This paper explores the decline of union membership within partially organized firms. Using data from two Conference Board surveys of labor relations practices (1977 and 1983), the authors test a series of propositions concerning the effects of corporate industrial relations values and...

Using a survey of workers in a large unionized manufacturing plant in which quality circles had been introduced without the involvement of the union, the authors test several hypotheses about the profiles of workers who volunteered to join the program and of workers who participated in it. They...

The author proposes a new Jobs Compact to close the nation's jobs deficit, to create sufficient high-quality jobs to raise wages and end thirty years of wage stagnation, and to update and strengthen labor and employment policies. A set of market and institutional failures are identified as root...

Examining data from two national surveys of matched pairs of union and management lead negotiators, the authors evaluate the current state of practice in labor relations and test several propositions related to the transformation of American industrial relations. They find that 30-40% of the...

The authors examine debates about the effects of mandatory interest arbitration on police and firefighters in New York State under the Taylor Law from 1974 to 2007. Comparing experience with interest arbitration in the first three years after the law was adopted with experiences from 1995 to...

Unionism and collective bargaining among U.S. state and local government employees are being widely debated, and some of these governments have sharply reduced or eliminated public employee unionism and bargaining rights. Such actions are based on a belief that fiscal adversity facing state and...

This study analyzes the relationship among plant-level measures of industrial relations performance, economic performance, and quality-of-working-life programs. The analysis employs pooled time-series and cross-section data from 18 plants within a division of General Motors for the years...

This paper compares the Butler and Ehrenberg analysis of the narcotic effects of impasse procedures, presented in the preceding article, with the purposes, methods, and empirical results of the authors' earlier paper on the same subject. The authors use the differences in the two papers to argue...