking sector.

Labor Unions and the Electoral Consequences of Trade Liberalization

Abstract We show that the Brazilian trade liberalization in the early 1990s led to a permanent relative decline in the vote share of left-wing presidential candidates in the regions more affected by the tariff cuts. This happened even though the shock, implemented by a right-wing party, induced a contraction in manufacturing and formal employment in the more affected regions, and despite the left’s identification with protectionist policies. To rationalize this response, we consider a new institutional channel for the political effects of trade shocks: the weakening of labor unions. We provide support for this mechanism in two steps. First, we show that union presence—proxied by the number of workers directly employed by unions, by union density, and by the number of union establishments—declined in regions that became more exposed to foreign competition. Second, we show that the negative effect of tariff reductions on the votes for the left was driven exclusively by political parties with historical links to unions. Furthermore, the impact of the trade liberalization on the vote share of these parties was significant only in regions that had unions operating before the reform. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that tariff cuts reduced the vote share of the left partly through the weakening of labor unions. This institutional channel is fundamentally different from the individual-level responses, motivated by economic or identity concerns, that have been considered in the literature.

Threat or opportunity? Unveiling the impact of population aging on corporate labor investment efficiency

This study examines the impact of population aging on labor investment efficiency in Chinese listed firms from 2009 to 2020. Our main findings reveal that aging can positively influence labor investment efficiency, particularly in firms with labor redundancies such as state-owned enterprises, those with labor unions, high labor costs, and financial constraints. The positive effect is lessened in regions with abundant human capital, within the manufacturing sector, and labor-intensive industries. The results show that improvements in labor efficiency are distinct from changes in capital investment efficiency, indicating no general rebalancing of resources due to demographic shifts. Firms with limited investment opportunities and under strict external monitoring benefit more from an aging workforce. Overall, our findings suggest that an aging population can offer opportunities for firms to enhance labor investment efficiency, challenging the conventional view of population aging as solely a threat.

Do labor unions enhance corporate social performance? Evidence from Korean financial markets

This study examines the impact of labor unionization on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in South Korean listed companies, particularly in the context of chaebol-affiliated firms. Using a dataset of 2,622 firm-year observations between 2005 and 2009, the study employs regression analyses to explore the relationship between unionization and CSR performance. Key findings indicate a significant negative correlation between labor unionization and CSR engagement, suggesting that unionized firms exhibit less involvement in CSR activities. This association, however, is not significant in chaebol-affiliated firms, where the unique corporate structure and shared resources appear to mitigate the influence of labor unions on CSR. Furthermore, the study reveals a positive link between CSR initiatives and labor productivity in unionized firms, indicating that CSR may enhance employee efficiency. The study highlights the intricate relationships between labor unionization, corporate governance, and CSR, particularly in the context of Korean business conglomerates. It emphasizes the importance of aligning labor interests with CSR commitments and underscores the role of effective corporate governance in promoting CSR activities. The positive impact of CSR on labor productivity underscores its potential in boosting employee performance. AcknowledgmentThis work was supported by the Gachon University research fund of 2023. (GCU-202303770001).

Comply or evade: factors influencing private enterprises' basic old-age insurance responsibilities.

Private enterprises are playing an increasingly important role in production and employment in China. However, due to less regulation and a stronger profit motivation than state-owned enterprises with more standardized management, a considerable portion of these private enterprises fall short of fulfilling their basic responsibilities for government-mandated old-age insurance. This study establishes a comprehensive research framework aimed at delving into the precise factors contributing to the lax adherence of private enterprises to their basic old-age insurance obligations. This framework takes into account a range of factors, including enterprise profitability, the external environmental context (specifically the level of regional development), and internal organizational dynamics (such as the presence of labor unions and workers' congresses). To validate this framework, empirical data from a substantial sample of 3,123 private enterprises, which were part of the 10th Chinese Private Enterprise Survey (CPES), were utilized. This study employs the stepwise multiple regression analysis and conducts robustness tests to ensure the model's effectiveness. Enterprise profitability, regional development levels, and the existence of labor unions all wield a positive influence on basic old-age insurance coverage that private enterprises extend to their workforce. Moreover, an intriguing aspect emerges: the developmental stage of the region, as well as the presence of labor unions exercise a negative moderating effect on the relationship between enterprise profitability and the coverage rate of basic old-age insurance. In essence, this implies that the basic old-age insurance coverage rate for private enterprises operating in well-developed regions and those with established labor unions is relatively insulated from fluctuations in profitability. To increase the participation rate of private enterprises' basic old-age insurance, it is important to improve the overall development environment for private enterprises, enhance internal organizational mechanisms, and strengthen regulatory oversight of enterprises in various regions.

Labor unions and financial statement comparability

We demonstrate that managers of highly unionized firms make accounting decisions that result in diminished financial statement comparability, thereby enhancing their leverage in collective bargaining. We corroborate using a difference-in-differences approach which leverages the introduction of right-to-work laws as an exogenous shock that weakens labor union bargaining power. We also find that the impact of union power on financial statement comparability is more pronounced for firms having lower accounting complexity, financial flexibility, and employee orientation, and for firms headquartered in states having stronger democratic party orientation.

An agent-based model for technology adoption in Air Traffic Management

Technology adoption depends not only on the development of new technologies, but also on the existence of regulations able to foster the implementation of such technologies. To facilitate the exploration of different policy options aimed at accelerating the adoption of new Air Traffic Management (ATM) technologies, an agent-based model that represents the behaviour of the European ATM system has been developed. This model includes representations of the main stakeholders in the ATM ecosystem: regulatory bodies, technology providers, labour unions and technology adopters, including Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs), airlines and airports. New ATM technologies, policies imposed, behavioural biases (e.g., loss aversion) and exogenous variables (e.g., fuel price) drive the actions of the agents, leading to the emergent global behaviour of the system. A calibration and validation process involving historical data, gaming experiments and participatory simulations was performed. The model was used to evaluate various policies that included economic incentives and penalties in two scenarios: one based on past events and another focused on the future. The results allow us to analyse which individual stakeholders benefit the most from each policy and to identify the mechanisms that emerge and drive the path of technology adoption, finding that a combination of economic incentives and penalties provides promising economical and operational results.

The political process in nations: Civil society participation and income inequality

AbstractThis study delves into the influence of civil society participation on income inequality, a topic that has received limited scholarly attention. Civil society participation refers to the activities of citizens who organize into various groups, known as civil society organizations, to pursue common interests and goals. These organizations span a wide range, including interest groups, labor unions, spiritual bodies engaging in civic or political activities, social movements, professional associations, charities, and other nongovernmental entities. Our research utilizes an extensive panel dataset, encompassing a global sample of countries from 1975 to 2019. We aim to comprehensively analyze the direct effects of civil society participation on income inequality. Our findings reveal that higher levels of civil society participation are effective in reducing inequality over the short, medium, and long term. These results have significant implications for policymakers. They suggest that encouraging and facilitating civil society participation could be a viable strategy for addressing income inequality. By understanding the dynamics of how civil society engagement influences economic disparities, policymakers can better design and implement measures that promote more equitable economic outcomes. This research contributes to the broader discourse on economic inequality and the potential role of civil society in mitigating it.

'Entertaining' a New College Athlete Unionization Structure

Between athletes still feeling short-changed despite name, image, and likeness (NIL) compensation and coaches and administrators feeling generally unhappy with the unregulated, “wild west” landscape of NIL, college sports is faced with two competing forces pushing college athletics in two distinctly different directions. There is an obvious solution to all of the strife in college sports: the legal recognition of college athletes as employees and the creation of a formally recognized college athlete labor union, allowing athletes to collectively bargain for a share of media rights revenues and other work conditions, while also allowing the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to collectively bargain for more regulations and restrictions on NIL activity without facing antitrust scrutiny by virtue of the non-statutory labor exemption. There are several unique challenges to organizing a labor union comprised of athletes, including the breadth and variety of their negotiating interests. However, there is a robust union that has been in operation since the 1930s that may provide a baseline framework: the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). In this article, we explore potential frameworks for a college athlete union by using SAG-AFTRA and other major unions as templates. SAG-AFTRA’s unique national-local structure serves as a guide for how to create a robust and effective college athlete union that meets all sides’ interests in reforming college sports.

Unionization, industry concentration, and economic growth

Abstract This paper examines how unionization affects economic growth through its impact on industry concentration in a two-country model of international trade and endogenous productivity growth. Knowledge spillovers link firm-level productivity in innovation with geographic patterns of industry ensuring a faster rate of output growth when industry is relatively concentrated in the country with the greater labor supply. We show that stronger bargaining power in the relatively large country increases the rate of output growth when labor unions are employment-oriented but decreases the rate of growth when unions are wage-oriented. We then calibrate the model using labor market data for the United Kingdom and France and study the effects of union bargaining power on industry location patterns, output growth, and national welfare.

The Principle Of Good Faith In Collective Labor Agreements Between Employers And Labor Unions In Review Of Contract Law

The principle of good faith is an important principle in contract law and is accepted in variouslegal systems, but until now the doctrine of good faith is still controversial Good faith is knownby 2 (two) phases, namely the pre-contract phase and the contract execution phase. The precontract phase is called subjective good faith, which means that good faith is more directedtowards honesty, while good faith in the contract implementation phase is called objective goodfaith, which means that good faith is interpreted as appropriateness and decency or justice. Awork agreement is an agreement between workers/laborers and employers or employers thatcontains working conditions, rights and obligations for the parties. The definition of workingconditions is the rights and obligations of employers and workers that have not been regulatedin laws and regulations. Work agreements made must not conflict with existing laboragreements or Collective Labor Agreements (KKB)/Collective Labor Agreements (PKB). Thisresearch uses normative legal research sourced from secondary data related to the researchtopic, secondary data that has been regularly arranged and then analyzed qualitatively. Fromthe research conducted, it was found that the position of the principle of good faith is veryimportant not only at the stage of making (signing) and post-making (implementation) of thecontract, but also at the pre-making (drafting) ) stage of the contract because in the practice ofcontract law the judge does use his authority to interfere with the contents of the contract. Thelegal consequences of a collective bargaining agreement that does not contain the principle ofgood faith are that if the subjective requirements concerning the subject of the CBA areincomplete, or in other words the requirements that must be met are not appropriate for thosewho wish to make a CBA, then the CBA that has been made can be requested for cancellation bythe trade union/labor union. If the cancellation is not requested by both parties concerned, thenthe PKB remains valid for the parties. The first legal effort made by PT United Rope with thelabor union is by way of deliberation to reach consensus first, although in dispute resolution ifthere is no good faith in the collective labor agreement is through 2 (two) systems, namely first,non -litigation / outside the industrial relations court, namely bipartite settlement, mediation,conciliation and arbitration, while the second settlement is litigation.

Having a Say in Patient Care: Factors Associated with High and Low Voice among Home Care Workers

ObjectivesTo identify factors associated with high and low “voice”—or level of input in patient care decisions—among home care workers (HCWs), an often marginalized workforce that provides care in the home to older adults and those with chronic conditions. DesignWe conducted a secondary analysis of data from a cross-sectional survey assessing experiences of HCWs in caring for adults with heart failure. The survey measured HCWs’ voice using a validated, 5-item instrument. Setting and ParticipantsThe survey was conducted virtually from June 2020 to July 2021 in partnership with the 1199 Service Employees International Union (1199SEIU) Training and Employment Funds, a union labor management fund. English- or Spanish-speaking HCWs employed by a certified or licensed home care agency in New York, NY, were eligible. MethodsHCW voice was the main outcome of interest, which we assessed by tertiles (low, medium, and high, with medium as the referent group). Using multinominal logistic regression, we calculated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs for the relationship between participant characteristics and low and high levels of voice. ResultsThe 261 HCWs had a mean age of 48.4 years (SD 11.9), 96.6% were female, and 44.2% identified as Hispanic. A total of 38.7% had low voice, 37.9% had medium voice, and 23.4% had high voice. In the adjusted model, factors associated with low voice included Spanish as a primary language (OR 3.71, P = .001), depersonalization-related burnout (OR 1.14, P = .04), and knowing which doctor to call (OR 0.19, P < .001). Factors associated with high voice included Spanish as a primary language (OR 2.61, P = .04) and job satisfaction (OR 1.22, P = .001). Conclusions and ImplicationsOrganizational factors such as team communication practices—including among non-English speakers—may play an important role in HCW voice. Improving HCW voice may help retain HCWs in the workforce, but future research is needed to evaluate this.

Ghana’s education and labour unions join civil society organisations to take on the IMF

ABSTRACT This article will explain how a series of educator strikes in 2022 in Ghana led to increased awareness of and calls for tax justice and debt relief from a growing movement of public sector workers and civil society organisations. We chart how the issues and demands of teacher organisations and other public sector workers shifted and increased over time, bringing in a new public imaginary to critique IMF driven austerity policies, build and link to global campaigns around debt relief, and signal new possibilities for generating more stable domestic public sector tax revenues. We examine the evolving strategies of growing educator strikes and show how unions are joining together with other civil society and advocacy groups to challenge fiscal austerity and government policies that affect not only their schools and classrooms but their lives and livelihoods. This case describing what Ghanaian teacher unions are doing to organise members to learn about and challenge austerity policies highlights the importance of public sector workers’ knowledge, understanding and engaging governmental macro-economic policies and offering alternative solutions.

The War on the North American Left-Wing Labor Movement From World War I Through the Post-World War II Period

Repression of the North American trade union movement dates to the late nineteenth century. Much of this repression has occurred in response to union militancy during strikes, some of which were directed against political radicals of various orientations. Peaks of repression against radical trade unionism occurred during World War I and in the immediate postwar years as well as in the early Cold War period, after World War II’s conclusion into the early 1950s. Through the analysis of three recently published volumes, I argue that the repression of North American left-wing unions was intentionally severe because of the strength of these labor organizations and the threat they were perceived to pose to employers and the government. Given that these left-wing unions were much more militant than the American Federation of Labor unions, this governmental repression (as well as that of other forces) can be viewed as a conscious set of tactics invoked that were meant to break, or at a minimum tame, these radical unions in the service of capital. Such behavior also acted as a warning to nonradical unions that repression could be directed against them as well.

Threats to human capital: The effect of health risk on corporate financial policy

AbstractI examine the relation between threats to human capital and corporate financial policy using morbidity and mortality data related to infectious diseases. I observe a strong association between deteriorating health and declines in leverage, which seems to be influenced by increasing human capital costs offsetting debt benefits. Firms consider reducing debt as a strategic response to perceived employee valuation of human capital insurance, which tends to be affected by a disease‐induced rise in human capital costs. This association appears more pronounced in technology firms, distressed firms, and labor‐intensive firms, and during higher disease‐induced labor uncertainty, with some moderation by labor unions.

Labor unionization and real earnings management: Evidence from labor elections.

By exploiting the local randomness in close-call labor elections, the authors find a negative impact of labor unionization at a firm on its real earnings management (REM). The finding suggests a managerial pressure effect of increased labor power. In a local regression discontinuity (RD) analysis, firms that narrowly pass the 50% threshold show a significant decrease in REM, relative to their peers that narrowly fail. This effect is stronger for firms headquartered in right-to-work states and when managers have less pressure to manage earnings. Evidence from a global parametric RD analysis and a multivariate OLS test using industry-level unionization measures confirms the external validity of results in local RD analysis. Overall, the research sheds new light on the economic consequence of labor unionization on employers' accounting decisions.

Understanding employee reactions to union-busting in the US hospitality industry: An analysis based on union attitudes and cognitive frames

Union-busting, whose purpose is to weaken or eliminate labor unions within an organization, is particularly prevalent in the hospitality industry. This paper, which draws on data collected through semi-structured interviews with 38 US line-level hospitality workers, aims to analyze their reactions to union-busting. In doing so, it introduces an original analysis rooted in union attitudes, cognitive frames, and emotions, employing a lens that integrates framing theory and affective events theory. One of the most important contributions of this research lies in recognizing that employees’ responses to union-busting can deviate from the expected alignment with their union attitudes and cognitive frames. This research broadens their scope to encompass a previously unexplored phenomenon. It deepens our understanding of the complexities characterizing the employment relationship in hospitality, thereby offering insights that could inform contemporary HRM strategies and policy interventions.