Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Political Context of Union Certification Elections

哪些因素决定了工会通过工作场所认可选举建立会员的能力？认证选举决定了一个工作场所是否会被组织起来。在这些选举中获胜是工会获得新成员的主要途径。然而，这种选举的频率已经急剧下降。对工会成员减少感兴趣的分析人士经常强调经济安排的转变、全球化、雇主的抵制以及工会组织策略的缺陷。然而，通常被忽视的是国家政治对劳工命运的影响。出于这个原因，也因为政治机会往往是社会运动成功的关键决定因素，本研究通过使用时间序列分析来隔离帮助工会获得这些选举的因素，从而填补了文献中的空白。调查结果说明了政治如何影响劳工建立其成员资格的能力。它们还扩展了有关企业、劳工和政府在不同历史条件下如何相互作用的理论。研究结果将为社会运动与民主国家之间的关系提供新的见解，从而为政治机会对社会运动的影响提供额外的知识。这项研究对普通公民来说很重要，因为它揭示了导致为工人提供工作场所保护的组织衰落的因素。新的数据（来自国家劳工关系委员会和政府出版物）将提供给其他学者，从而加强这一领域的研究。这项研究将在俄亥俄州立大学进行，研究结果将在专业会议和科学期刊上发表。

What factors determine labor unions' ability to build membership with workplace recognition elections? Certification elections determine whether a workplace will be organized. Victory in these elections is the primary way that unions gain new members. The frequency of such elections, however, has fallen sharply. Analysts interested in the decline of union membership often emphasize shifting economic arrangements, globalization, employer resistance, and shortcomings in union organizing strategies. What is commonly overlooked, however, is the influence of national politics on labor's fortunes. For this reason and because political opportunities often are a crucial determinant of social movement success, this study fills a void in the literature by using a time-series analysis to isolate the factors that help unions' obtain these elections. The findings address how politics influence labor's capacity to build their membership. They also extend theories about how business, labor, and the government interact under different historical conditions. The results will offer new insights about the relationships between social movements and democratic states and thereby provide additional knowledge about the effects of political opportunities on social movements. This research is important for the average citizen because it sheds light on factors that contribute to the decline of organizations that provide workplace protections for workers. The new data (that come from the National Labor Relations Board and from government publications) will be made available to other scholars and thus should enhance research in this area. This research will be conducted at Ohio State University and the findings will be presented at professional conferences and in scientific journals.