Search results

As of 1982, federal credit unions were allowed to add select employee groups and thus create institutions with multiple-group common bonds. We examine the efficiency of single bond and multiple bond federal-chartered credit unions by using data envelopment analysis (DEA), a non-parametric, linear programming methodology. Results indicate that multiple bond credit unions have better pure technical efficiency than single bond credit unions. However, single bond credit unions appear to be more scale efficient than the multiple bond credit unions. Our results also indicate that members of multiple bond credit unions may derive greater wealth gains than members of single bond credit unions.

The role of labor unions in relation to corporate social responsibility (CSR) remains both ambiguous and crucial for union members and business leaders. Given the complex relationship between labor unions and corporations, this study aims to address whether labor unions keep corporations honest (by monitoring CSR activities) or potentially render CSR initiatives less necessary.

Using data from the MSCI Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini Database for firms in the Russell 1000 Index, this study examines the link between labor unions and CSR in U.S. companies over a six year period. Generalized least squares models were used to test the hypotheses for 3,937 firm-year observations.

The findings show that unionized companies generally pay less attention to CSR compared to nonunionized ones. The presence of labor unions and positive union-management relations both show a significant negative impact on CSR ratings, where positive union-management relations negatively affect CSR ratings more than just the presence of labor unions. Further, when considering the environmental, social and governance aspects of CSR separately, the results are more complex, suggesting that the relationship between labor unions and CSR varies depending on specific ESG dimensions.

CSR, a well-researched area, rarely addresses the companies' relationships with labor unions. Studies in South Korea and the UK have touched on the impact of labor unions on CSR, but in the USA it remains unexplored. This study extends this line of work by examining U.S. companies.

In this paper, the authors examine the strategies used to reduce labour costs in three public hospitals in South Africa, which were effective and why. In the democratic era, after the revelations of large-scale corruption, the authors ask whether their case studies provide lessons for how public service institutions might re-make themselves, under circumstances of austerity.

A comparative qualitative case study approach, collecting data using a combination of interviews with managers, focus group discussions and interviews with shop stewards and staff was used.

Management in two hospitals relied on their financial power, divisions between unions and employees' loyalty. They lacked the insight to manage different actors, and their efforts to outsource services and draw on the Extended Public Works Program failed. They failed to support staff when working beyond their scope of practice, reducing employees' willingness to take on extra responsibilities. In the remaining hospital, while previous management had been removed due to protests by the unions, the new CEO provided stability and union–management relations were collaborative. Her legitimate power enabled unions and management to agree on appropriate cost cutting strategies.

Finding an appropriate balance between the new reality of reduced financial resources and the needs of staff and patients, requires competent unions and management, transparency and trust to develop legitimate power; managing in an authoritarian manner, without legitimate power, reduces organisational capacity. Ensuring a fair and orderly process to replace ineffective management is key, while South Africa grows cohorts of competent managers and builds managerial experience.

Research among credit unions in Western Australia is reported in which directors and managers of credit unions expressed their attitudes with regard to the corporate objectives of their organisation, and future directions of development for the credit union movement are suggested.

As the overall level of union membership and density has fallen in Britain throughout the 1980s (and into the 1990s), researchers have begun to pay more attention to the non‐union employment sector. For instance, considerable use has been made of the second national Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (1984) to investigate the determinants of non‐union status. The major limitation of such work, however, is that it treats the non‐union sector as essentially homogeneous in nature. Such an approach sits rather awkwardly with the following facts and findings:

“Managerial unionism” commented one writer recently “consititutes an emergent industrial relations phenomenon of major significance”. Long established in the public sector the movement of junior and middle managers into trade unions is indeed becoming increasingly evident throughout private industry. Rising job insecurity, dissatisfaction with salary levels and a decline in the individual treatment of managers by employers are some of the factors encouraging this development. New unions have been created and existing ones adapted to meet the demand. There are now more than a dozen unions catering exclusively for managerial and executive grades, as well as the more general white‐collar unions which recruit managers, notably Clive Jenkins' Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs.

Examines union and non‐union consultation and representation arrangements at South West Water, UK.

Constitutes a briefing that is prepared by an independent writer who adds his own impartial comments.

Demonstrates that perceptions of trade union membership change over time and between people. Shows that South West Water has generally diluted trade union influence in recent years. Argues, however, that adopting a strategy of substituting unions at the workplace by individualizing the employment relationship and derecognizing the union may not always produce positive industrial‐relations outcomes.

Highlights that new European Union directives which seek to make sure employees are informed and consulted in employment matters, may mean that a mechanism for communication between management and employees at the workplace may not be enough, and that the right to be heard and have a say over important workplace issues, and at times an acknowledgement of differing interests, may be essential for achieving greater employee satisfaction and commitment.

Contains plenty to interest employer and trade union representatives involved in the ongoing debate over trade union influence.

This study was conducted to learn about the involvement of US academic librarians in local as well as national faculty union activities; their reasons for joining unions; and the benefits they have gained because of their memberships in their unions. It was concluded that librarians who were members of unions generally earned higher salaries than those who were not. Since librarians had on several occasions worked closely with the teaching faculty on various union activities, several close bonds and relationships among them had occurred. Moreover, librarians viewed union membership as a vehicle to become more involved in decision‐making processes at their institutions.

At the start of the 1990s trade unions were reeling from a decade of Thatcherism, in which their density amongst employees had been whittled down to 35% by 1990. Several explanations for the decline have vied for attention: the changing composition of industry and of the economy generally, with more part‐time work, fewer large‐scale establishments, the collapse of manufacturing industries and so on; the changing legal environment; the distinctly uncongenial macroeconomic environment, which with lowish inflation and mass unemployment was a discouragement to membership (see for example Disney, 1990; Green, 1991). Such explanations have varying implications for unions' future prospects. For example, if the changed level environment were the key factor, one would predict a further decline of union membership in the 1990s, unless there were a change of government and a wholesale repeal of Thatcherite trade union laws (which is not to be expected). A distinction has been drawn in the literature between the structural factors that determine the social context in which individual employees make their decisions with regard to union membership, and the varying preferences that individuals may have in favour of or against unions. Attempts have been made to show that despite years of attacks from Thatcherism, it is not so much the attitudes and commitment of workers to unions that has changed, as the opportunities that they face. Thus it is said that for many the reason that they left unions is because unions simply were not available at the new workplaces (Gallie, 1989).

Introduction In the intense debates concerning industrial relations reform in the last decade and a half, few issues have attracted more heated controversy than the question of the closed shop. The industrial events of the winter of 1978–9 have led to a renewed debate. This culminated in the TUC producing a Code of Practice for trade unions on the operation of the closed shop; and the Conservative Party in their election manifesto committing themselves to a reform of the present legislation in this area.