Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social and Political Consequences of Union Decline

SES-0623202 Bruce WesternJake Rosenwald本论文研究自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。 在过去几十年中，劳动力组织基础的急剧侵蚀所产生的后果超出了有据可查的男性蓝领工资下降的范围。 co-PI假设工会关注工作场所内更广泛的工资分配，建立缩小工资差距的工资标准。 公司中缺乏工会的存在，赠款管理层在为自己和员工制定工资标准方面掌握了决定性的权力，这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产生了直接影响。 这个项目提供了一个全面的说明如何劳动的损失，在最近几年帮助改变党派平衡，同时抑制选举投票率。 最后，研究社会运动的学者们一直对停工感兴趣，停工也许是社会中集体行动最一致、最明显的标志。 然而，由于以前的数据限制，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。 利用1984年至2002年期间发生的几乎每一次授权停工的先前未公布的数据，联合PI认为，既定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，劳工组织基础的萎缩更好地解释了罢工的减少。 此外，由于劳工组织力量的削弱，罢工本身不再能提高工人的生活水平。 该项目的数据来自多个来源。 在进行主要的宏观分析时，将使用当前人口数据，并辅之以联邦调解和和解服务处以前未公布的罢工数据。 存档的停工数据将从位于华盛顿的劳工统计局（BLS）办公室收集。 此外，共同PI将补充定量工作与半结构化的采访，在第二届年度变革赢得公约更广泛的影响进行的劳工领袖。 该项目将近年来社会科学家和政策制定者关注的两个主要问题联系起来：收入不平等的迅速增长和公民参与的下降。 该项目还提供了近几十年来第一次全面分析罢工下降。 对社会运动感兴趣的研究人员必须面对罢工几乎消失的事实，以及这对其他形式的集体动员的影响。

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.