Working Paper: NBER ID: w1693
Authors: Beatrice J. Freiberg; William T. Dickens
Abstract: The law prohibits firms from moving work to avoid unionization. Still, many employees fear that joining a union may cost them their jobs. This paper assesses the impact of that fear on how clerical workers vote in union certification elections. Two data sets were collected and analyzed for this purpose, and three measures of the firms' ability to relocate office work were developed. Clerical workers in offices that were judged to be easier to relocate were found to be more likely to report that the fear of job loss was important to their voting decision. Those who voted against the union were most likely to report that the fear that they would lose their jobs was a significant consideration. Further, workers in units judged to be most easily relocated were found to have a 7 to 30% lower probability of voting union than those who were in less mobile jobs.
Keywords: union certification; job mobility; clerical workers; labor studies
JEL Codes: J51; J53
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| job mobility (J62) | perceived fear of job loss (J63) |
| management resistance (D74) | union voting behavior (J51) |
| job mobility (J62) | union voting behavior (J51) |
| perceived fear of job loss (J63) | union voting behavior (J51) |