Labour Market Tightness and Union Activity

Greenwich Campus

QA010

We study how labour market conditions affect unionisation decisions. Tight labour markets might spur unionisation, e.g., by reducing the threat of unemployment after management opposition or employer retaliation in response to a unionisation attempt. Tightness might also weaken unionisation by providing attractive outside alternatives to engaging in costly unionisation. Drawing on a large-scale, representative survey experiment among US workers, we show that an increase in worker beliefs about labour market tightness moderately raises support for union activity. Effect sizes are small as they imply that moving from trough to peak of the business cycle increases workers’ probability of voting for a union by one percentage point. To study equilibrium effects, we draw on three quasi-experimental research designs using data from across US states and counties over several decades. We find no systematic effect of changes in aggregate labour market tightness on union membership, union elections, and strikes. Overall, our results challenge the notion that labour market tightness significantly drives US unionisation.

Presenter:
Patrick Nüß

Co-authors:
Simon Jäger, Chantal Pezold

Location:
University of Greenwich, QA010

Teams (Online) details:

Meeting ID: 319 421 430 872 5
Passcode: N9eW6W66

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