Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social and Political Consequences of Union Decline

布鲁斯·韦斯特杰克·罗森菲尔德这篇论文研究了20世纪80年代初以来美国工会衰落的主要经济和政治影响。过去几十年里，劳工组织基础的戏剧性侵蚀，其后果超出了有据可查的男性蓝领工资下降的影响。联合PI假设，工会关注工作场所更广泛的工资分配，建立缩小薪酬差距的薪酬标准。企业中没有工会的存在，使管理层在为自己及其员工制定工资标准方面具有决定性的作用，导致了最近职业间工资不平等的加剧。工会密度的下降对政体有直接影响。这个项目全面描述了工党近年来的损失如何帮助改变了党派平衡，同时抑制了选举投票率。最后，研究社会运动的学者长期以来一直对停工感兴趣，这可能是社会上集体行动最一致和最明显的迹象。然而，由于之前的数据限制，人们对这种形式的集体行动的急剧减少及其对工人的更广泛影响知之甚少。联合PI使用了1984至2002年间几乎每一次授权停工的先前未公布的数据，认为现有的罢工动员经济模型不再能最好地预测工人是否会走上纠察线。相反，在后协议时期，工党不断缩小的组织基础更好地解释了罢工的减少。此外，考虑到劳工组织力量的削弱，罢工本身不再是为了提高工人的生活水平。该项目的数据来自几个来源。对于主要的宏观分析，将使用当前的人口数据(CPS)，并辅之以以前未公布的联邦调解和调解服务(FMCS)的罢工数据。存档的停工数据将从华盛顿特区的劳工统计局(BLS)办公室收集。此外，联合PI将在第二次年度变革大会上对劳工领袖进行半结构化访谈，以补充量化工作，以赢得Broader Impact大会。该项目将社会科学家和政策制定者近年来关注的两个主要问题联系在一起：收入不平等的快速增长和公民参与度的下降。该项目还提供了近几十年来对罢工下降的第一次全面分析。对社会运动感兴趣的研究人员必须与罢工的近乎消失以及这对其他形式的集体动员的后果作斗争。

SES-0623202Bruce WesternJake RosenfeldThis dissertation research studies major economic and political effects of labor union decline in the United States since the early 1980s. The dramatic erosion of labor's organizational base during the past few decades has consequences beyond the well-documented decline in male blue-collar wages. The co-PI hypothesizes that unions concern themselves with the broader wage distribution within the workplace, establishing pay norms that narrow pay dispersion. The lack of union presence in a firm grants management the decisive hand in establishing pay scales for themselves and their employees, contributing to the recent growth in inter-occupational wage inequality. The decline in union density has direct consequences for the polity. This project provides a comprehensive account of how labor's loss in recent years helped shift the partisan balance while dampening electoral turnout. Finally, scholars of social movements have long been interested in work stoppages, perhaps the most consistent and visible signs of collective action in society. Yet, due to previous data limitations, little is known about the sharp reduction in this form of collective action and its broader consequences for workers. Using previously unreleased data on nearly every authorized work stoppage that occurred between 1984 and 2002, the co-PI contends that the established economic models of strike mobilization no longer best predict whether workers will walk the picket line. Instead, in the post-accord period, labor's shrinking organizational base better accounts for the decline of the strike. Further, given labor's enervated organizational strength, the strike itself no longer operates to raise living standards for workers. Data from the project come from several sources. For the major macro-level analyses the Current Population Data (CPS), supplemented with previously unreleased strike data from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) will be used. Archived work stoppage data will be collected from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) office in Washington, DC. In addition, the co-PI will supplement the quantitative work with semi-structured interviews with labor leaders conducted at the second annual Change to Win conventionBroader Impacts. This project links two of the major concerns preoccupying social scientists and policymakers in recent years: the rapid growth in earnings inequality and the decline in civic participation. This project also provides the first comprehensive analysis of strike decline in recent decades. Researchers interested in social movements must contend with the near-disappearance of the strike, and the consequences this has on other forms of collective mobilization.