Business Commons^™

Unions’ Impact On Firms’ Financial Decision Making: A Look At Right-To-Work Laws And Their Impact On Firms’ Leverage Decisions, Rachana Muvvala

CMC Senior Theses

I study the impact of unions on firms’ financial decision making by exploring their capital structure, specifically leverage. I test two opposing hypotheses to understand the relationship between unions and firms’ leverage: (1) the bargaining hypothesis which suggests that firms use higher leverage as a bargaining device with unions, and (2) the crowding-out hypothesis which suggests that firms have lower leverage because unions crowd out their debt capacity due to their perceived riskiness. Focusing on the 2007 to 2022 period, I examine right-to-work (RTW) laws, since they are exogenous shocks that decrease union power in five different states. Then, I …

Collective Bargaining And Digitalization: A Global Survey Of Union Use Of Collective Bargaining To Increase Worker Control Over Digitalization, Eckhard Voss, Daniel Bertossa

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article outlines and collates exemplary clauses from collective bargaining agreements and similar sources, such as guidelines for union negotiators on digitalization in public and private services. Based on the evaluation of agreements and single clauses and their mapping along seven key dimensions of workers’ rights and protection as regards digital technology in the workplace, the research shows that collective bargaining provides clear added value in the absence of legal provisions and by complementing and tailoring existing regulation to sectoral and workplace specificities, new emerging risks, and other challenges. The research that will feed into an online database on the …

Essays On Employee Litigaiton Risk, Adrian Tippit

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the valuation effects of a legislative shock to employee litigation rights, as well as the mediating effects of pre-existing employee rights.The first chapter examines the valuation effects of the Passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, an act that increases employee litigation rights related to demographic-based discriminatory compensation filings. We find that firms with relatively fewer women in their workforce exhibit a significant negative three-day abnormal return of 0.61% around the passage of the Lilly Act. In contrast, we find that firms with relatively more women in their workforce do not exhibit a significant abnormal return. …

Janus V. Afscme, Revisited, Benjamin Derek Morse

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the days after the Supreme Court handed down its ruling in Janus v. AFSCME (2018)—a 5-4 conservative majority decision deeming the imposition of public union agency fees unconstitutional under the First Amendment—observers declared the end of public-sector unions. The Times called the ruling a “Sharp Blow ''[1] to organized labor. A Washington Post headline deemed the decision a “major blow”[1] [2] In the former piece, the Time’s Supreme Court correspondent wrote that “most of the labor movement’s strength these days is in the public sector. The [Janus] ruling contained a final blow for public …

“The New Pinkertons”: Anti-Union Consultants And Surveillance Tech Thwart Organizing, Jo Constantz

Capstones

In 2020, just 6.3% of U.S. private-sector workers were union members, despite the fact that 68% of Americans approve of labor unions, the highest since 1965, and nearly half of non-union workers say they would join.

After World War II, wage growth kept pace with GDP growth, but then began to diverge in the 1970s, according to a study by the RAND Corporation. After 1975, incomes of the bottom 90% rose more slowly than the economy as a whole, while incomes of the top 10% grew faster. The declining wage growth coincided with and is closely related to a drop-off …

Caremark And Esg, Perfect Together: A Practical Approach To Implementing An Integrated, Efficient, And Effective Caremark And Eesg Strategy, Leo E. Strine Jr., Kirby M. Smith, Reilly S. Steel

All Faculty Scholarship

With increased calls from investors, legislators, and academics for corporations to consider employee, environmental, social, and governance factors (“EESG”) when making decisions, boards and managers are struggling to situate EESG within their existing reporting and organizational structures. Building on an emerging literature connecting EESG with corporate compliance, this Essay argues that EESG is best understood as an extension of the board’s duty to implement and monitor a compliance program under Caremark. If a company decides to do more than the legal minimum, it will simultaneously satisfy legitimate demands for strong EESG programs and promote compliance with the law. Building …

Invisible Hand Or Collective Command: Unionized Effect On State Wages, Michael Felix

Business and Economics Presentations

No abstract provided.

Generational Differences In Attitudes About Unions: A Segmented Dispositional Marketing Approach, Vickie Coleman Gallagher, Jack Firorito

Southern Business Review

Vickie Coleman Gallagher, is a Ph.D. student at Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306.

Jack Firorito, Ph.D., is the J. Frank Dame Professor of Management, College of Business, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306.

Recipient, Best Paper Award, 26th Annual Southern Industrial Relations and Human Resource Conference (SIRHRC), Savannah, GA 31401.

Toward Fair And Sustainable Capitalism: A Comprehensive Proposal To Help American Workers, Restore Fair Gainsharing Between Employees And Shareholders, And Increase American Competitiveness By Reorienting Our Corporate Governance System Toward Sustainable Long-Term Growth And Encouraging Investments In America’S Future, Leo E. Strine Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

To promote fair and sustainable capitalism and help business and labor work together to build an American economy that works for all, this paper presents a comprehensive proposal to reform the American corporate governance system by aligning the incentives of those who control large U.S. corporations with the interests of working Americans who must put their hard-earned savings in mutual funds in their 401(k) and 529 plans. The proposal would achieve this through a series of measured, coherent changes to current laws and regulations, including: requiring not just operating companies, but institutional investors, to give appropriate consideration to and make …

Runaway: A History Of Postwar New York In Four Factories, Andy Battle

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

At midcentury, New York City was among the preeminent manufacturing centers in the United States. Within a generation, this manufacturing economy suffered an extraordinary collapse. Beginning in the 1950s, workers and their unions began to use the term “runaway” to describe factories that pulled up stakes in New York and set them back down in other climes. This dissertation explores the deindustrialization of New York City through case studies of “runaway” plants, or factories that left New York for the American South or abroad between the years 1945 and 1975.

In general, the manufacturers that remained in New York at …

Building Momentum For Collectivity In The Digital Games Community, Johanna Weststar, Marie-Josee Legault

Management and Organizational Studies Publications

Studies of digital game labor have tended to document problems in the working lives of developers while devoting relatively limited attention to solutions, or to collective representation as a step toward solutions. An increasing number of game developers are dissatisfied with their working conditions, and dissatisfaction is a necessary condition for workers to engage in collective action to gain the representational power needed to achieve change in the workplace. Noting that the landscape of collective mobilization in the game industry has not yet been systematically mapped, this article documents collective actions over the past five decades, and asks, “Are the …

Bargaining For Adjuncts: An Assessment Of Adjunct Union Growth In The Saint Louis Region, Jameson Ramirez

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

Minimum-wage labor is no longer confined to sectors once associated with low-skill occupations. In college classrooms across the United States, we are witness to the rise of a “gig-economy” among faculty positions where highly skilled work is being completed by part-time workers known commonly as adjuncts. Despite performing highly-skilled work, adjuncts are compensated at the levels of low-skilled workers. Lack of access to benefits, capricious contract agreements, and a general sense of feeling dispensable are common themes to the adjunct experience. The aim of this paper is to address the concerns of adjuncts and suggest some workable solutions to their …

A Study Of The Hierarchical Culture Gaps Within Unionized Utilities Companies, Levi R. G. Nieminen, Benjamin Biermeier-Hanson, Adam Roebuck, Daniel R. Denison

Organization Management Journal

The purpose of this study was to measure the culture gaps between hierarchical subgroups within unionized utilities companies. We conducted a mixed methods study. Using archival survey data, we compared hierarchically-defined subgroups’ perceptions of performance-linked culture traits within five unionized utilities companies. We later conducted interviews and focus groups, followed by qualitative coding and analysis. As compared to non-union employees, union employees viewed their companies as substantially less involving, consistent, adaptable, and clear about purpose and direction. Our qualitative analysis highlighted two prior management decisions as illustrative of the contrast between high and low levels of union involvement and clarity. …

Unionization And The Development Of Policies For Non-Tenure Track Faculty: A Comparative Study Of Research Universities, Karen Halverson Cross

Karen Halverson Cross

This paper examines how policies at several research universities support and professionalize their full-time, non-tenure track (NTT) instructional faculty, and considers the influence of NTT faculty unions on policy development at these institutions. Faculty handbooks, collective bargaining agreements (CBAs), and other policy documents at a few institutions with and without CBAs were analyzed for the presence of institutional, NTT faculty-supportive policies. One unionized and one non-unionized institution were selected as sites for interviews with faculty and administrators. The paper finds CBAs to be a significant source of NTT faculty-supportive policies, and the union to provide important procedural safeguards against arbitrary …

Unionization And The Development Of Policies For Non-Tenure Track Faculty: A Comparative Study Of Research Universities, Karen Halverson Cross

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

This paper examines how policies at several research universities support and professionalize their full-time, non-tenure track (NTT) instructional faculty, and considers the influence of NTT faculty unions on policy development at these institutions. Faculty handbooks, collective bargaining agreements (CBAs), and other policy documents at a few institutions with and without CBAs were analyzed for the presence of institutional, NTT faculty-supportive policies. One unionized and one non-unionized institution were selected as sites for interviews with faculty and administrators. The paper finds CBAs to be a significant source of NTT faculty-supportive policies, and the union to provide important procedural safeguards against arbitrary …

Academic Librarians And Labor Unions: Attitudes And Experiences, Ian Mccullough

Ian McCullough

Unions And Professional Organizations, Diamanta Skenderi, Besnik Skenderi

UBT International Conference

This paper discusses the role of unions, professional organizations and the place business should take in society. In addition, this paper also is about how the company policy should be with regard to the environment, or on dealing with evil regimes. For this paper, academic journals have been used and in a last part is provided conclusion.

Labor Unions And Occupational Safety: Event-Study Analysis Using Union Elections, Ling Li, Shawn Rohlin, Perry Singleton

Center for Policy Research

This study examines the dynamic relationship between union elections and occupational safety among manufacturing establishments. Data on union elections come from the National Labor Relations Board, and data on workplace inspections and accident case rates come from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The results indicate that union elections improved occupational safety. First, workplace inspections trended upwards before the election, then decreased immediately after the election, due almost entirely to employee complaints. Second, accident case rates were relatively stable before the election, then trended downwards after the election, due to accidents involving days away from work, job restrictions, and job …

Unions And The Labor Market For Managers, John Dinardo, Kevin F. Hallock, Jörn-Steffen Pischke

Kevin F Hallock

We examine the relationship between the employment and compensation of managers and CEOs and the presence of a unionized workforce. We develop a simple efficiency wage model, with a tradeoff between higher wages for workers and more monitoring, which requires more managers. The model also assumes rent sharing between workers, managers and the owners of the firm. Unions, by redistributing rents towards the workers, lead to lower employment and lower pay for managers. Using a variety of data sets, we examine the implications of the model for the relationship between the employment and wages of managers and unionization. We find …

Seniority_List: A Tool To Address The Challenge Of Airline Mergers And Labor Integration, Robert Davison, Sean Edmund Rogers Ph.D.

Sean Edmund Rogers

Integrating employee groups from separate firms into a combined, well-functioning workforce presents one of the most difficult challenges in a corporate merger. This has particularly been the case in the recent airline mergers in the U.S. that have left three large legacy airlines, namely, American, Delta, and United. Carriers in these mergers have, in some cases, seen years of arbitration and litigation, employee turmoil and labor union decertification, and delays in operational integration and the realization of anticipated merger synergies. In response to this situation, this report introduces seniority_list, a computer-based tool that can be used by unions, employee groups, …

The Impact Of Unions On Information Asymmetry, Caroline Burke

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Prior literature documents a positive association between union power, calculated using industry-level union data, and information asymmetry. Prior literature also finds a mitigating effect from employee ownership on the negative association between union power and voluntary disclosure. Using a sample of company observations for fiscal years 2008 through 2010, I examine the effect of company-specific measures of employee unionization on market-based measures of information asymmetry (proxied for by insider trading activity, analyst following, and analyst dispersion). I also examine whether employee ownership impacts the effect of company-specific measures of employee unionization on my market-based measures of information asymmetry. I find …

Panel Handout: Microaggressions And Implicit Bias On Campus - Microaggression Theory: A Selected Bibliography 2016, Barbara Diamond

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.

Panel Handout: Microaggressions And Implicit Bias On Campus - Implicit Bias: A Selected Biography 2016, Barbara Diamond

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.

Workshop: Microaggressionsand Implicit Bias On Campus - Microaggressions And Disability, Barbara Diamond

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.

Panel: Dual Credit And Enrollment Issues At Community Colleges - A Case Study: Erie Community College, Kristin Klein Wheaton

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.

Panel: Dual Credit And Enrollment Issues At Community Colleges, Alec Thomson

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.

Panel Handout: Best Practices In Arbitration Of Higher Education Issues, Rosemary Townley

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.

Panel Handout: Year In Higher Education, Jerry Cutler

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.

Panel Handout: Pensions And Health Insurance Savings For Contingent Faculty, William Shimer

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.

Panel Handout: Collective Bargaining Issues Concerning Post-Doctorates - Rutgers And Aaup Post-Doc Cba

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

No abstract provided.