Adrienne E. Eaton

The Effectiveness of Health and Safety Committees: Results of a Survey of Public‐Sector Workplaces The Effectiveness of Health and Safety Committees

This study examines the effectiveness of occupational safety and health committees within the public sector of New Jersey. Survey data collected from work-site representatives were matched with state-collected reports of injury and illnesses. While there remain methodological problems with this approach, the results indicate that committee scope and training play a positive role in perceptions of committee effectiveness and that committees with more worker involvement are associated with fewer reported illnesses and injuries.

The Survival of Employee Participation Programs in Unionized Settings

Data from two surveys are analyzed to identify determinants of the survival of participative programs in unionized settings. The first survey responses were collected in 1987 from local union representatives of 86 bargaining units involved in a participation program; the second were collected from 66 of those same representatives, as well as 49 of their management counterparts, three years later. A surprisingly low failure rate of approximately 20–30% was reported. The results indicate that the perspectives of managers and union representatives differed sharply. For example, union representatives, but not managers, often ascribed program failure to poor labor-management relations and concessionary bargaining; and union respondents were considerably more likely than management respondents to perceive a program as defunct.

UNION ORGANIZING UNDER NEUTRALITY AND CARD CHECK AGREEMENTS

Collectively bargained language concerning union organizing has become increasingly common. Typically included in such language is the employers agreement to remain neutral in the organizing process, or to recognize unions based on card checks by neutral third parties (as an alternative to NLRB elections), or both. The authors examine the content of and organizing experience under 118 separate written agreements of this kind. They find strong evidence that card check agreements reduced management campaigning, as well as the use of illegal tactics such as discharges and promises of benefits, and also substantially increased the union recognition rate. Neutrality alone apparently had much less effect, but agreements containing only neutrality provisions have sometimes led to card check agreements. Two less common provisions of organizing agreements that appear to have increased organizing success were campaign time limits and requirements that employers provide unions with employee lists.

The Impact of Quality of Work Life Programs and Grievance System Effectiveness on Union Commitment

Based on an analysis of data from a 1987 survey of four different bargaining units within the same local union, the authors conclude that union members who participated in Quality of Work Life (QWL) programs were less likely than nonparticipants to view QWL as a threat to the union, and also more loyal to the union. Another finding, however, is that the perceived effectiveness of the grievance procedure was a much stronger determinant of attitudes toward the union than was participation in QWL programs—leading the authors to speculate that one way for unions to strengthen their ties with their members might be to improve the effectiveness of the grievance procedure.

The Extent and Determinants of Local Union Control of Participative Programs.

This paper examines the responses of 86 local unions to participative programs such as Employee Involvement. Representatives of the unions were surveyed regarding the level of union involvement in and control over programs in their workplaces. Survey results indicate that there is significant variation among local unions in the level of control achieved. Multivariate analysis suggests that union control over participative programs is less a function of bargaining power than of local union resources, international union policies toward participative programs, and perceptions of the threat the program poses to the union.

Bargaining Theory Meets Interest-Based Negotiations: A Case Study

This is a case study of the 2005 national contract negotiations between Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. Given the scale and complexity of these negotiations, their successful completion provides an exemplar for collective bargaining in this country. In 1997 Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions formed a labor management partnership, and negotiations were structured around the principles of interest-based negotiation (IBN). Drawing on direct observation of all parts of the bargaining process, interviews with individuals from Kaiser and the Coalition of Unions, and surveys we conducted after bargaining was completed, we conclude that the parties employed a mix of interest-based and traditional negotiation processes across an array of integrative and distributive issues. We find that IBN techniques were used extensively and successfully to reach mutually satisfying agreements when the parties shared interests. When interests were in greater conflict, the parties resorted to more traditional, positional tactics to reach resolution. Strong intra-organizational conflicts limited the use of IBN and favored the use of more traditional positional bargaining. While a high level of trust enabled and supported the use of IBN, tensions that developed limited the use of IBN and required surfacing and release before either IBN or more traditional positional processes could proceed effectively. The use of IBN tools helped the parties apply the principles underlying the partnership in which these negotiations were embedded. We conclude that IBN served as a way of applying or operationalizing integrative bargaining and affected the process dynamics in ways the Walton and McKersie theory predicted. As such we see IBN as techniques that neither displace nor render obsolete other aspects of bargaining theory or practice but that show considerable promise for helping collective bargaining to address the complex issues and challenges found in contemporary employment relationships.

Member support for union mergers: An analysis of an affiliation referendum

A changing labor relations climate has caused many national unions to merge with smaller independent unions in recent years. One aspect of the merger process concerns the willingness of independent union members to support affiliation with a national union (Chaison, 1986). This article examines the determinants of indivudual-level voting behavior using data gathered from members of an independent union who rejected a proposed affiliation with a national union in a membership referendum. Logistic regression results indicate that affiliation supporters perceived the affiliation as improving union effectiveness, were influenced by social support among co-workers in favor of the merger, and perceived the saliency of the independent union’s support for the affiliation proposal. Conversely, affiliation opposition was influenced by the employer’s “vote no” campaign and by perceptions that affiliation would lead to an increased probability of strikes and to future increases in dues.

The Potential and Precariousness of Partnership: The Case of the Kaiser Permanente Labor Management Partnership

In 1997, the Kaiser Foundation Health Care and Hospitals, the Permanente Medical Federation, and a coalition of unions signed a national agreement creating one of the most ambitious labor management partnerships in U.S. history, initially covering some 58,000 employees. Based on field research and archival data, this paper analyzes the first eight years of this partnership in light of three strategic challenges—initiating, governing, and sustaining partnership—and the organizational challenge of partnership in a highly decentralized organization.

Nlrb Elections versus Card Check Campaigns: Results of a Worker Survey

The authors evaluate policy arguments for and against the use of card check as a method to determine union recognition. The results of an analysis of data from telephone surveys of 430 workers who had been through the NLRB election or card check campaigns of six unions in 2003 indicate that there was little undue union pressure to support unionization in card check campaigns, and that management pressure on workers to oppose unionization was considerably greater than pressure from co-workers or organizers to support the union in both card checks and elections. The authors also find that although workers in card checks do appear to have had somewhat less information about unions and about the recognition process than workers in elections, workers who felt they had insufficient information to make a decision about unionization tended not to sign cards.

Managerial Unionism: Prospects and Forms

Surveys demonstrate that U.S. managers, like other workers, want greater voice at work. Many have joined organizations that repre sent employee interests: caucuses based on social identity, pressure groups, and professional associations. In varying degrees, these organizations use old union tactics such as mutual aid, skill-certi fication, and political activity. All these organizations have seri ous limitations. For the benefit of both managers and unions them selves, unions should increase their outreach to these organiza tions and employees. Public-sector unions often include some managers so they provide one model. However, methods of repre sentation beyond collective bargaining are important here. Ad equate representation of managers requires return to Sidney and Beatrice Webbs conception of unions as any continuous associa tion of employees seeking to improve their working lives.