IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ilrrev/v62y2008i1p3-21.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Eyes of the Needles: A Sequential Model of Union Organizing Drives, 1999–2004

Author

Listed:
  • John-Paul Ferguson

Abstract

This paper models three stages of the union organizing drive, using a new dataset covering more than 22,000 drives that took place between 1999 and 2004. The correlated sequential model tracks drives through all of their potential stages: holding an election, winning an election, and reaching first contracts. Only one-seventh of organizing drives that filed an election petition with the NLRB managed to reach a first contract within a year of certification. The model, which controls for the endogeneity of unfair labor practice (ULP) charges, finds that a ULP charge was associated with a 30% smaller cumulative chance of reaching such a contract. ULP charges had less effect on the votes cast than on the decision to hold an election and the ability to reach a first contract. A sequential model such as this one could be extended to test between some competing theories about the determinants of union organizing.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:62:y:2008:i:1:p:3-21
    DOI: 10.1177/001979390806200101
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001979390806200101
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/001979390806200101?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. Richard B. Freeman, 2005. "What Do Unions Do?-- The 2004 M-Brane Stringtwister Edition," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 26(4), pages 641-668, November.
    2. Patrick Waelbroeck, 2005. "Computational Issues in the Sequential Probit Model: A Monte Carlo Study," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 26(2), pages 141-161, October.
    3. 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.
    4. Flanagan, Robert J, 1989. "Compliance and Enforcement Decisions under the National Labor Relations Act," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 7(3), pages 257-280, July.
    5. Chuanming Gao & Kajal Lahiri & Bernard Wixon, 2000. "Value of Sample Separation Information in a Sequential Probit Model: Another Look at SSA's Disability Determination Process," Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers 0340, Econometric Society.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. 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..
    2. Lucas Ronconi, 2010. "Enforcement and Compliance with Labor Regulations in Argentina," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 63(4), pages 719-736, July.
    3. 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.
    4. Berlemann, Michael & Zimmermann, Klaus W., 2010. "They don't get me I'm part of the union: Trade unions in the German parliament," HWWI Research Papers 2-16, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI).
    5. ArnabK. Basu & NancyH. Chau & Ravi Kanbur, 2010. "Turning a Blind Eye: Costly Enforcement, Credible Commitment and Minimum Wage Laws," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(543), pages 244-269, March.
    6. Patrice Laroche & Heidi Wechtler, 2011. "The Effects of Labor Unions on Workplace Performance: New Evidence from France," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 157-180, June.
    7. 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.
    8. Christelis, Dimitris & Georgarakos, Dimitris & Haliassos, Michael, 2009. "Stockholding: From participation to location and to participation spillovers," CFS Working Paper Series 2009/02, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    9. Song, Yang & Yang, Jidong & Yang, Qijing, 2016. "Do firms' political connections depress the union wage effect? Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 183-198.
    10. 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.
    11. Dong, Zhiqiang & Luo, Zijun & Wei, Xiahai, 2016. "Social insurance with Chinese characteristics: The role of communist party in private firms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 40-51.
    12. Laroche, Patrice, 2020. "Unions, Collective Bargaining and Firm Performance," GLO Discussion Paper Series 728, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    13. Addison, John T. & Bailey, Ralph & Siebert, W. Stanley, 2009. "Wage Dispersion in a Partially Unionized Labor Force," IZA Discussion Papers 4202, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Fraisse, H. & Kramarz, F. & Prost, C., 2009. "Labor Court Inputs, Judicial Cases Outcomes and Labor Flows: Identifying Real EPL," Working papers 256, Banque de France.
    15. 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.
    16. Gebrenegus Ghilagaber & Paraskevi Peristera, 2014. "Sequential probit modelling of family and community effects on educational progress among children to Polish and Turkish immigrants in Sweden," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 3243-3252, November.
    17. Vassilis Monastiriotis, 2007. "Union Retreat and Regional Economic Performance: The UK Experience," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 143-156.
    18. Morris M. Kleiner & David Weil, 2010. "Evaluating the Effectiveness of National Labor Relations Act Remedies: Analysis and Comparison with Other Workplace Penalty Policies," NBER Working Papers 16626, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Elisabetta Magnani & David Prentice, 2010. "Outsourcing And Unionization: A Tale Of Misallocated (Resistance) Resources," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(2), pages 460-482, April.
    20. John Schmitt & Alexandra Mitukiewicz, 2012. "Politics matter: changes in unionisation rates in rich countries, 1960–2010," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 260-280, May.

    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:62:y:2008:i:1:p:3-21. 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.