New strategies in union organizing

Strategies and Tactics in Union Organizing Campaigns

“…Employer tactics were not listed in any particular order or categories. On the other hand, union organizing tactics were divided into the five categories identified by Craft and Extejt (1983): traditional, corporate campaigns, negotiating special language (e.g., neutrality pledges), working with community leaders to facilitate community acceptance of the union, and coordinating resources with other unions during broader union organizing campaigns.…”

“…Five major factors influence whether the union wins or loses the organizing effort, based usually on the certification election results. These include employee attitudes toward unions (Schriesheim, 1978;Youngblood, De-Nisi, and Mobley, 1981), union instrumentality, that is, the ability of unions to respond to employees' needs (Kochan, 1979), structural and environmental elements (Freeman and Medoff, 1984), union strategy and tactics (Craft and Extejt, 1983), and management strategy and tactics (Gagala, 1983;Lawler, 1984;Lawler and West, 1985). Getman, Goldberg, and Herman (1976), studying the impact of management and union tactics on the voting behavior of employees in a union certification election, found that election campaign tactics had limited impact on voting behavior in 33 elections.…”

A Note on the Severity of the Decline in Union Organizing Activity

“…These means include internal organizing, that is, recruiting unit members who have not joined their bargaining agent; organizing under employer neutrality pledges that stipulate union recognition based on evidence of majority support in card counts or privately conducted elections; and expansion through accretion agreements that automatically extend collective bargaining coverage to new operations of unionized employers (Craft 1980;Craft and Extejt 1983;AFL-CIO 1985a). There is some evidence that these means of organization have been effective for a few unions, most notably the United Food and Commercial Workers, the Service Employees, and the Communications Workers (Daily Labor Report 1987a, 1987bSamoff 1987).…”

Toward a Neoinstitutionalist Approach in Industrial Relations

“…Initially, the need for unions was strong-the manufacturing phase. Later, unions were forced to go out and recruit members while continuing to offer the same 'product', namely, better wages and working conditions -the sales phase (Craft and Extejt, 1983). Some unions have recently begun to modify their 'product' in the light of shifting member priorities -the marketing phase.…”