Cynthia L. Gramm

Difficult Choices: Crossing the Picket Line during the 1987 National Football League Strike

This study examines the difficult choice faced by members of a striking bargaining unit between withholding labor or crossing the picket line in violation of the prevailing behavioral norm. Using duration analysis, we test a model of crossing behavior using data on individual football players during the 1987 National Football League strike. A notable finding is that nonwhite players are less willing to cross the picket line if their team union representative is also nonwhite. Willingness to cross the line is also influenced by teammate crossing and proxies for expected career length, demand for current income, and expected benefits from union demands.

New Measures of the Propensity to Strike during Contract Negotiations, 1971–1980

This paper presents new measures—by month, industry, and union—of the percentage of labor contract negotiations in the United States that result in a strike. The measures are derived from a single, comprehensive sample of 6,046 contract negotiations occurring in 1971–80 in bargaining units of 1,000 or more workers. These data are superior to those used in previous studies because they measure strike probabilities (or propensities) directly rather than by proxy. The data show that strikes occurred in 13.25 percent of all negotiations analyzed, but this strike rate varied substantially across years, industries, and unions.

Remedy‐seeking responses to wrongful dismissal

Purpose – This studys purpose is to investigate the antecedents of an employees remedy‐seeking behavioral intentions in response to wrongful dismissal.Design/methodology/approach – Hypotheses generated by two paradigms are tested, the similarity‐attraction and the similarity‐betrayal paradigms, using Tobit regression and data from a scenario‐based survey of employees.Findings – Consistent with the similarity‐attraction paradigm, the management teams racial and deep‐level similarity to the employee both were negatively related to the employees propensity to consult a lawyer. Consistent with the similarity‐betrayal paradigm, the employees propensity to consult a lawyer increased with the supervisors deep‐level similarity to the employee; among men, the propensity to complain to regulatory agencies increased with the management teams gender similarity and the propensity to not seek a remedy declined with the supervisors gender similarity.Research limitations/implications – Limitations of the study in...

Arbitral standards in medical screening grievances

Recent media attention to employers growing use of tests to detect the AIDS virus among employees has revived a longstanding public debate over the approriateness of workplace medical screening. Under current statutory and common law, employers are given considerable latitude to implement medical screening policies. Although Rothstein (1984) has speculated that collective bargaining may provide the strongest protection currently available against the misuse of medical screening by employers, there has been no comprehensive analysis of such protections. This article begins to address that gap in the literature by investigating the standards commonly applied by arbitrators in deciding grievances protesting adverse personnel allocation decisions that allegedly have been based, at least in part, on medical screening.

Remedy-Seeking Responses to Discrimination: Does Management-Employee Similarity Matter?

Abstract Purpose We investigate the effects of management-employee similarity on mistreated employees’ propensities to engage in legal and organizational claiming, to quit, and to not seek a remedy in ongoing employment relationships. Methodology/approach We test hypotheses generated by the similarity-attraction and similarity-betrayal paradigms using Tobit regression and data from vignette-based employee surveys. Findings Mistreated employees with same-sex supervisors are more likely to initiate legal claims and to quit than those with opposite-sex supervisors, but less likely to initiate legal claims and to quit when they have a same-race supervisor than when they have a different-race supervisor. The effects of management-employee similarity on mistreated employees’ remedy-seeking responses exhibit asymmetries by gender and by race. The presence of same-race supervisors or other managers appears to diminish the greater reluctance of nonwhite employees, compared to white employees, to use organizational claiming mechanisms. Originality/value We know of no prior published research that has investigated the determinants of employees’ propensities to engage in multiple forms of remedy seeking, as well as the propensity to not seek a remedy, in response to plausibly illegal mistreatment not involving dismissal.

THE EFFECTS OF USING ALTERNATIVE TYPES OF STAFFING ARRANGEMENTS

Traditionally, hiring indefinite duration contract employees has been the dominant method used by U.S. organizations to staff their labor needs. Indefinite duration contract employees, hereafter referred to as “regular” employees, have three defining characteristics: (1) they are hired directly as employees of the organization whose work they perform; (2) the duration of the employment relationship is unspecified, with a mutual expectation that it will continue as long as it is mutually satisfactory; and (3) the employment relationship provides ongoing – as opposed to intermittent – work. When their demand for labor increases, organizations staffed exclusively by regular employees can respond by having their employees work overtime or by hiring additional regular employees. Conversely, when their demand for labor decreases, such organizations can either maintain “inventories” of excess regular employees or reduce labor inputs by laying-off or reducing the work hours of regular employees.