Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social and Political Consequences of Union Decline

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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.