IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ilrrev/v57y2004i4p493-517.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Union Certification Success under Voting versus Card-Check Procedures: Evidence from British Columbia, 1978–1998

Author

Listed:
  • Chris Riddell

Abstract

The author estimates the impact of compulsory election laws on certification success using data on over 6,500 private sector certifications from British Columbia over the years 1978–98. A unique quasi-experimental design is used by exploiting two changes in the union recognition law: first, in 1984, the introduction of mandatory elections; and second, in 1993, the repeal of elections and their replacement by the original card-check procedure. The author also estimates the effectiveness of management opposition tactics across union recognition regimes. Success rates declined by an average of 19 percentage points during the voting regime, and then increased by about the same amount when card-checks were re-instituted. The results indicate that the mandatory election law can account for virtually the entire decline. In addition, the findings suggest that management opposition was twice as effective under elections as under card-checks.

Suggested Citation

  • Chris Riddell, 2004. "Union Certification Success under Voting versus Card-Check Procedures: Evidence from British Columbia, 1978–1998," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 57(4), pages 493-517, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:57:y:2004:i:4:p:493-517
    DOI: 10.1177/001979390405700402
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001979390405700402
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/001979390405700402?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. Felice Martinello & Ronald Meng, 1992. "Effects of Labor Legislation and Industry Characteristics on Union Coverage in Canada," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 46(1), pages 176-190, October.
    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. John-Paul Ferguson, 2008. "The Eyes of the Needles: A Sequential Model of Union Organizing Drives, 1999–2004," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 62(1), pages 3-21, October.
    2. Scott Legree, Tammy Schirle, Mikal Skuterud, 2014. "The Effect of Labour Relations Laws on Union Density Rates: Evidence from Canadian Provinces," LCERPA Working Papers 0078, Laurier Centre for Economic Research and Policy Analysis, revised 08 Sep 2014.
    3. Chris Briggs, 2007. "Statutory Union Recognition in North America and the UK: Lessons for Australia?," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 17(2), pages 77-97, April.
    4. Bradley R. Weinberg, 2015. "A Quantitative Assessment of the Effect of First Contract Arbitration on Bargaining Relationships," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(3), pages 449-477, July.
    5. Timothy J. Bartkiw, 2008. "Manufacturing Descent? Labour Law and Union Organizing in the Province of Ontario," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 34(1), pages 111-132, March.
    6. J. Ryan Lamare & Patrick Gunnigle & Paul Marginson & Gregor Murray, 2013. "Union Status and Double-Breasting at Multinational Companies in Three Liberal Market Economies," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 66(3), pages 696-722, May.
    7. Henry S. Farber, 2013. "Union Organizing Decisions in a Deteriorating Environment: The Composition of Representation Elections and the Decline in Turnout," Working Papers 577, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    8. Robert Hickey & Sarosh Kuruvilla & Tashlin Lakhani, 2010. "No Panacea for Success: Member Activism, Organizing and Union Renewal," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 48(1), pages 53-83, March.
    9. Chris Riddell, 2013. "Labor Law and Reaching a First Collective Agreement: Evidence From a Quasi-Experimental Set of Reforms in Ontario," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 702-736, July.
    10. Henry S. Farber, 2014. "Union Organizing Decisions in a Deteriorating Environment: The Composition of Representation Elections and the Decline in Turnout," NBER Working Papers 19908, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Michele Campolieti & Chris Riddell & Sara Slinn, 2007. "Labor Law Reform and the Role of Delay in Union Organizing: Empirical Evidence from Canada," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 61(1), pages 32-58, October.
    12. Farber, Henry S, 2014. "Union Organizing Decisions in a Deteriorating Environment: The Composition of Representation Elections and the Decline in Turnout," IZA Discussion Papers 7964, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Scott Legree & Tammy Schirle & Mikal Skuterud, 2017. "The Effect of Labor Relations Laws on Unionization Rates within the Labor Force: Evidence from the Canadian Provinces," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(4), pages 605-639, October.
    14. Michele Campolieti & Rafael Gomez & Morley Gunderson, 2013. "Managerial Hostility and Attitudes Towards Unions: A Canada-US Comparison," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 99-119, March.

    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. Stephanie Lluis, "undated". "Endogenous Choice of Firm Size and the Sturcture of Wages: A Comparison of Canada and the United States," Working Papers 0203, Human Resources and Labor Studies, University of Minnesota (Twin Cities Campus).
    2. Toke Aidt & Zafiris Tzannatos, 2002. "Unions and Collective Bargaining : Economic Effects in a Global Environment," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15241, December.
    3. Budd, John W., 2000. "The effect of strike replacement legislation on employment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 225-247, March.
    4. S Johnson, 1999. "Automatic Certification or Mandatory Representation Votes? How the Choice of Union Recognition Procedure Affects Union Certification Success," Working Papers wp139, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    5. Susan Johnson, 1999. "Automatic Certification or Mandatory Representation Votes? How the choice of union recogntion procedure affects union certification success," Department of Economics Working Papers 1999-06, McMaster University.
    6. Susan Johnson, "undated". "Automatic Certification or Mandatory Representation Votes? How the choice of union recognition procedure affects union certification success," Canadian International Labour Network Working Papers 33, McMaster University.
    7. Stéphanie Lluis, 2009. "The Structure of Wages by Firm Size: A Comparison of Canada and the USA," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 23(2), pages 283-317, June.
    8. Susan Johnson, 2002. "Card Check or Mandatory Representation Vote? How the Type of Union Recognition Procedure Affects Union Certification Success," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 112(479), pages 344-361, April.
    9. Scott Legree & Tammy Schirle & Mikal Skuterud, 2017. "The Effect of Labor Relations Laws on Unionization Rates within the Labor Force: Evidence from the Canadian Provinces," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(4), pages 605-639, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ilrrev:v:57:y:2004:i:4:p:493-517. 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: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu .

    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.