The Rise and Fall of Unions: The Public Sector and the Private

Abstract

A s of the late 1980s, American unionism as a whole has been in decline for about thirty years. This decline has been concentrated in the unions serving workers in the private sector and contrasts sharply with the growth of public sector unions during much of the same period. This paper attempts to explain these divergent trends, but takes their existence as given. By decline (or rise) of unionism I refer to changes in the percentage (relative number) of union adherents among a specified group of workers. Though I believe that movements in the relative number of union adherents have run parallel to broader, but more vague, movements of union "influence," the reader must draw such inferences for himself as best he can.A union adherent is assumed to be both a dues payer and covered by a collective bargaining contract; possible differences between these two concepts of union affiliation are unimportant for this paper. Individuals are assumed always to act as if they had compared the costs and benefits of union adherence and chosen adherence if the benefits were greater, and otherwise if the opposite applied. As used here, costs and benefits are limited to hourly compensation (wages and fringes), employment opportunities and working conditions. While ideological preferences undoubtedly influence a small minority of workers, it is assumed that such individuals are too few to affect the trends analysed. The above assumptions obscure important interdependencies among the decisions of individual workers and those of an employee and his employer. For example, if an 1 I do not deny either that changes in attitudes toward the relative desirability of working under union conditions may have occurred from time to time, or that such changes might be of interest. However, I assume that the dominant factors affecting movements in the quantity of union adherents are changes in the benefits and costs of unionization, particularly hourly compensation and employment opportunities.

Public sector unions and public spending

“…Reder (1988) argues that increases in private sector unionization in the 1950s and 1960s are the result of favorable economic trend since, in effect, unions easily ratify market determined wages in periods of general prosperity. 3.…”

The changing determinants of U.S. Unionism: An analysis using worker-level data

“…2Troy (198622 percent in , 1990, Fiorito and Maranto (1987), Reder (1988), andFreeman (1989b). There has been much work on the decline in unionization in other Western countries as well, but this subject is beyond the scope of this paper.…”

“…Statistical Abstract of the U.S.d Value of shipments: 1972, 1987 Imports: Trade and Employment, 1972 and1988; Exports: Trade and Employment, 1972. e 1972, 1987 Census of Manufacturers f 1973, 1988 Occupational Injuries and Illnesses by Industry g 1972, 1987 NLRB Annual Reports. 'CA' is all of the unfair labor practice cases brought by the union against the employer.…”

The determinants and effects of right-to-work laws: A review of the recent literature

“…RTW laws have been identified as an important factor causing the post-1950s decline in private sector national union membership (Dickens and Leonard, 1985;Farber, 1985;Freeman, 1985Freeman, , 1988Lazear, 1988;Reder, 1988;Fiorito, 1990). RTW laws not only slow the growth of unions in the states that adopt them, but they also reduce unionization in non-RTW states because businesses wishing to avoid unions relocate from heavily unionized areas to RTW states.…”

“…Anecdotal evidence suggests they did. Southern and RTW states have been growing faster than non-RTW states in the North East and North Central regions since the late 1940s, and some researchers attribute this phenomenon to union avoidance behavior by employers (Cobb, 1982;Newman, 1983Newman, , 1984Cappelli and Chalykoff, 1985;Kochan et al, 1986;Reder, 1988).…”