Chapter
6
Union Strategies and
Structures for Representing
Workers
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
An Introduction to Collective Bargaining & Industrial Relations, 4e
Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Unions and Politics
- U.S. labor unions have historically devoted the bulk of
their efforts to collective bargaining as opposed to
political action
- This is consistent with the concept of “business
unionism”
- There is no sizable labor party in the U.S., as is the
case in a number of European countries
- Unions have not typically identified themselves with a
socialist political platform, as is another characteristic
of many European labor unions
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American Unions Do Have a Political
Agenda
• Unions have been ardent and successful supporters of
federal legislation to protect and improve employment
conditions, including:
- Minimum wage, OSHA, the Davis-Bacon procedures,
Family and Medical Leave Act, and various pension
regulations
- Unions mobilize voters, play an active role in state and
local politics, and the preparation of legislation
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Labor’s Voice in National and Corporate
Affairs
• In recent years the AFL-CIO has increased assistance
to candidates for President and Congress who support
its labor, trade, economic, and social policies
• John Sweeney created a new Department of Corporate
Affairs to identify strategies for making corporate
behavior more responsive to worker interests
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Labor’s Role in Coalition Politics
• In recent years, labor has increased its efforts to build
or join coalitions for changes in legislation or
corporate behavior
• An example would be the “Living Wage”
- Labor campaigns have produced community level
ordinances in over fifty U.S. cities requiring
companies that do business with local government to
pay above the minimum wage
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Current Debates in Unions over the
Appropriate Role of Politics
• Some unionists want to reorient strategy away from
bargaining and toward political action
- An independent labor party was created in 1995, but to
date has attracted few members and has limited
political influence
- Labor’s role in political affairs likely will take on
greater importance in the future as a builder of
coalition politics
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Union Growth and Membership
Characteristics
• Union Membership Figures: The Loci of Membership
- Union membership peaked in the mid-1940s at around
35 percent
- By 1960, membership had declined to 31 percent of the
nonagricultural labor force
- By 2006, membership declined to 12.0 percent
- New York and Hawaii had the highest union densities,
with 24.4 percent and 24.7 percent
- North and South Carolina had union densities of 3.3
percent
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Union membership as a percentage of the
nonagricultural labor force, 1930-2002
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By Industrial Sector
• The percentage of manufacturing employees
unionized declined from 42.4 percent in 1953
to 13.0 percent in 2006
- However, the percentage of government
employees in labor unions rose over the same
period from 11.6 to 36.2 percent
- Unionization in the service sector rose from
9.5% in 1953 to 13.9% in 1975, but fell to
3.1% in 2006
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By Occupation
• Union membership also varies by occupation
• By 2006:
- In blue-collar ranks, the highest levels of unionization
were among craft workers at 15.8%
- Semiskilled occupations, such as operators,
fabricators, and laborers were 15.5% unionized
- Among white-collar workers, professional occupations
were the most organized at 17.7%
- White-collar union membership in the service sector
was 11.4%
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By Demographic Group
• In 2006, 13.0% of all men and 10.9% of all women
were members of unions
- Female membership has been rising
- Women made up 39.6% of all union members in
2000
- Black workers are more likely to be members of
unions than are whites, with 14.5% unionized
versus 11.7% of all white workers
- Hispanics have the lowest union rate at 9.8%
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Membership in Large Unions
• A majority of members are concentrated in a few
large unions
- In 2004, the five largest unions in the country
were the National Education Association
(NEA), the Service Employees International
Union (SEIU), the United Food and
Commercial Workers (UFCW), the American
Federation of State, County, Municipal
Employees (AFSCME), and the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters
- Public sector unions were the fastest growing
since 1970
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Recent Union Membership Declines
• By 2006, union membership had fallen to 12.0% from
a 1945 peak of 35.5%
• Membership declined rapidly after 1977 because most
highly unionized industries were hit the hardest by
recessions, by the declining competitiveness of U.S.
manufactured goods, and by the economic and
organizational restructuring within these industries
- Steelworkers lost 511,000 members and the UAW lost
494,000 members from 1979 to 1983
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The Cyclical Factor
• The Cyclical Factor
- John Commons was one of the first to note that union
growth was directly correlated with prosperity
- Union membership rose and fell in sync with the
business cycle
- Commons posited that workers became more
aggressive in pursuing their goals in good economic
times, while employers became less resistant since
profits were increasing
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Structural Factors
• Historical and legal Influences
- Evidence suggests that cyclical factors are not the only
influences on union growth
- Union growth did not rebound after 1992 even with
economic expansion
- Social change is a large factor, such as the great
depression and wartime economy
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The Influence of Laws and Public Policy
• Union growth and decline is also impacted by legal
and public policy
- Union membership in right-to-work states is another
illustration on how public policy can influence union
growth
- Twenty-two states have such laws, where it is illegal to
require employees to join unions as a condition of
employment
- Union growth is strong in states granting public
employee unions the right to collective bargaining
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Explanations of Recent Union
Declines
• Structural Changes n the Economy and the Labor
Force
- Changes in the nature and location of jobs have hurt
union growth
- Jobs moving away from the east and west coasts, and
north-central regions where unions have been
historically strong
- Statistics suggest that 40% of the decline in union
membership in the past 30 years can be explained by
region, industry, and occupational characteristics
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Union Avoidance through Employer
Election Campaign Practices
• Management has become more sophisticated and
has increased resistance to union organizing
• They now use consultants, direct discussion with
employees, speeches by executives, and in some
cases threats to thwart union organizing
• Management’s resistance to unions during election
campaigns appears to be associated with low union
win rates
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Employer Substitution through
Personnel Practices
• Management does not always wait until an organizing
election to try to convince employee that unions are
unnecessary
• Management can adopt sophisticated personnel
practices that substitute for union representation
- Avoidance of unionization is the primary objective
of the human resource industrial relations pattern
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Government Substitution
• Since the late 1960s, government has become more
directly involved in shaping employment conditions
• Governmental influence can come through regulations
on health, safety, minimum wage, pension rights and
funding
- Government substitution does not seem to hinder
union growth in Europe
- For unique cultural reasons, government
substitution may have a greater negative impact on
U.S. unionization
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American Worker Ideology
• Some historians argue that American culture and the
absence of aristocratic traditions lead to a weak union
appeal
- Seymour Lipset contrasted American and Canadian
ideologies and claimed they explained the higher
union membership in Canada, where unions are
stronger
- However, opinion polls show that attitudes toward
unions are similar in the U.S. and Canada, casting
doubt that ideology alone explains the difference;
perhaps management resistance explains the difference
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Internal Union Affairs and Actions
• Unions may bear some blame for their organizing
difficulties and decline
• Unions have suffered from corruption and slow
adaptation to change
• They have not dedicated sufficient resources to
organizing efforts
• Union organizing only produces a fraction of the
new members needed to offset union members
leaving the labor force
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Union Structures for Collective Bargaining
• The AFL-CIO
- A federation of national unions
- The major federation in the United States
- Promotes the political objectives of unions through
political lobbying and dissemination of information
to union members
• With the election of President John Sweeney in
1995, the AFL-CIO increased organizing efforts
- Has no formal authority in the bargaining efforts of
its member national unions
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The Structure of National Unions
• National unions are the center of political power
within most trade unions in the United States
- They are actively involved in the negotiation of
collective bargaining agreements
- They sanction and provide assistance to their member
local unions
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Craft versus Industrial Union
Structure
• Union jurisdiction determines who can be organized
by the union
- The most prevalent forms are craft and industrial
unionism
- A craft union’s jurisdiction is limited to workers in a
specific trade
- Industrial union’s jurisdiction typically encompasses
all workers in a firm
- Early unions were typically craft, and organized within
local labor markets
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The Governance of National Unions
• National unions are typically governed by a
constitution and bylaws
- Commonly there are annual and biennial
conventions in which officers are elected and
bylaws modified
- Officers typically include a president, secretarytreasurer, vice presidents, and an executive board
- Staff helps in negotiations, organizing, grievance
administration, research, and governmental affairs
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The Local Union
• For most union members, the most extensive interaction is
through the local union
- Workers can attend union meetings and vote for local
union officers
- Locals initiate grievance processing and direct strike or
picketing activities
- If the local union is not linked to a national union, as in
the case with some small manufacturing companies, the
local union negotiates a collective bargaining agreement
on its own
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The Division between Local and National
Union Responsibilities
• In most industrial unionized settings, such as steel and
auto, the employee is covered by both a local and
industry level contract.
- Local union negotiates the local contract; national
union the company or industry contract
- Each agreement covers different subjects
• Local contracts might include work rules and seniority
rights, while the national contract covers wage
increases, fringe benefits, and procedures
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The Governance of Local Unions
• The local union typically includes a number of
elected executive officers
- Industrial unions frequently also have bargaining
chairs and bargaining committees that lead the local
union in contract negotiations
- Some local unions, such as construction, have a
business agent to direct local negotiations and
grievance administration
- Local unions are funded by dues paid by
employees, and some large locals have paid officers
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Political Life Inside Local Unions
• The shop steward may be the most important person
to the average worker
• Local officers and stewards are chosen through
elections
- Most are elected for two or three year terms
- Some local elections draw many candidates and are
hotly contested; some very few
- Slates of candidates sometimes join together
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Union Democracy
• While difficult to generalize, there is often
considerable democracy with the union
- Compared to the way officers are chosen in
management, unions are highly democratic
- Most unions debate strategic direction
• Union Corruption
- Instances of union corruption
- Nevertheless, there is evidence of lively debates and
democratic selection of nearly all union officers
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The Election of John Sweeney and the
Reorientation of the AFL-CIO
- Debates of the future of unions and the role of the
AFL-CIO led to the first contested election for the
presidency upon the retirement of Lane Kirkland
- In 1995, John Sweeney, formerly the president of
the SEIU, was elected on a platform of aggressive
union organizing and redirection of the role of the
AFL-CIO
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A Servicing versus Organizing Model of
Unionism
• As union membership declined, a debate arose as to
whether unions needed to shift away from the
traditional “servicing” model to an “organizing”
model
- The organizing model would shift a substantial share
of union resources toward organizing
- Intended to mobilize union members externally and
internally
- The number of unions that will adopt this strategy
remains to be seen
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Union Mergers
• One way to alter union governance structure and form
is through union mergers
- A goal of the AFL-CIO merger in 1955 was to promote
greater rationalization of union structures
- Indeed, George Many and Walter Reuther, then leaders
of the AFL and CIO, expected the original 135 unions to
be reduced to 50
• The number now stands at 69
• Advantages of mergers include administrative
economies and reduced interunion competition
• Critics say mergers are a quest for power, lead to
less democracy, and lack rational consolidation
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Unions as Networks
• The increased mobility of workers’ careers today
suggests a new conception of unions is needed
- Unions may need to serve as networking agents as
they move through jobs
- Workers form their views of unions at an early age
- If not recruited early, it’s difficult to retain their
interest
- Unions may need stronger community or regional
structures to support worker mobility
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Change to Win Coalition
• Some national union leaders became unhappy with John
Sweeney's leadership
• In 2001, the Carpenter's Union withdrew from the AFL-CIO
over the pace of change
• In 2005, four major unions – the SEIU, UNITE HERE, the
IBT, and the ILIU – issued a joint proposal for reforms
- The AFL-CIO executive committee rejected the reforms
- In June, 2005, the four dissenting unions – along with the
UFCW – announced the formation of a new organization
called "Change to Win Coalition" (CTW).
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Summary
• Unions’ share of the U.S. labor force declined
substantially since the early 1950s
• The decline is more poignant considering the inroads
of nonunion firms in the traditional bastions of
organized labor
• Contributing to the decline have been innovations in
human resource and union avoidance policies
• International competition and poor union innovation
have also contributed to the decline