Christopher L. Erickson

The Effect of Employer Networks on Workplace Innovation and Training

If innovative work practices improve performance, why does the intensity of their adoption vary substantially across establishments? Following a lead suggested by some sociological studies, the authors empirically investigate the role of social networks (ties to other organizations) in the organizational learning associated with diffusion of innovative work practices. Using establishment data on formal affiliation and other network measures, they find that managerial participation in networks—specifically, in industry and cross-industry associations, civic organizations, and the internal networks of multi-unit firms—positively affected both the probability that high-performance work practices and employee training programs would be adopted and, where they were adopted, the intensity of their adoption. Furthermore, multiple affiliations raised the likelihood that an establishment would pursue an intensive approach to work reorganization and training.

Justice for Janitors in Los Angeles: Lessons from Three Rounds of Negotiations

We examine an important recent organizing success of the US labour movement: the ‘Justice for Janitors’ campaign in Los Angeles. This campaign has spanned a complete business cycle and shows the union’s capacity for growth over time. It illustrates the potential for unions to overcome pro–employer bias of labour laws, as well as their efficacy in appealing to the wider public. It exposes the importance of building coalitions, as well as the value of union analysis of legal, industrial, and political conditions. Our analysis suggests conditions under which unions might survive and thrive in the service sector in the twenty–first century.

Change and Transformation in Asian Industrial Relations

We argue that industrial relations (IR) systems change due to shifts in the constraints facing those systems and that the most salient constraints facing IR systems in Asia have shifted from those of maintaining labor peace and stability in the early stages of industrialization to those of increasing both numerical and functional flexibility in the 1980s and 1990s. The evidence to sustain this argument is drawn from seven “representative” Asian IR systems: Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, India, and China. We also distinguish between systems that have smoothly adapted (Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines) and systems that have fundamentally transformed (China and South Korea) and hypothesize about the reasons for this difference.

An Assessment of the Singapore Skills Development System: Does it Constitute a Viable Model for Other Developing Countries?

Abstract In this paper, we briefly describe the institutional background of Singapores successful national skills development model. We devise a tentative framework to evaluate national level skills development efforts, and we use it to assess the Singapore model. We argue that the model has the potential to move constantly toward higher skills equilibria. We question however, the long-term sustainability of the model, and whether it is transferable to other developing countries. We conclude with some principles that other countries might use in organizing their own skills development systems.

Industrial Relations System Transformation

The authors use two models from biological science—the evolutionary model of gradual adaptation, and the contrasting punctuated equilibrium theory that posits occasional periods of rapid, fundamental change punctuating longer periods of stability—to define industrial relations system “transformation” and explore its implications. An industrial relations system can be said to have undergone transformation, they argue, when the network of basic assumptions and principles underlying that system, or its “deep structure,” is changed, and such change can occur either through gradual adaptation or through abrupt revolution. They apply this conceptual framework to industrial relations system changes in Sweden, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United States.

Labor Costs and the Social Dumping Debate in the European Union

This study examines the labor cost incentive for capital movement in manufacturing within the European Union, a key aspect of the “social dumping” debate in Western Europe. The authors find that the percentage differences in unit labor costs between the more developed and less developed countries in the Union not only were large in 1980 but actually grew between 1980 and 1986, and separate estimates of compensation and productivity growth rates do not indicate that significant convergence occurred over the remainder of the 1980s. Although these findings apparently confirm that a labor cost incentive for capital mobility does exist, analysis of foreign direct investment data indicates that during the period 1980–88 capital flows to the lower labor cost countries actually were not much larger than capital flows to the higher labor cost countries.

A Re-Interpretation of Pattern Bargaining

Most recent studies investigating pattern bargaining have sought to establish its presence or absence by statistically comparing summary measures of wage levels or growth rates across and within industries. The author of this study argues that a better measure of the existence of pattern bargaining over wages is the degree of similarity of collective bargaining contract clauses—the usual focus of negotiators when they engage in pattern-following. Using that criterion, he analyzes UAW and IAM collective bargaining agreements in the automobile, aerospace, and agricultural implement industries for the years 1970–95. He finds evidence that a strong wage pattern existed at both the inter- and intra-industry levels in the 1970s, but that this pattern weakened in the 1980s. Among the major automobile industry bargaining pairs, however, a strong intra-industry pattern returned in the late 1980s.

From Core to Periphery? Recent Developments in Employment Relations in the Philippines

We seek to describe recent developments in employment relations in the Philippines, placing these developments in the contexts of the distinctive elements of the Philippine social/political/industrial relations systems as well as the ongoing trade-based and functional integration of international markets and the recent regional economic crisis. We find that, while some firms are pursuing functional flexibility and more cooperative employment relations, the logic of competition has primarily induced firms to adopt practices that promote numerical flexibility such that a core-periphery workforce is created. We argue that the labor movement in the Philippines has been hampered in its efforts to effectively counter employer strategies by its low density, its fragmentation, and an unfavorable public policy environment; Philippine labor unions have, however, made some recent gains in organizing and inter-union coordination. We also argue that governments, both national and regional, have not done enough to counteract the negative effects of market integration on workers nor to evolve the Philippines into a higher value-added exporter.

Wage Rule Formation in the Aerospace Industry

This study of wage bargaining in the aerospace industry focuses particularly on lump sum bonuses, one-time cash disbursements that generally accompany lower increases in the base wage than were formerly standard. Although such bonuses, which appeared in aerospace companies before they appeared in other large manufacturing industries, were viewed as a union concession, they persisted into the 1989 bargaining round despite a sharp upturn in the fortunes of the most prominent aerospace company. The author regards that fact, as well as the weakening of both inter- and intra-industry pattern bargaining, as support for the view that a significant shift in union wage determination occurred in the 1980s. He argues, however, based on interviews with managers, union officials, and workers, that consensus has not yet been achieved on the meaning of this shift.

The concept of wage-push inflation: development and policy

Concepts of wage-push inflation and wage–price spirals arose after unions became important economic actors in the 1930s and during World War II. These concepts, although never rigorously defined, became the basis of the Kennedy–Johnson guideposts program. Even after the guideposts collapsed, there were attempts to constrain wage-push directly under Nixon and Carter. Thereafter, when union membership collapsed, concerns about wage-push by aggressive unions became implausible in the USA.