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1 – 10 of over 27000Semoon Chang and Lynn Robinson
This paper tests the hypothesis that there is a significant gap in perception between union members and their potential employers regarding the role of labor unions and the…
Abstract
This paper tests the hypothesis that there is a significant gap in perception between union members and their potential employers regarding the role of labor unions and the quality of work performed by union members. The test is based on a questionnaire survey of 1,094 union members of whom 323 returned the questionnaire, and 771 businesses of which 210 responded to the survey. All respondents were located in the Mobile (Alabama) metropolitan area. Our survey indicates that there is a significant gap inperception between the two groups regarding the skill and training levels, wages, and the quality of work done by union workers.
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The aim of the paper is to investigate the effect of labor strength on stock price crash risk and related moderating mechanisms.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the paper is to investigate the effect of labor strength on stock price crash risk and related moderating mechanisms.
Design/methodology/approach
To examine the relationship between labor unions and stock price crash risk and, more importantly, whether corporate governance moderates this relationship. Ordinary least squares (OLS), two-stage least squares, cross-sectional analyses, industry-level regressions and firm-level regressions are conducted.
Findings
The results suggest a negative impact of labor union strength on stock price crash risk. Further analysis suggests strong corporate governance mechanisms may mitigate the increased stock price crash risk in less-unionized firms.
Originality/value
Labor unions have a long-term horizon in the firm and have strong incentives to monitor managerial opportunism. However, labor unions may also increase financial reporting opacity and collude with managers to gain bargaining power in labor negotiations. The authors’ finding suggests that labor union strength is negatively associated with stock price crash risk. This finding is consistent with the notion that labor unions curb managerial opportunism in information disclosure, resulting in reduced crash risk. More importantly, the authors find corporate governance mitigates the negative impact of reduced unionization on crash risk, providing empirical support for recent regulatory efforts to strengthen corporate governance to prevent stock market crash.
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Sun Wook Chung and Hyunji Kwon
The present study seeks to trace the unionization process of a global top 10 video game company (Company N) in which workers formed the first enterprise union in South Korea's…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study seeks to trace the unionization process of a global top 10 video game company (Company N) in which workers formed the first enterprise union in South Korea's game sector. Drawing upon the analytical framework of Kelly's (1998) mobilization theory, the authors investigated what motivated workers to form a union and what factors facilitated unionization.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a qualitative research method on a single case study basis. The authors collected 41 in-depth interviews with game developers, full-time union staff from the case company and union leaders in their affiliated union, as well as game journalists, labour attorneys, and human resource professionals in the video game industry. The authors had their original data supplemented and triangulated by archival data including union letters and other documents and media reports. They analysed the data using computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS).
Findings
There are three key findings. First, in the game sector, a high barrier against unionization exists, arising from industry characteristics such as a project-based work system, high mobility, reputation-based hiring, meritocracy, and a continuous influx of game-loving young developers. Hence, although the time was ripe for worker activism, latent grievances failed to be converted into real collective mobilization, resulting in non-organized workplaces for the past decades. Second, the mandatory labour-management negotiations arising from a legal change acted as a key catalyst for unionization at Company N. The newly elected three employee representatives came to identify and develop their own collective interests through the direct experience of negotiations, which greatly augmented their negative emotions and improved their legal consciousness. These three representatives could identify numerous deep-rooted problems, attribute these problems to their employer, and realize that they are ordinary salaried workers different from their employer. Going through the three-month negotiation and post-negotiation period, a set of ordinary game developers transformed themselves into natural union leaders who started a union in the game industry, which was traditionally non-organized. Third, various layers of external factors, such as a sister union, the upper umbrella union, the changed socio-political atmosphere following the candlelight protests for presidential impeachment, and the improved union image facilitated the unionization at Company N.
Practical implications
This study offers practical implications to governments, union activists, and employers in the game sector and more broadly in the tech industry, where labour-management conflicts are escalating across the globe.
Originality/value
Our study of a rare unionization event in the difficult game sector offers a nuanced understanding of mobilization and its process. Theoretically, by introducing the dynamic process of natural leader emergence and spontaneous union formation in a young industry where neither pre-existing leadership nor extant union influence exists, this study suggests that the mobilization process is more complex and variegated than suggested by Kelly's study and subsequent studies. Therefore, this study can advance the current discussion of mobilization mechanisms in the field of industrial relations. Our study also contributes to current research by introducing collective mobilization in a new context, i.e. the young, dynamic game industry in a non-Western country, which is a context that has been under-studied thus far.
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Nathan Lillie and Miguel Martínez Lucio
Capital, through its practices and narratives of global competition, is able to play unions in different locations off against one another through the construction and…
Abstract
Purpose
Capital, through its practices and narratives of global competition, is able to play unions in different locations off against one another through the construction and exploitation of difference. Trade unions and their activists have responded through formal institutional responses and with new forms of network‐based cooperation which is, at best, limited to action supported by the interests of union actors involved at a given juncture. This article seeks to argue that these forms of organizational responses are in themselves insufficient to allow unions to overcome the prisoner's dilemma inherent in their operating at a lower geographic level than capital.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper brings together ideas and insights from various interventions made by the authors and is a based on a review of a large part of the literature.
Findings
To regain control over labour markets would require either more systematic and structured union organizations of a transnational scope or a more concerted attempt at new forms of networking and the construction of a convincing radical counter‐narrative to that of global capitalist competition. The paper also argues that on close inspection the internationalization of capital itself exhibits significant Achilles Heels and may actually facilitate these new labour developments.
Practical implications
The paper argues that trade unions need to build their international coordinating strategies through a range of democratic and participative approaches. It also claims that transnational corporations are much more exposed by globalization than many commentators admit, trade unions and worker activists can and do exploit these gaps.
Social implications
The power of transnational corporations fails to create consistent regimes of regulation and social progress. These in turn create a series of evasive strategies that do not contribute to consistent international dialogue.
Originality/value
The article asserts that the network structure of transnational labour unionism is in itself an ineffective response to capitalist globalization and the narrative of global competition.
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This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and…
Abstract
This book is a policy proposal aimed at the democratic left. It is concerned with gradual but radical reform of the socio‐economic system. An integrated policy of industrial and economic democracy, which centres around the establishment of a new sector of employee‐controlled enterprises, is presented. The proposal would retain the mix‐ed economy, but transform it into a much better “mixture”, with increased employee‐power in all sectors. While there is much of enduring value in our liberal western way of life, gross inequalities of wealth and power persist in our society.
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Dmytro Osiichuk, Paweł Mielcarz and Julia Kavalenka
Relying on an international panel data set, the purpose of this paper is to quantify the economic impact of labor unionization on corporate financial performance.
Abstract
Purpose
Relying on an international panel data set, the purpose of this paper is to quantify the economic impact of labor unionization on corporate financial performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Static panel regression analysis is performed for a firm-level multinational data set to elucidate the postulated empirical relationships between employee unionization and corporate performance. The transmission mechanisms intermediating the studied effects are discussed and operationalized.
Findings
The empirical evidence demonstrates that firms with a higher level of employee unionization spend more on wages and labor-related expenses. The concomitant downside of higher resource extraction by unions is a lower rate of net employment creation and a higher possibility of redundancy layoffs.
Originality/value
Overall, the authors demonstrate that by creating a credible threat of employee disobedience manifested through strikes and internal wage disputes, labor unions remain an effective mechanism of increasing employees’ bargaining power. Despite the discovered weak negative associative link between the degree of unionization and corporate financial performance, the authors perceive the overall evidence to be inconclusive on this matter.
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Enhua Hu, Maolong Zhang, Hongmei Shan, Long Zhang and Yaqing Yue
The purpose of this paper is to offer empirical evidence on whether and how the work experiences of employees in China influence their union-related attitudes and behaviours.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer empirical evidence on whether and how the work experiences of employees in China influence their union-related attitudes and behaviours.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors developed a mediated moderation model to examine how job satisfaction and labour relations climate interactively affect union participation and whether union commitment mediates the interactive effects. A total of 585 employees from enterprises in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi and Fujian province of China were surveyed to verify the model.
Findings
Job satisfaction was negatively related to union participation and union commitment. Labour relations climate moderated the relationship between job satisfaction and union participation; the relationship was negative and stronger when employees perceived an adverse, rather than a favourable, labour relations climate. Further, the interactive effect of job satisfaction and labour relations climate on union participation was partly mediated by union commitment.
Originality/value
By empirically examining employees’ attitudes and behaviours towards unions in the Chinese context, this study confirms that unions could provide employees with alternative work resources to cope with job dissatisfaction, even in a country where unions play a “transmission belt” role between employees and employers. This study adds value to the existing base of knowledge on union practice and labour relations construction, both inside and outside of China.
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The need for studying labor relations within Palestinian institutions stems from the special nature of the labor union movement in the occupied territories. The political aims of…
Abstract
The need for studying labor relations within Palestinian institutions stems from the special nature of the labor union movement in the occupied territories. The political aims of these labor unions overshadow their economic aims (Quatamish, 1989) which affected the relations between labor and management and development for the present form of the collective bargaining. Is it possible for the management of an institution with an organized labor union to establish a relationship with the union council that can achieve the objectives of the institution while benefiting both parties? What factors influence such relations? In what direction can these relations be expected to develop in coming years? The purpose of this study is to answer these questions and find out the impact of environmental factors upon the economic aims of an organization, the interests of its employees, and the social responsibility of the organization.
Brian P. Heshizer and Harry J. Martin
Analysis of the responses of 131 local union officers to a questionnaire found that a number of variables are related to the attitudes of union leaders toward quality of worklife…
Abstract
Analysis of the responses of 131 local union officers to a questionnaire found that a number of variables are related to the attitudes of union leaders toward quality of worklife (QWL). Unions are morelikely to participate in a QWL program if local officers feel that unions can influence government policy, their members expect them to make progress on QWL issues, and if it is important to have good local‐member relations. Unions are less likely to participate in a QWL program if officers believe that unions are strong, feel employers favor severe tactics, and place a priority on traditional bargaining issues. For unions involved in a QWL program, union strength and perceived influence over government policy were related to positive attitudes regarding the long‐term future of QWL. For unions without QWL experience,severe management policies toward unions, and higher member expectations for local performance on QWL issues were related to more favorable attitudes toward QWL, while the officer’s tenure in position was related to a less favorable view of QWL. For locals involved in a QWL program, satisfaction with QWL increases if officers feel the labor movement needs to change its attitude and approach to problems, the labor relations climate is favorable, the local has sufficient bargaining power, and the overall performance of the local is satisfactory. The results suggest that “get tough” management policies toward unions will negatively affect union participation in and satisfaction with QWL efforts.
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Popular accounts of the labor movement suggest that unions have become weak organizations. There are, however, trends that indicate laborʼs political power has not waned in recent…
Abstract
Popular accounts of the labor movement suggest that unions have become weak organizations. There are, however, trends that indicate laborʼs political power has not waned in recent years. Using data from multiple sources, the results in this study indicate: (1) despite declines in union density, the percentage of union households has remained steady for two decades; (2) unions continue to produce a strong Democratic vote from its membership, even from its white male members; (3) unions are among the top campaign contributors and spenders in American elections; (4) unions hold significant influence among congressional Democrats and have made gains at the state and local level; and (5) public opinion of labor unions has remained consistently positive for several decades.