This paper considers the size of the market for unionisation in Britain and what unions can do to increase employees’ desire for membership and representation. It identifies quite high levels of union satisfaction among members, but a sizeable minority of 10-14% of members who are discontented with their union who are most at risk of leaving the union. Successful retention depends upon unions i...

To what extent, and in what way, do labor unions shape workers’ political preferences? Despite a decline in membership rates, few other organizations have the reach and ongoing access to such a sizable share of the electorate. A key question that arises is the degree to which this access translates into political influence. Empirical analyses often find that union members exhibit political view...

The effect of unions on profits continues to be an unresolved empirical issue. In this paper, meta-regression analysis is applied to the population of 45 econometric studies that report 532 estimates of the direct effect of unions on profits. We show that unions have a significant negative effect on profits, and that this effect is larger in the US. Separate meta-regression analysis is used to ...

R andomized controlled trials demonstrate that implantablecardioverter-defibrillators(ICDs)reduce mortalityincertainpatientswithsymptomaticheart failureandnohistoryof suddencardiacdeath(SCD). This trialevidencehasledtoguidelinesrecommendingplacement ofanICDforprimarySCDprevention inpatientswithheart failure meeting specific criteria. More patients are receivingICDtherapyasindicationsforthisther...

The Social Accountability 8000 Standard (SA 8000), along with other types of certification standards and corporate codes of conduct, represents a new form of voluntary “self-governance” of working conditions in the private sector, initiated and implemented by companies, labor unions, and non-governmental activist groups cooperating together. There is an ongoing debate about whether this type of...

A recent case reminded me that it has been almost 15 years since Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act at the urging of President George Herbert Walker Bush. While everyone supported the goals of the Act, some lawyers were unclear about the changes that the Act would bring and the effect they might have. In anesthesia, what disabilities would be protected by the Act and what kinds...

Trade unions seek to tackle developments in the economic and social context of employment, as well as addressing changing membership priorities. Recent debate about union organisation and operation, particularly at a local level, has centred on an examination of the ways in which unions have been challenged by developments in the composition of managerial hierarchies and approaches, work and em...

Ethnic minority-majority unions-also referred to as mixed ethnic unions-are often seen as the ultimate evidence of the integration of ethnic minorities into their host societies. We investigated minority-majority unions in Estonia, where ethnic minorities account for one-third of the total population (Russians 26%, followed by Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Finns and other smaller groups). Using da...

This paper aims at challenging conventional theory according to which the abandonment of Keynesianism by social democratic governments entailed a ‘divorce’ between once very close parties and trade unions. During the 1980s and 1990s, Social Democratic parties endorsed the new economic consensus grounded on restrictive monetary policies. Nonetheless, a collaborative relationship between social d...

Unions have a substantial impact on the compensation and work lives of both unionized and non-unionized workers. This report presents current data on unions' effect on wages, fringe benefits, total compensation, pay inequality, and workplace protections. Some of the conclusions are: • Unions raise wages of unionized workers by roughly 20% and raise compensation, including both wages and benefit...