Jack Fiorito

National Union Effectiveness in Organizing: Measures and Influences

The percentage of the U.S. work force that is unionized is at its lowest level in more than 50 years. Although many studies have sought the reasons for this decline, few have investigated characteristics of unions themselves as possible factors. This paper focuses on unions as organizations, and applies a model of national union effectiveness to union organizing. The authors propose a composite measure of organizing effectiveness that goes beyond union success in representation elections. An analysis of data from the 1990 National Union Survey and other sources, with controls for environmental influences, suggests that organizing effectiveness is enhanced by innovation and reduced by centralization of control at the national level. Some evidence is also found that internal union democracy enhances union success in organizing.

The Effect of Union Characteristics on the Outcome of NLRB Certification Elections

This paper examines the determinants of National Labor Relations Board certification election outcomes in individual election units between 1972 and 1980. Particular emphasis is given to the role of national union characteristics in determining union success or failure. The authors find that union success in organizing both blue- and white-collar workers is influenced positively by union size and internal democracy and negatively by strike activity and the centralization of its decision making. Benefits provided directly to members by unions significantly increase, and higher dues significantly reduce, white-collar organizing success, whereas the same factors have no significant effect on blue-collar organizing.

Market and nonmarket influences on curriculum choice by college students

Many labor economists and other researchers have attempted to develop models of the workings of the market for college-trained manpower. This paper reviews this previous research on curriculum choice and then tests an alternative model with data on choices made by male baccalaureates across a wide spectrum of science and engineering curricula. The influence of both methodology and the analytical framework on the identification of relevant variables is explored. Particular attention is then given to nonmarket influences, typically assumed in previous studies not to play a significant role. Results for pooled and time-series specifications provide some support for the hypothesis that curriculum choice follows labor market developments, but they also suggest that abilities and interests may be important predictors.

Gender differences in union membership, preferences, and beliefs

This study uses moderated regression analysis and two major sources of individual data to examine gender differences in union membership, pro-union voting intent, union instrumentality, and relative confidence in union leaders. Some specific male-female differences are noted, particularly involving union-related variables. Overall, however, the authors report a minimal role for gender as a determinant of the alternative union-related measures examined.

Planning for Change: Determinants of Innovation in U.S. National Unions

Although it is commonly argued that unions need to innovate in order to grow and achieve success, little is known about the characteristics of unions that facilitate or hinder innovation. The authors of this study develop a model of union innovation and test it using data collected from many sources, including a 1990 survey of 275 officials and staff members from 111 American national unions. The results suggest that certain union characteristics, such as environmental monitoring (systematic monitoring by the union of developments that could affect it) and rationalization (good structuring and management of administrative activities), are positively associated with innovative behavior. In addition, there is a positive relationship between innovation and the heterogeneity of a unions members.

Political instrumentality perceptions and desires for union representation

This paper examines the concept of union instrumentality in light of theoretical literature and contemporary trends in union political activity. A broad concept of union instrumentality, including a place for the concept of union political instrumentality (e.g., union influence on general elections or legislation), is suggested. The practical importance and applicability of the political instrumentality concept is demonstrated in empirical models of nonunion worker voting intent in union representation elections. As predicted, workers perceiving higher levels of union political instrumentality are significantly more likely than others to indicate a pro-union voting intent. Given the importance of political versus economic activity as a defining characteristic of labor movements and given recent increases in political activity by U.S. unions, these results have significant implications for the way we think about U.S. unions and for future union organizing and political activities.

The Effects of Union Organizational and Environmental Characteristics on Union Political Action

It is well known that organized labor is politically active. Few studies, however, have examined labors political activities or assessed the extent of interunion differences in political action. This study partially fills these research gaps by empirically analyzing the involvement of individual unions in electoral and legislative activities over the years 1978-82. The results suggest that union-specific characteristics influence union political action and, tentatively, that unions make trade-offs between political activity and other activities, such as organizing.

Union Commitment and Activism in Britain and the United States: Searching for Synthesis and Synergy for Renewal

We propose a fuller synthesis between two relatively disjointed literatures to create synergy. Union commitment research has a long tradition and a relatively rigorous orientation grounded in industrial psychology. Recently, it has been eclipsed by emerging research on union renewal, and specifically that on union organizing. Renewal research has largely ignored union commitment research even though union renewal literature stresses the importance of activism, and this concept is strongly linked to commitment. A critical synthesis of these literatures yields progress in terms of addressing key qualitative and quantitative aspects of the contemporary crisis of labour unionism. A tentative framework is constructed that stipulates the main components and variables, and offers guidance for future research.

Unions and Information Technology: From Luddites to Cyberunions?

Survey data are used to examine the use of, and views about, infor mation technology (IT) among U.S. national unions. Usable responses were received from nearly two-thirds of such unions. In addition to de scriptive information regarding IT use in national unions, this paper ten tatively explores both the causes and consequences of IT use. While IT use of some sort is found to be nearly universal, there is considerable variation across unions in the use of many forms of IT (e.g., e-mail, websites, video conferences) and in the areas to which IT is applied (e.g., bargaining, organizing, communicating with current members). However, a vast majority of survey respondents feel that IT has improved service and overall efficiency at their unions, and that continued IT emphasis is critical to union success. Results show preliminary support for most hypotheses concerning possible causes and consequences of IT use by unions.

Union Characteristics and Bargaining Outcomes

This paper investigates the impact of union militancy, size, centralization, and democracy on wages, fringe benefits, and other bargaining outcomes. Using data on bargaining outcomes at the bargaining unit level in conjunction with data on comparative union characteristics, the authors find strong evidence that union characteristics affect bargaining outcomes. Determining the exact nature of those effects is complicated by several problems—notably, the difficulty of distinguishing effects on outcomes from effects on goals, the possibility of reverse causality, and complex interactions between such organizational characteristics as democracy and centralization. The findings do suggest, however, that organizational complexity reduces union bargaining effectiveness, whereas democracy and centralization tend to change the shape of outcomes as opposed to their size.