IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ratsoc/v26y2014i4p446-474.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Involuntary disputes: When competition for members forces smaller unions to strike

Author

Listed:
  • Agnes Akkerman

Abstract

Industrial relations theory has produced two conflicting hypotheses on the effects of multi-unionism on the incidence of industrial conflict. International comparative research proposes that unions organizing the same worker domains are prone to competition, for which industrial conflict is used as a means of propaganda. British economic research claims that unions organizing substitutable workers cooperate and act as one union. This study argues that apparent cooperation is not always voluntary action but is sometimes the result of a loss of autonomy caused by competition and a lack of mobilization power. Micro-level data on industrial action are used to test hypotheses of the conditions for such involuntary participation in labor disputes.

Suggested Citation

  • Agnes Akkerman, 2014. "Involuntary disputes: When competition for members forces smaller unions to strike," Rationality and Society, , vol. 26(4), pages 446-474, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:26:y:2014:i:4:p:446-474
    DOI: 10.1177/1043463114546312
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1043463114546312
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1043463114546312?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Horn, Henrik & Wolinsky, Asher, 1988. "Worker Substitutability and Patterns of Unionisation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 98(391), pages 484-497, June.
    2. Ashenfelter, Orley & Johnson, George E, 1969. "Bargaining Theory, Trade Unions, and Industrial Strike Activity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(1), pages 35-49, March.
    3. Marjolein Achterkamp & Agnes Akkerman, 2003. "Identifying Latent Conflict in Collective Bargaining," Rationality and Society, , vol. 15(1), pages 15-43, February.
    4. Hoyt N. Wheeler, 1984. "Determinants of Strikes," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 37(2), pages 263-269, January.
    5. Kirsten Thommes & Agnes Akkerman & René Torenvlied & Marieke Born, 2014. "The dark side of solidarity: social norms and social relations in the aftermath of strikes," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 348-367, July.
    6. Tracy, Joseph S, 1987. "An Empirical Test of an Asymmetric Information Model of Strikes," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(2), pages 149-173, April.
    7. Oswald, Andrew J, 1979. "Wage Determination in an Economy with Many Trade Unions," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 31(3), pages 369-385, November.
    8. Byoung Heon Jun, 1989. "Non-cooperative Bargaining and Union Formation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 56(1), pages 59-76.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jon Las Heras & Lluis Rodríguez, 2021. "Striking to Renew: Basque Unions’ Organizing Strategies and Use of the Strike‐Fund," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(3), pages 669-700, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kyung nok Chun & Zachary Schaller & Stergios Skaperdas, 2020. "Why Are There Strikes?," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 130(6), pages 929-956.
    2. Kuhn, Peter & Gu, Wulong, 1998. "Centralization and strikes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 243-265, September.
    3. Kuhn, Peter & Gu, Wulong, 1999. "Learning in Sequential Wage Negotiations: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(1), pages 109-140, January.
    4. S Milner, 1995. "Industrial Disputes and the Law in Spain," CEP Discussion Papers dp0250, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    5. repec:eee:labchp:v:2:y:1986:i:c:p:1039-1089 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Bughin, Jacques & Vannini, Stefano, 1995. "Strategic direct investment under unionized oligopoly," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 127-145, March.
    7. Hyung Bae, 2005. "Impact of labour unions on the merger incentive of firms," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(1), pages 91-94.
    8. Westermark, A., 1999. "A Model of Union Formation," Papers 1999:8, Uppsala - Working Paper Series.
    9. Goerke, Laszlo & Schnabel, Claus, 2002. "On strike insurance," Discussion Papers 12, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    10. Inderst, Roman & Wey, Christian, 2003. "Bargaining, Mergers, and Technology Choice in Bilaterally Oligopolistic Industries," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 34(1), pages 1-19, Spring.
    11. Binmore, Ken & Osborne, Martin J. & Rubinstein, Ariel, 1992. "Noncooperative models of bargaining," Handbook of Game Theory with Economic Applications, in: R.J. Aumann & S. Hart (ed.), Handbook of Game Theory with Economic Applications, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 7, pages 179-225, Elsevier.
    12. Klaas J. Beniers & Robert A.J. Dur, 2003. "Product Market Competition and Trade Union Structure," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 03-005/1, Tinbergen Institute, revised 26 Aug 2003.
    13. Stennek, Johan, 2015. "Why Unions Reduce Wage Inequality, II: The Relation between Solidarity and Unity," Working Papers in Economics 625, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    14. William H. Greene & Ana P. Martins, 2002. "Striking Features of the Labor Market," EERI Research Paper Series EERI RP 2002/08, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
    15. Peter Cramton & Morley Gunderson & Joseph Tracy, 1999. "The Effect Of Collective Bargaining Legislation On Strikes And Wages," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(3), pages 475-487, August.
    16. Jean-Paul Azam & Claire Salmon, 2004. "Strikes and Political Activism of Trade Unions: Theory and Application to Bangladesh," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 119(3_4), pages 311-334, June.
    17. Calvo-Armengol, Antoni, 1999. "A note on three-player noncooperative bargaining with restricted pairwise meetings," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 47-54, October.
    18. Karl Ove Moene & Michael Wallerstein, 1993. "The Economic Performance of Different Bargaining Institutions," Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft - WuG, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik, vol. 19(4), pages 423-450.
    19. de la Croix, David, 1994. "Wage Interdependence through Decentralized Bargaining," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(4), pages 371-403, December.
    20. William H. Greene & Ana P. Martins, 2013. "Striking Features of the Labor Market: Theory," Journal of Economics and Econometrics, Economics and Econometrics Society, vol. 56(2), pages 1-24.
    21. Suchan Chae & Paul Heidhues, 1999. "Bargaining Power of a Coalition in Parallel Bargaining: Advantage of Multiple Cable System Operators," CIG Working Papers FS IV 99-01, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), Research Unit: Competition and Innovation (CIG).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:26:y:2014:i:4:p:446-474. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.