The Decentralization of Collective Bargaining: A Literature Review and Comparative Analysis

The author reviews evidence that the bargaining structure is becoming more decentralized in Sweden, Australia, the former West Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, although In somewhat different degrees and ways from country to country. He then examines the various hypotheses that have been offered to explain the significant trend Shifts In bargaining power, as well as the diversification of corporate and worker Interests, have played a part in this change, he concludes, but work reorganization has been more influential still. He also explores how the roles of central unions and corporate industrial relations staffs are challenged by bargaining structure decentralization, and discusses the research gaps on this subject that need to be filled

The Collective Bargaining System in the United States: The Legacy and the Lessons

[Excerpt] From World War II to the 1990s, the collective bargaining system in the United States evolved through two epochs. The first, which lasted from the end of war to the late 1970s, saw the construction and consolidation of what one of us (and his coauthors) has called the New Deal system of industrial relations (Kochan et al, 1994). During the second era the New Deal industrial relations system came under severe pressures and it began to be fundamentally transformed. The transformation is still occurring, and we cannot say if or when a new equilibrium will be established. This essay examines and evaluates the evolution of collective bargaining in the United States between 1945 and 1997. We have a central theme - an hypothesis - that guides our examination. We believe American collective bargaining has been very adept at resolving workplace problems—what might be termed micro problems such as individuals\u27 complaints (in unionized settings). On the other hand, collective bargaining in our society has never been adept at (or has been excluded from) dealing with macro problems. We have in mind two categories of macro problems. The first is macro-organizational, by which we mean the issues and concerns associated with the management of the organization or enterprise. The second is “macroeconomic, and we have in mind especially the relationship between the industrial relations system and the macroeconomy

The Expansion and Implications of Various Forms of Collective Representation in the United States

[Excerpt] I have been student of collective bargaining my entire career as much of my scholarship and teaching has focused on understanding why and how U.S. collective bargaining evolved over the post-World War II period. What I am now struck by is the fact that various new organizations are being used by employees to pursue group action do as to improve those employees’ terms and conditions of work. Let me first describe how I came to see this emerging trend as the origins of my thinking leads me to a related point about this development, namely, that the U.S. labor relations system is becoming increasingly similar to the labor relations systems that exist in emerging countries. With Tom Kochan and Alex Colvin three years ago I published a textbook, “Labor Relations in a Globalizing World” (2015). In that book we trace how core principles about bargaining power and negotiations can be used and, in some cases appropriately modified, to describe labor relations in emerging countries. We focus in particular on recent developments in China, India, Brazil and South Africa as case illustrations and also focus on those countries because they are major players in the global economy. As we describe, in emerging countries 2 the activities of non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) has become a more significant influence on employees’ terms and conditions of employment than trade unions. This past year Tom, Alex and I published the 5th edition of our U.S. collective bargaining textbook (Katz, Kochan, and Colvin, 2018. In that book we spend a significant amount of space describing how NGO’s have become a significant force within U.S. labor relations. Perhaps it was the fact that we had been alerted to the role that NGO’s are playing in emerging countries that led us to recognize the influence of NGO’s in the U.S. as well as the fact that the growing influence of NGO’s was becoming the subject of labor relations research and current events

The Municipal Budgetary Response to Changing Labor Costs: The Case of San Francisco

This paper analyzes how expenditures of the city of San Francisco were altered in response to changes in municipal labor costs over the period 1945 through 1976. A hybrid of the demands and the organizational models of budgeting is used to measure the budgetary response to changes in the relative prices of labor inputs. Descriptive and econometric evidence reveals significant adjustments both among and within departments in reaction to changes in relative labor costs. The empirical evidence demonstrates that the city\u27s budgetary process is guided by simple allocative rules modified by price-responsive adjustments

A Study of Regulatory Intervention in Labor-Management Relations: School Desegregation in Los Angeles, Dade County, and Boston

This article analyzes the interaction between public school desegregation and labor relations in Los Angeles, Dade County, and Boston. First enumerating the ways in which desegregation led to specific changes in either personnel policies or collective bargaining agreements in the three school systems, then providing an evaluation of the performance of the court’s regulatory intervention within labor management relations in the three school systems. After comparing regulatory performance, the factors that influence the observed variations in performance are assessed. A distinction is found between those causal factors that are ‘environmental’ and those that are under the direct control of the parties. The article concludes with a theoretical discussion of the differences that exist between the court’s regulatory intervention in collective bargaining and arbitration

Training and Workforce Preparedness: Introduction

An introduction to a special, multi-part report on training and workforce preparedness

The Restructuring of Industrial Relations in the United States

This paper discusses the extent to which a new industrial relations system including greater participation in decision making by workers and unions has diffused in the American economy. The paper uses the automobile as an illustrative case. The paper includes examination of the factors that have limited the diffusion of new industrial relations in the auto industry and elsewhere

Interest Arbitration, Outcomes, and the Incentive to Bargain

This study develops a model of bargaining that demonstrates that an interest arbitration procedure will encourage negotiated settlements to the extent that risk aversion dominates the preferences of the parties and there is uncertainty regarding the arbitrator\u27s behavior. The authors conclude that it is likely that risk aversion does dominate preferences, but the evidence is not conclusive. They also argue that uncertainty may be reduced over time for various reasons, leading to increased use of arbitration and a convergence between the terms of negotiated and arbitrated agreements