| HOME |
CHAPTER
22
Labor Unions
This chapter focuses on three important labor market issues: unionism, discrimination, and immigration. Although not necessarily related to one another, each issue is significant in its own right. Instructors may choose to treat the three topics selectively without any loss of continuity.
The first part of the chapter looks at labor unions. We first see who belongs to unions, examine collective bargaining, and discuss the reasons for unionism’s recent decline. Then we assess the affect of unions on wages, efficiency, and productivity. Second, we discuss the types and costs of discrimination, economic theories of discrimination, and current antidiscrimination policies. The last part of the chapter examines immigration: the inflow of people (workers) to the United States from abroad. Here we focus on the size of both legal and illegal immigration and its economic effects.
I. Unionism in America
A. About 13.5 percent (16 million) U.S. workers belong to unions; most of the unions are voluntarily affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). (Global Perspective 35-1 compares U.S. union members with other industrialized nations.)
B. In the United States, unions have generally adhered to a philosophy of business unionism.
1. Concerned with the practical short-run economic objectives of higher pay, shorter hours, and improved working conditions.
2. Union members have not organized into a distinct political party.
C. The likelihood of union membership depends mainly on the industry: Membership is high in government, transportation, construction, manufacturing and mining; low in agriculture, finance, insurance, real estate, services, wholesale and retail trade. (See Figure 35.1a and b)
D. The decline of unionism.
1. Since the mid-1950s union membership has not kept pace with the growth of the labor force. Union membership has declined both absolutely and relatively.
2. The structural-change hypothesis says that changes unfavorable to union membership have occurred in both the economy and the labor force.
a. Employment patterns have shifted away from unionized industries. Consumer demand has shifted from unionized U.S. producers of manufactured goods to foreign producers. Also demand has shifted from highly organized “old-economy” unionized firms to “high-tech” industries.
b. A higher proportion of the increase in employment recently has been concentrated among women, youths and part time workers; groups that harder to organize.
c. A geographic shift of industrial location away from the northeast and midwest (traditional union country) to the south and southwest.
d. Union success in gaining higher wages for their workers may have given employers an incentive to substitute away from the expensive union labor in a number of ways.
i. Substituting machinery for workers,
ii. Subcontracting more work to nonunion suppliers,
iii. Opening nonunion plants in less industrialized areas, and
iv. Shifting production of components to low-wage nations.
E. Relatively high-priced union produced goods would encourage consumers to seek lower-cost goods produced by non-union workers.
F. The managerial-opposition hypothesis argues that union firms are less profitable than nonunion firms.
1. One aggressive managerial strategy has been to employ labor-management consultants who specialize in mounting anti-union drives.
2. Confronted with a strike, management is more likely to hire permanent strikebreakers.
3. Management may also improve working conditions and personnel policies to discourage union organization.
II. Collective Bargaining
A. The goal of collective bargaining is to establish a “work agreement” between the firm and the union.
B. Union status and managerial prerogatives.
1. In a closed shop, a worker must be (or become) a member of the union before being hired. This is illegal except in transportation and construction.
2. In a union shop, an employer may hire nonunion workers, but they must join in a specified period of time.
3. An agency shop requires nonunion workers to pay dues or donate a similar amount to charity.
4. Twenty states have right-to-work laws that prohibit union shops and agency shops.
5. In an open shop, the employer may hire union or nonunion workers. Workers are not required to join the union or contribute; but the “work agreement” applies all worker – union and nonunion.
6. Most work agreements contain clauses outlining the decisions reserved solely for management; these are called managerial prerogatives.
C. The focal point of any bargaining agreement is wages and hours.
1. The arguments most frequently used include for wage increases are:
a. “What others are getting”;
b. Employer’s ability to pay based on profitability;
c. Increases in the cost of living; and
d. Increases in labor productivity.
2. In some cases, unions win automatic cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs).
3. Hours of work, voluntary and mandatory overtime, holiday and vacation provisions, profit sharing, health plans, and pension benefits are other contract issues.
D. Unions stress seniority as the basis for worker promotion and for layoff and recall and sometimes seek means to limit a firm’s ability to subcontract work or to relocate production facilities overseas.
E. Union contracts contain grievance procedures to resolve disputes.
F. The bargaining process.
1. Collective bargaining on a new contract usually begins about 60 days before the existing contract expires.
2. Hanging over negotiations is the “deadline” which occurs at the expiration of the old contract, at which time a strike (union work stoppage) or a lockout (management forbids workers to return) can occur.
3. Bargaining, strikes and lockouts occur within a framework of Federal labor law, specifically the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
III. Economic Effects of Unions
A. The union wage advantage is verified by studies that suggest that unions do raise the wages of their members relative to comparable nonunion workers; on average, this pay differential over the years is estimated to have been about 15 percent.
1. The overall average level of wages of all workers has probably not been affected by unions (Figure 35.2).
2. Union workers seem to gain at the expense of nonunion workers.
3. Real wages overall still depend on productivity. (See Figure 28.1)
B. Efficiency and productivity are affected both positively and negatively by unions.
1. The negative view has three major points.
a. Featherbedding and work rules make it difficult for management to be flexible and to use their workers in the most efficient ways.
b. Strikes, while rare, do constitute a loss of production time and affect certain industries more than others.
c. Labor misallocation might occur as a result of the union wage advantage, but studies suggest that the efficiency loss is minimal—perhaps only a fraction of one percent of U.S. GDP.
2. The positive view has three major points as well.
a. Managerial performance may be improved when wages are high because managers are forced to use their workers in more efficient ways. This is called the shock effect.
b. Worker turnover may be reduced where workers feel they can voice dissatisfaction and have some bargaining power.
c. Seniority promotes productivity because workers do not fear loss of jobs, and informal training may occur on the job because workers do not compete with one another in a seniority‑based system.
3. Research findings have been mixed. Some have found a positive effect of unions on productivity, while an almost equal number have found a negative effect of unions on productivity.
IV. Labor Market Discrimination
A. We saw in Chapter 34 that blacks, Hispanics, and women bear a disproportionately large burden of poverty. Their low incomes are a result of the operation of the labor market, and this includes the impact of discrimination.
B. Economic discrimination occurs when female or minority workers, who have the same abilities, education, training, and experience as white male workers, are accorded inferior treatment with respect to hiring, occupational access, promotion, or wage rate. Table 35.1 provides data suggesting the presence of racial discrimination.
C. Types of discrimination.
1. Wage discrimination occurs when minority workers or women are paid less than white males for doing the same work. This practice violates Federal law, but it can be subtle and difficult to detect.
2. Employment discrimination takes place when women or minority workers receive inferior treatment in hiring, promotions, layoffs, or permanent discharges. This type of discrimination also includes sexual and racial harassment.
3. Occupational discrimination occurs when women or minority workers are arbitrarily restricted or prohibited from entering the more desirable, high-paying occupations. Historically, craft unions have effectively barred blacks from membership and, thus, from employment.
4. Human-capital discrimination occurs when investments in education and training are less and inferior to that of whites.
D. Cost of discrimination.
1. Discrimination does more than simply transfer benefits from women, blacks, and Hispanics to men and whites; where it exists, discrimination actually diminishes the economy’s output and income.
2. The effects of discrimination can be depicted as a point inside the economy’s production possibilities curve. (See Figure 35.3)
3. Rough estimates suggest the U.S. economy would gain $325 billion per year by eliminating racial and ethnic discrimination and $180 billion per year by ending gender discrimination.
V. Economic Analysis of Discrimination
A. Taste-for-discrimination model.
1. The model assumes that, for whatever reason, prejudiced employers experience a subjective and psychic cost—a disutility—whenever they must interact with those they are biased against.
2. The amount of this cost is reflected in a discrimination coefficient d, measured in monetary units.
3. The cost of employing the preferred worker is the workers wage rate, Ww (in the example the preferred worker is white).
4. The employer’s perceived “cost” of employing the worker, against whom he/she is prejudiced (in the example the worker is black) is the black worker’s wage rate, Wb plus the cost of d, or Wb + d.
5. The prejudiced employer will not refuse to hire blacks under all conditions. They will, in fact, prefer blacks if the actual white-black wage difference in the market exceeds the value of d.
B. Prejudice and the market black-white wage ratio.
1. For a particular supply of black workers, the actual black-white wage ratio will depend on the collective prejudice of white employers. (See Figure 35.4)
2. An increase in white employer prejudice, i.e., a decrease in the demand for black workers, reduces the black wage rate and thus the black-white wage ratio.
3. A decrease in white employer prejudice, i.e., an increase in the demand for black workers, increases the black wage rate and thus the black-white wage ratio.
C. The taste-for-discrimination model suggests that competition will reduce discrimination in the very long run.
1. The actual black-white wage difference for equally productive workers allows nondiscriminating employers to hire blacks for less than whites and, therefore, gain a cost advantage over discriminating competitors.
2. The lower costs will allow nondiscriminators to underprice prejudiced employers, eventually driving them out of the market.
3. Critics of the implication of the model note that progress in eliminating prejudice has been modest. (See Key Question 7)
D. Statistical discrimination
1. People are judged on the basis of the average characteristics of the group to which they belong, rather than on their own personal characteristics or productivity.
2. The firm practicing statistical discrimination is not being malicious in its hiring behavior (although it may be violating antidiscrimination laws). The decision it makes will be rational and profitable.
a. In hiring, an employer wants to find the best person for the job, but collecting all of the information on each possible candidate can be expensive.
b. Employers may reduce the cost of hiring by using the average characteristics of women and minorities in determining whom to hire; the employer is using crude indicators of gender, race, or ethnic background as a measure of production-related attributes.
c. By reducing hiring costs, the use of statistical discrimination may increase the employer’s profits.
E. Occupational discrimination can cause crowding or an oversupply of workers in the few occupations that are left to the class of workers experiencing discrimination. This theory helps to explain the relatively low wages of women relative to men. (Figure 35.5 explains this in supply and demand diagrams.)
1. The crowding model illustrated in Figure 35.5 includes the following assumptions: the number of male and female (or black and white) workers is equal; the economy has three occupations; the two groups of workers have identical labor force characteristics—anyone could fill a position equally well.
2. There are several effects of crowding.
a. Wages will be lower in the few occupations where women are not discriminated against because most women are “crowded” into these occupations. The supply is unnaturally large relative to demand.
b. Eliminating discrimination will shift women from the low‑wage occupations into higher‑wage occupations, bringing about an equilibrium wage that should be the same in all occupations requiring similar types of workers without respect to gender.
3. The conclusion is that society will gain from a more efficient allocation of resources when discrimination is abandoned. (Key Question 9)
VI. Antidiscrimination Policies and Issues
A. Government might attack the problems of discrimination in several ways.
1. Promote a strong economy: higher wages increase the cost of discrimination, tight labor markets help overcome stereotyping.
2. Improve the education and training opportunities of women and minorities.
3. Direct government intervention: The U.S. government has outlawed certain practices in hiring, promotion and compensation and required government contractors to take affirmative action to ensure that women and minorities are hired at least up to the proportions of the labor force. (See Table 35.2)
B. The affirmative action controversy.
1. Affirmative action consists of special efforts by employers to increase employment and promotion opportunities for groups that have suffered past discrimination and continue to experience discrimination.
2. Supporters of affirmative action contend that merely removing the discrimination burden does nothing to close the present socioeconomic gap.
a. Because of historical discrimination, women and minorities find themselves in an inferior position economically to white men.
b. The results of past discrimination continue due to seniority layoff plans and inferior education and training of women and minorities.
c. Something more than equal opportunity, i.e., preferential treatment, is necessary to counter the inherent bias in favor of white men.
3. Those against affirmative action claim that affirmative action goes beyond aggressive recruitment.
a. Preferential treatment has forced employers to hire less-qualified women and minority workers.
b. Preferential treatment, if it causes the hiring of less-qualified women and minority employees, may result in resentment by majority workers who have been passed over for jobs and promotions and reinforce stereotypical views of women and minorities that will negatively affect highly-qualified women and minorities.
C. Recent developments.
1. A series of important Supreme Court decisions in 1986 and 1987 upheld the constitutionality of affirmative action programs, but more recent decisions have undermined some specific programs.
2. In 1996 Congress debated legislation restricting affirmative action, and the Clinton administration halted several Federal programs designed to give preference in Federal contracting to minorities. Californians voted in favor of a state constitutional amendment ending all state programs that give preferences.
VI. Immigration
A. Number of immigrants.
1. The annual flow of legal immigrants has increased from roughly 250,000 in the 1950s to about 850,000 per year in the 1990s. About one-third of recent annual population growth in the United States is the result of immigration. (See Global perspective 35.2)
2. The Census Bureau estimates the net inflow of illegal immigrants is now about 100,000 per year, most coming from Mexico, the Caribbean, and Latin America.
B. The economics of immigration.
1. One theoretical model is a variation of the crowding model of discrimination (Figure 35.5). The immigration model is portrayed in Figure 35.6. It assumes that workers migrate from Mexico to the U.S. where technology is more sophisticated and labor demand stronger; it also assumes that full employment exists in both countries. Theoretically, workers will migrate to the U.S. until wage rates in the two countries are equalized. The elimination of barriers to immigration should enhance economic efficiency, as workers from low productivity countries move to where they have higher levels of productivity. U.S. business will benefit from migration while Mexican business will lose as they end up paying higher wages to a diminished supply of workers.
2. Business incomes in the U.S. should improve and those in Mexico should fall. America is receiving the “cheap” labor and Mexico loses this “cheap” labor. This explains why, historically, American employers have sometimes actively recruited immigrants.
3. Complications and modifications to this model change the conclusions somewhat.
a. There are costs to migration, so wages will always remain higher in the U.S. as migrants consider the costs compared to the benefits.
b. Many migrants come temporarily and either return or send money home, which causes a redistribution of the net gain between the countries involved.
c. Mexico will gain if its unemployed and underemployed migrate to the U.S. If the migrants become unemployed in the U.S., the U.S. will lose.
d. Although the fiscal impact of immigrants is debatable, the consensus has been that they are probably net contributors to the fiscal system of the host country. They are more often young people with skills who are productive and tend not to bring children with them. On the other hand, immigrants since the 1970s may have lower levels of education and skills and may require several years of public or philanthropic aid to assimilate. Immigrants now make up 10 percent of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) rolls as compared with only 3.3 percent a decade earlier. The 1996 welfare reform denies benefits to new immigrants for their first five years in the United States. (Key Question 12)
C. There are two views of immigration.
1. One view is that economic benefits occur in the host country from young, skilled workers when the economy is robust and growing.
2. The counterview is that benefits may not occur if immigrants are unskilled and illiterate, and our economy has high unemployment. Racial problems may be worsened; poverty may increase.
3. From a strictly economic perspective nations seeking to maximize net benefits from immigration should expand immigration until its marginal benefits equals it marginal costs. (MB = MC) There can be too few immigrants as well as too many.
VII: LAST WORD: Orchestrating Impartiality
A. There have long been allegations of discrimination against women in the hiring process in some occupations.
B. The introduction of “blind” musical auditions in which “screens” were used to hide the identity of candidates affected the success of women in obtaining positions in major symphony orchestras.
1. In 1970 only 5 percent of the members of the top five orchestras in the United States were women.
2. The change to screens during the audition process increased by 50 percent the probability that a woman would be advanced from the preliminary rounds.
3. Without the screens about 10 percent of all hires were women, but with the screens about 35 percent were women.
4. Today about 25 percent of the membership of top symphony orchestras are women. The screens explain from 25 to 45 percent of the increases in the proportion of women members of the orchestras studied.
5. Researchers Goldin and Rouse examined information on turnover and leaves of orchestra members for the period 1960-1996 in an effort to determine the cause of past discrimination.
a. If this was an example of statistical discrimination there should have been a difference in the rate of turnover by gender. This was not the case.
b. Instead, the discrimination in hiring seemed to reflect a taste for discrimination by musical directors. A positive discrimination coefficient d was present; they simply preferred male musicians.
