Informed Preferences? The Impact of Unions on Workers' Policy Views

Abstract

Despite declining memberships, labor unions still represent large shares of electorates worldwide. Yet their political clout remains contested. To what extent, and in what way, do unions shape workers' political preferences? We address these questions by combining unique survey data of American workers and a set of inferential strategies that exploit two sources of variation: the legal choice that workers face in joining or opting out of unions and the over-time reversal of a union's policy position. Focusing on the issue of trade, we offer evidence that unions influence their members' policy preferences in a significant and theoretically predictable manner. In contrast, we find that self-selection into membership accounts at most for a quarter of the observed "union effect." The study illuminates the impact of unions in cohering workers' voice and provides insight on the role of information provision in shaping how citizens form policy preferences.

Labor Unions and Support for Redistribution in an Era of Inequality*

“…Kim and Margalit () similarly found that union positions on trade policy influenced members' attitudes, showing that workers (across a variety of industries) were more aware of their union's position on trade policy—particularly when union communications were more frequent. Workers were also more likely to hold a trade policy position in line with their union compared to nonunionized workers in the same industry.…”

“…Though I cannot directly test these mechanisms, that is, observe specific union communications to their members on the issue of inequality, and then assess how union members internalized this information, nor directly observe union‐based discussion about economic inequality, I attempt to bring a variety of indirect evidence to bear, showing that, first, labor unions do emphasize the issue of inequality and, second, that unions—by facilitating workplace discussion—can shape their members' attitudes on this issue. To make this argument, I draw on recent work that has demonstrated the capacity of labor unions to shape their members' political attitudes on economic issues (Ahlquist, Clayton, and Levi, ; Kim and Margalit, ; Mosimann and Pontusson, ).…”

“…I draw upon recent work that illustrates labor unions' capacity to shape their members' political attitudes and clarify their economic self‐interest (Ahlquist and Levi, ; Iversen and Soskice, ; Kim and Margalit, ; Mosimann and Pontusson, ). Using survey data from the 2012 American National Election Study (ANES), 2004 National Annenberg Election Study (NAES), and aggregate panel data across the 50 U.S. states from 1978 through 2012, I show that union members are more aware of, and more concerned about, rising income inequality.…”

Public voices in the heavenly chorus? Group type bias and opinion representation

“…It is widely expected that interest groups try to shape public opinion, even if the empirical evidence is mixed (e.g., Andsager 2000; Kim and Margalit 2017;McEntire et al 2015;Page et al 1987;Smith 2000). Nevertheless, we cannot rule out the opposite relationship; i.e., that some groups pay attention to the public when forming their positions.…”

Labor Unions, Political Representation, and Economic Inequality

“…Using matching techniques, Ahlquist et al show that union exposure makes members less supportive of trade liberalization, especially the North American Free Trade Agreement, than otherwise similar nonmembers, even in a context where these workers have benefited from increased trade. Kim & Margalit (2017) find substantial heterogeneity in the union effect on trade policy preferences across industries and unions; unions that communicated more intensely with their members about trade show a bigger union effect. Looking specifically at the United Auto Workers (UAW), they show that when the UAW reversed its position on the Korea-US free trade deal, so too did the members; nonmembers who worked in the auto industry showed no such opinion change.…”