Union Presence Research Articles

Tackling Inequality: How Nonprofits Leverage Institutions and Community Fabric to Reduce Poverty

Drawing on institutional theory and nonprofit sector research, we examine the institutional infrastructure and the community conditions under which antipoverty nonprofits are more likely to reduce poverty. Using longitudinal data from 246 U.S. communities, we found that the collective action of antipoverty nonprofits alone does not significantly reduce poverty within their communities. However, when nonprofits operate in communities with greater presence of unions, lower levels of educational attainment and higher percentage of immigrant population, antipoverty nonprofits are key enablers of poverty reduction. Contrary to our expectations, neither government presence nor greater racial diversity significantly enhances the effect of nonprofits in poverty reduction. Government action, however, reduces poverty independently from the action of nonprofits. Our results suggests that grand challenges such as inequality are better addressed through the joint work of different organizational actors and institution...

Women Employment in Indian Electronics Manufacturing Sector

Electronic manufacturing sector historically employ a large number of women. This sector has a lot of potential to absorb the growing female labour force in India. The government of India recently focusing on development of manufacturing sector under “Make in India” scheme with electronics as a priority sector. In this context, the present paper attempt to understand the employment profile of women by comparing with men in the sector. Most importantly, this is a grey area in Indian academia. There are very few studies which are based primarily upon the case studies and other type of methods. But till now there are hardly any attempt has been made to highlight the importance of this area with the help of Government of India data source. Thus, National Sample Survey 68th round (2011–12) data has been used for the analysis in the present paper. The results reveal that there is still a huge gap exists between female and male work participation, status of employment and earnings in electronics manufacturing sector. Women are still employed at lower level jobs and getting lower wages, social security benefits and have lower union presence than their male counterparts.

Management communication, unionization, FDI and company performance in a developing country

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the associations between management direct communication to employees, unionization, foreign direct investment (FDI) and company performance in Mauritius, Africa's most successful economy. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use firm data from a survey conducted in Mauritius in late 2011. The authors conduct regression analysis to study the relationship between direct communication, unionization and performance conditional on ownership type. Findings – Mauritian labour unions, in common with their counterparts from mainland Africa, are strongest in the public sector. They have been characterized as weak and lacking in influence on management. Yet the authors find a strong association between unionization and management communication in the private sector. The authors also find a positive association between direct communication and company performance which the authors argue is likely to be an indirect consequence of unionization. FDI shows no particular effects. Research limitations/implications – It appears that the consequences of union presence transcend pay and conditions. The effects are unexpectedly marked, particularly when the stress by some authors on union weakness in the private sector is taken into account. Originality/value – It may be that local unions’ strong focus on the enterprise – a form of representation favoured by US-based multinational companies, constitutes a strength in stimulating management communication to employees by focusing union activities at that level. Whilst the authors have suggested that this is unlikely to be primarily a result of conscious union strategy, the enterprise focus may serve to buttress existing employee attitudes. In any event, unionization is certainly closely associated in this African country with a practice that is linked to positive economic effects at the enterprise level.

Decentralised bargaining and performance-related pay

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which performance-related pay (PRP) has been negotiated through decentralised bargaining in Italy. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides estimates aimed at identifying the main factors that have favoured agreements on PRP, on the basis of a nationally representative sample of Italian manufacturing and service companies. Findings – The paper shows that collective bargaining on PRP in Italy is positively associated with the presence of unions. The estimates also suggest that in unionised firms, workers have more access to returns from training in the form of PRP schemes. Finally, the paper finds that firm performance is positively associated with the adoption of PRP. Research limitations/implications – Further research based on additional data should enable the authors to identify causal effects. Practical implications – Partial fiscal exemptions for the wage component linked to enterprise results might increase the number of firms adopting PRP. In addition, the presence of unions may discourage the diffusion of “cosmetic” schemes that are adopted merely to secure benefits for the firm. Unions may also increase the returns of training and diffusion of PRP. Originality/value – This paper utilises a unique database containing recent information from a nationwide sample of Italian firms. It includes a whole set of information, including unionisation at the firm level, which allows the authors to address a critical issue, i.e., the strategic role of unions in adopting (or impeding) the adoption of PRP.

Balancing Efficiency, Equity, and Voice

Theory and research surrounding employee voice in organizations have often treated high-involvement work practices (HIWPs) as substitutes for unions. Drawing on recent theoretical developments in the field of industrial relations, specifically the collective voice/institutional response model of union impact and research on HIWPs in organizations, the authors propose that these institutions are better seen as complements whereby greater balance is achieved between efficiency, equity, and voice when HIWPs are implemented in the presence of unions. Based on a national sample of Canadian organizations, they find employees covered by a union experience fewer intensification pressures under higher levels of diffusion of HIWPs such that they work less unpaid overtime, have fewer grievances, and take fewer paid sick days. Job satisfaction is maximized under the combination of unions and HIWPs.

Analysis of Small Credit Union Trends and Opportunities for Accountants

This paper reviews the benefits small credit unions confer to their members and communities, the decrease in the number of institutions and members in recent history, the challenges facing small credit unions today, and how accountants can help small credit unions reverse these negative trends. Credit unions are able to pay higher interest rates on deposits, charge lower rates on borrowings, and charge fewer and lower fees than traditional banks. Additionally, bank customers benefit from the presence of credit unions through increased competition on rates. Credit unions also serve traditionally underserved populations and, in the past, experienced high customer satisfaction ratings. However, there has been a reduction of 22 percent in the number of small credit unions since 2008. This decrease can be linked to a decline in customer satisfaction, which is a result of the increased compliance and regulatory burden on already overworked staffs. Accountants, by providing compliance support and strategic planning advice, can help small credit unions reverse these negative trends and thrive.

Navigating the Great Recession

The existence of working-time accounts played an important role in overcoming the negative effects of the Great Recession in Germany. The authors’ analysis of data on establishments with a works council and at least 20 employees from the WSI Works Council Survey shows that the presence and influence of trade unions and the direct impact of the economic crisis are factors that increased the probability of reducing time credits, or building up time deficits on working-time accounts, to safeguard employment. Individual characteristics, such as the proportion of female workers or the proportion of highly qualified employees, had a negative impact on the ability to use working-time accounts. No significant differences were found between the general use of working-time accounts and their use in consequence of the economic crisis. This could be an indication that working-time accounts need to be well established in order to be useful for safeguarding jobs during an economic crisis.

Human resource function strategic role and trade unions: exploring their impact on human resource management practices in Uruguayan firms

Organizations worldwide are confronted with different contextual constraints. Jackson and Schuler [1995, ‘Understanding Human Resource Management in the Context of Organizations and their Environments,' Annual Review of Psychology, 46, 237–264], in their classical review, highlight the importance of the impact of the internal and external organizational context on human resource management (HRM) practices. This paper uses data collected through a survey of firms located in Uruguay, in a context where HR function and trade unions have gone through significant changes, to determine their impact on the adoption of different HRM practices. The authors find that organizations with an HR function strategically involved and with higher degree of union presence have more person-centred HRM practices, while performance-centred HRM practices were positively influenced by HR function strategic role. However, the findings do not support the moderating role of trade union presence on the relationship between the HR function strategic role and HRM practices.

Trade Liberalization and Labor Shares in China

We estimate the extent to which firms responded to tariff reductions associated with China’s WTO entry by altering labor’s share of value. Firm-level regressions indicate that firms in industries subject to tariff cuts raised labor’s share relative to economy-wide trends, both through input choices and rent sharing. Labor’s share of value is an estimated 12 percent higher in 2007 than it would be if tariffs had remained at their 1998 levels. There is significant variation across firms: the impact is larger where market access is better and it is influenced by union presence and state ownership.

As relações entre sesi e csit no campo esportivo: 1996-2011

EnglishThis work refers to the study of doctoral thesis defended by the author to the end of 2012. The problematization that guided our research interest has built up from the moment in which we identified the presence of that logic also in amateur sport, from the relationship between the Social Service of Industry (SESI) and the Confederation Sportive Internationale du Travail (CSIT) between 1996 and 2011. As a hypothesis, we believe that such relations were guided by this logic of modern sport, strengthened with the entry of SESI in the field, so that over the years the habitus in its present structure, built in their agents, became predominant changed the operating logic of the field and led the other institutions affiliated with CSIT to adhere to the model or move away from management. In this case both the SESI as CSIT distanced themselves from their current concepts related to the characteristics of amateur sport and structured by the “Sport for All” and started to play the strategies of commercialization and spectacularization of professional sports. The main research objectives were to analyze how the relationship between SESI and CSIT was guided by the logic of modern sport. As a theoretical framework of analysis, we used the constructs of Reflexive Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu to read the subfield of sport for workers, identifying their structures and agents, and then analyze their relationships. In the sequence, we perform an approximation of these with the Comprehensive Sociology of Max Weber specifically the concepts of “sense” of social action and social associational relationship, in Weberian terms, noting signs of domination and bureaucracy. Given the historical documents and the analyzed interviews we conclude the relationships between SESI and CSIT, between 1996 and 2011, were guided by the logic of modern sport, guided by Olympic associative model and contemplating reproduction of spectacularization strategies (also aspiring to commercialization) of professional sports, focusing thereby on the distance of their current concepts related to the characteristics of amateur sport and structured by the “Sport for All”. However, given the presence of other unions in the subfield of sport to workers and the link itself SESI has with the industrial field, we conclude that the current concepts also remains present, even if distant. That is, again referring to Weber and Bourdieu, it is, respectively, a social relationship that is guided by two orders force, as legitimate, with a flow which tends to one or the other, accordingly the disputes inside field. portuguesEsse trabalho refere-se aos estudos da tese de doutorado defendida pelo autor ao final de 2012. A problematizacao da pesquisa construiu-se a partir da verificacao da logica do esporte moderno (presente no esporte profissional e com enfase em estrategias de comercializacao e espetacularizacao), no esporte amador, a partir das relacoes entre o Servico Social da Industria (SESI) e a Confederation Sportive Internationale du Travail (CSIT) no periodo de 1996 a 2011. Como hipotese, acreditou-se que tais relacoes orientaram-se por essa logica, fortalecida com a entrada do SESI no campo, de forma que com o passar dos anos o habitus incorporado em seus agentes passou a ser predominante, alterou a logica de funcionamento do campo e motivou as outras instituicoes filiadas a CSIT a aderirem ao modelo ou afastarem-se da gestao. Nesse processo, SESI e CSIT distanciaram-se dos seus conceitos vigentes relacionados as caracteristicas do esporte amador e estruturados pelo Sport for All e passaram a reproduzir estrategias de mercantilizacao e espetacularizacao do esporte profissional. O objetivo geral da pesquisa foi analisar como a relacao entre o SESI e a CSIT foi orientada por essa logica do esporte moderno. Como referencial teorico metodologico, utilizamos a Sociologia Reflexiva de Pierre Bourdieu com uma aproximacao a Sociologia Compreensiva de Max Weber. Concluimos que as relacoes entre o SESI e a CSIT, entre 1996 e 2011, orientaram-se pela logica do esporte moderno, pautada pelo modelo associativo olimpico e contemplando a reproducao das estrategias de espetacularizacao do esporte profissional, incidindo, dessa forma, no distanciamento dos seus conceitos vigentes, relacionados as caracteristicas do esporte amador e estruturados pelo Sport for All. Contudo, dada a presenca de outras Unioes no subcampo do esporte para trabalhadores e o proprio vinculo do SESI com o campo industrial, concluimos que os conceitos vigentes tambem se mantem presentes, mesmo que distanciados.

Do prevailing wage laws increase total construction costs?

Using regression analysis, the paper examines the claim that prevailing wage regulations raise public construction costs. The implicit assumption is that prevailing wages are highly influenced by the presence of strong labor unions, hence the attack on prevailing wage laws are part of the broader neoliberal attack on labor unions. Therefore, the empirical analysis in this paper compares construction costs in states that have repealed their prevailing wage laws with states that have not, and demonstrates that there is no empirical evidence supporting the neoliberal claims. The main contribution of the model is to point out the importance of separating public from private construction projects and to differentiate construction projects by type of structure. Without such distinctions, the analysis would conflate the causes of higher construction costs even for similar types of structures. The paper provides an institutional history of the prevailing wage laws in the United States; then uses regression analysis to test for the significance of prevailing wage legislation on construction costs. The empirical investigation provides some simple descriptive statistics from the F.W. Dodge data set; then constructs alternative models to refute the claim that prevailing wage laws cause higher construction costs. The article closes with a discussion of policy implications, summary, and concluding remarks.

Internationalization of Firms’ Activities and Company Union Wage Strategies

Using a two-country duopoly model with homogeneous goods, firms’ decisions with respect to international activities (trade vs. foreign direct investment - FDI) in the presence of company-wide unions are analyzed. If firms export, they pay trade costs per unit of the goods exported. If firms invest and set up plants abroad, they incur sunk costs. The full set of production structures that arise as sub-game perfect Nash equilibriums are derived when internationalization is feasible. The interdependence of exogenous integration costs, endogenous union wage strategies, and firms’ strategic interactions affect the equilibrium outcome: either symmetric (intra-industry trade or reciprocal FDI) or multiple symmetric (intra-industry trade and reciprocal FDI) equilibriums exist.

War's Desolating Scourge: The Union's Occupation of North Alabama by Joseph W. Danielson (review)

Reviewed by: War's Desolating Scourge: The Union's Occupation of North Alabama by Joseph W. Danielson Brett J. Derbes War's Desolating Scourge: The Union's Occupation of North Alabama. Joseph W. Danielson. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2012. ISBN 978-0-7006-1844-6, 232 pp., cloth, $34.95. As the Union army spread across the western theater, its military objectives transitioned from ending the rebellion and preserving the Union to include the liberation of African Americans and reunification of the country. Throughout the war, Union armies invaded the Confederacy and undertook the daunting task of occupying unfriendly territory. Joseph W. Danielson examines the Union occupations of North Alabama that began in April 1862, under Gen. Ormsby Mitchel and seven thousand soldiers from the Third Division of the Army of the Ohio. Gen. Don Carlos Buell implemented President Abraham Lincoln's policy of conciliation in the region, but the army quickly discarded it in favor of more punitive strategies that culminated in hard war against brazenly defiant Confederate soldiers and civilians. Danielson determines that the genesis of the Union's harsh civil-military policies occurred in North Alabama and began much earlier than others have suggested. The sizable cooperationist population of North Alabama, which encompassed the Tennessee Valley and Hill Counties regions, mobilized to strongly support the Confederacy following President Lincoln's call for seventy-five thousand troops. Danielson asserts, "Their initial caution during the secession crisis was not a sign [End Page 95] of their lack of commitment to southern independence or to the institution of slavery" (11). General Mitchel's invasion of North Alabama garnered success as part of a larger Union offensive in the western theater to capture and maintain control of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. During the subsequent five-month occupation, civilians engaged in daily acts of defiance that ranged from verbal assaults to ambushing and killing. Confederate women's shunning and taunting of Union soldiers proved vital to the resistance, which "revealed a glaring miscalculation by Lincoln, Buell, and other supporters of conciliation" (44). General Mitchel initially eroded Confederate morale through the punitive strategies of arresting dissidents, administering loyalty oaths, censoring information, and confiscating cotton. The Union war department and President Lincoln supported shifting towards a pervasive hard-war strategy that included the wide-spread confiscation of foodstuffs and destruction of property. Danielson describes Union colonel John Basil Turchin's brutal sacking of Athens on May 2 as the North's "most destructive attack on a Confederate town during the 1862 occupation" (76). General Buell's unpopular adherence to an archaic conservative strategy clashed with General Mitchel's harsh tactics, which Danielson suggests influenced the Second Confiscation Act of mid-July. The author notes that Union soldiers across the South adopted Mitchel's hard-war mentality and proposes that "the 1862 occupation of North Alabama ultimately played an integral role in leading the Union toward Emancipation" (112). Danielson's study confirms that a prolonged Union presence significantly disrupted the institution of slavery in the region and revealed deepening cracks in Confederate nationalism. Yet, slaves who escaped to Union camps or enlisted in military service experienced only partial freedom and protection, despite providing sensitive information regarding the whereabouts of former masters and Confederate soldiers. In 1863, repeated Union raids and unrelenting punitive policies combined with Confederate military setbacks to deteriorate civilians' morale, especially women who "expected to be protected from their northern foe" (123). The Battle of Chickamauga brought civilians temporary relief, but the siege of Chattanooga increased their suffering. Additionally, North Alabama unionists, emboldened by President Lincoln's 10 percent plan, cooperated with Union soldiers to destabilize the Confederate home front. By 1864, Gen. William T. Sherman extended hard-war tactics against the defiant civilians of North Alabama, whose "region resembled a wasteland of barren fields, ruined property, and shattered dreams" (151). Danielson concludes that rapid Union demobilization and President Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction policies allowed southern nationalists to openly defy the Thirteenth Amendment by enacting black codes after returning to political power. War's Desolating Scourge certainly provides the most detailed and comprehensive account of the Union occupation of North Alabama. Danielson consults dozens of collections to present personal letters, diaries...

Temporary Employment, Demand Volatility and Unions: Firm-Level Evidence

This paper investigates the effect of workplace unionization and demand volatility on firms' propensity to use temporary employment. Using Italian firm level data, we show that the impact of unionization crucially depends on the type of fixed term contracts considered and the degree of volatility. The presence of unions per se is found to increase the demand for non-training temporary contracts, while it does not affect the demand for training temporary contracts. We argue that this occurs because non-training temporary contracts are typically used as a buffer stock to cope with uncertainty, and the unions tend to encourage their use to protect insider workers. Training temporary contracts, on the other hand, do not lend themselves to this function, as they are more likely to be used as a screening device for future permanent positions. We also find that, as volatility increases, the unions become more concerned about the weakening of their bargaining power and tend to discourage the hiring of non-training temporary workers.

Chinese Unions and Enterprises Performance

This paper uses the national firm level survey data to investigate the effects of Chinese unions on firm performance. We show that Chinese unions have a strong State-Party voice face and a collective voice face but lack of monopoly face. The government influence plays an important role in unionization. The empirical findings on the effectiveness of unions are remarkable: unions in the workplace significantly improve productivity but reduce enterprise profitability. Moreover, the presence of unions in same region and industry generates negative spillovers on enterprise performance.

Trade Union and Employment: The Korean Experience

Using Workplace Panel Survey of 2005, 2007 and 2009 waves, this study estimates the effects of trade unions on employment and the proportion of irregular workers, short-term and part-time workers, and agent temporary and outsourced workers. While the estimation result shows that the percentage of hired workers increases under union presence, these results seem to be contaminated with bias because the differences between unionized firms before union establishment and non-unionized firms are not completely controlled even after adjusting for observed characteristics. Meanwhile, unionized firms and non-unionized firms with grievance procedures employ higher proportion of irregular workers. The proportion of short-term and part-time workers increases only when they are entitled to join trade unions. These imply that the rise in the percentage of irregular workers due to unions and grievance procedures is attributed to the increase in the percentage of agent temporary and outsourced workers. Also, when short-term and part-time workers are allowed to join the union, the firm replaces agent temporary and outsourced workers with short-term and part-time workers, so that the proportion of irregular workers do not change.

Fragmented outcomes: International comparisons of gender, managerialism and union strategies in the nonprofit sector

Since the mid-1980s, the nonprofit social services sector has been promoted as an option for cheaper and more flexible delivery of services. In order to comply with government standards and funding requirements, the sector has been subject to ongoing waves of restructuring and the introduction of new private market-like, outcomes-based management models, such as New Public Management. This article explores ways in which nonprofit social services sector workers experience their work as highly fragmented. Drawing on case studies completed as part of a larger project addressing restructuring in the nonprofit social services sector in Scotland, New Zealand, Australia and Canada, we examine three key aspects shaping work in the nonprofit social services sector: 1) workers’ experience of managerialism; 2) gendered strategies drawn on by workers in the agencies studied; and 3) union strategies in the nonprofit social services sector, as well as within individual workplaces. Conclusions focus on contributions to understanding managerialism as a strong but fragmented project in which even weak union presence and the willingness of the predominantly female workforce to sacrifice to provide care for others ensure that some level of social solidarity endures.

The impact of union presence and strategic human resource management on employee voice in multinational enterprises in Australia

In this article, we examine the use and character of employee voice mechanisms of foreign-owned multinational enterprises operating in Australia, as well as the influence of a strategic human resource management approach and union presence. Findings indicate that foreign-owned multinational enterprises are high-level users of the full range of employee voice mechanisms, with the exceptions of use of employee suggestion schemes, trade union recognition and the use of joint consultation committees across all sites. Using logistic regression analysis, findings show that trade union presence, a strategic human resource management approach, greenfield site and country of origin impact the employee voice approach adopted. High trade union presence is associated with an indirect employee voice approach. A low trade union presence is associated with a direct or a minimalist approach to employee voice. Moreover, a strategic human resource management approach is associated with both direct and dualistic approaches to employee voice. Implications are drawn for theory and practice.

Workplace trade union activists in UK service sector organising campaigns

AbstractThis article examines the roles of activists as they develop during campaigns to establish a workplace union presence. Evidence shows that there is surprising variation within and between campaigns, which is explained by (i) management decision making; (ii) union policies and structures; and (iii) the skills of the activists themselves. This suggests UK union organising places considerable emphasis on supporting workplace activists with the knowledge, skills, and expertise of organisers and officers in the wider union.

Detroit's Cold War: the origins of postwar conservatism

Detroit's Cold War locates the roots of American conservatism in a city that was a nexus of labor and industry in postwar America. Drawing on meticulous archival research focusing on Detroit, Colleen Doody shows how conflict over business values and opposition to labor, anticommunism, racial animosity, and religion led to the development of a conservative ethos in the aftermath of World War II. Using Detroit--with its large population of African-American and Catholic immigrant workers, strong union presence, and starkly segregated urban landscape--as a case study, Doody articulates a nuanced understanding of anticommunism during the Red Scare. Looking beyond national politics, she focuses on key debates occurring at the local level among a wide variety of common citizens. In examining this city's social and political fabric, Doody illustrates that domestic anticommunism was a cohesive, multifaceted ideology that arose less from Soviet ideological incursion than from tensions within the American public.