<p>This study is an examination of the process of unionization in a nursing home. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with the employees of Journey's End Nursing Home, Prosperity Point, Nova Scotia. The focus of my research was three-fold. First to develop an understanding of why employee's unionized we examined the labour process and general work conditions prior to unionization. Second we examined the process or how the employee's went about getting unionized. Third we undertook an examination of the results of unionization. The central argument in this thesis is that the employees of Journey's End Nursing Home unionized in order to change the labour process. Specifically they wanted 'out' of what they saw as a domestic labour process. This thesis clearly demonstrates two things: firstly, that these women were employed in a domestic labour process secondly, that as a result of unionization the labour process has changed. </p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>This research is a case study of a certification drive that took place at Brock University. The study views the "certification campaign" as the critical factor in the rejection of unionization among Brock University faculty in the 1983-84 academic year.</p><p></p><p> Two factors led the researcher to examine the role of the certification campaign in the rejection of unionization at Brock University: First, the same reasons that led faculty elsewhere to unionize were also the reasons underlying the attempt at unionization among Brock University faculty. These were the unsatisfactory grievance procedures, anti-administration sentiments and unsatisfactory salary settlements; second, Brock university exhibited the same characteristics of those institutions where faculty often adopted collective bargaining. That is, Brock University was one of the young, recently established, growing universities. </p><p></p><p> seventeen faculty members were interviewed to assess two aspects of the certification campaign: a) how the arguments in favour of certification were received; b) how the campaign leadership was perceived. Axelrod (1982) maintains that all successful unionization campaigns appealed to their constituency both in terms of the arguments that they presented and also through their leadership. The interview data indicate that the arguments presented by the campaign leaders in favour of certification were not supported by faculty members, including those faculty in favour of unionization. The campaign leadership, on the other hand, did not have a favourable standing among those faculty who opposed collective bargaining in 1983-84. The campaigners were described as less mature in terms of their age and service in the university; they were perceived as political ideologues and mainly concerned with the power structures within the university. </p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to gain insight into the perspectives of experienced higher education administrators regarding faculty unionization, the collective bargaining process, and the interpersonal relationships between higher education faculty members and administrators. The primary method of data collection was semi-structured face to face interviews with nine administrators from two community colleges and two universities in the south Florida area. All of the study participants worked with unionized faculty members and had direct experience participating in bargaining negotiations. Upon the completion of each interview, the researcher listened to the taped audio recording of the interview several times and then transcribed all of the information from the audiotape into a Word file. Data collection and analysis for each participant were performed concurrently. Using a modified concept mapping approach, the research questions were written on large yellow sticky notes and placed in the middle of a wall in the researcher’s home with nine descriptive categorical themes written on smaller sticky notes placed around the study questions. The highlighted quotes and key phrases were cut from each transcript and placed under each of the descriptive categories. Over the course of a few months repeatedly reviewing the research questions that guided this study, the theory of symbolic interactionism, and relevant literature the categorical descriptive themes were refined and condensed into five descriptive themes. Study findings indicated that the administrators: (a) must have a clear understanding of what it is that the faculty does to be an effective representative at the bargaining table, (b) experienced role ambiguity and role strain related to a lack of understanding as to their role at the bargaining table and a lack of organizational support, (c) were not offered any type of training in preparation for bargaining, (d) perceived a definite “us versus them” mentality between faculty and administration, and (e) saw faculty collective bargaining at public institutions of higher education in Florida as ineffectual.

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Atkinson proposed a concept of ¡§flexible firm¡¨ in 1984, and distinguished workers into three parts: core workers, peripheral workers and external workers. In 1997, Handy considered that organization would be composed of core work team, temporary employees, and flexible workers in the future. Therefore, Work in the organization would be divided into two parts: core work and non-core work. Core workers are responsible for core work, and non-core work are outsourced or distributed to other contractors. Then, atypical employment rises and develops. The use of this kind of employment will become a trend, and companies can save money this way. The purposes of this thesis are: (1) to understand the situation of atypical employment in the Bureau of National Health Insurance (the NHI); (2) to find out the reasons of unionization for temporary workers in the NHI; (3) to understand the restraints on unionization of atypical employees; (4) to provide suggestion to government and government-run companies. According to the results of interviews and analysis, the reason that the NHI continues to employ temporary employees is to stabilize business. The NHI can continue to employ temporary employees since these temporary employees are not included into Labor Standards Law. Three reasons that temporary employees of the NHI can unionize are: (1) work time and worksites of temporary employees of the NHI are fixed; (2) insurance industries are covered by Labor Standards Law, and temporary employees of the NHI are included into Labor Standards Law; (3) organizational system of the NHI is a government-run financial and insurance organization, so it is not limited by the fourth clause of Labor Union Law.

The 1980s as a decade is characterized by the proliferation of new information and communication technologies as well as the expansion of US-led economic policy following the economic depression of the 1970s. Deregulation, privatization and the withdrawal of the state from many areas due to the disintegration of the welfare state model were all common all around the world. All these significant changes affected the structure of the labour market, the work organization and the framework for the employment relationship. As with any industry in the world, the organisation of the media has dramatically changed since the 1980s, the most important being the alteration of media ownership patterns. Indeed, in Turkey, the traditional media proprietors who were also journalists themselves replaced big trustees. This followed by journalists giving priority to the interests of the media proprietors&rsquo / . Thus, the media became a hegemonic tool and journalists accepted working under the ideological pressure with the belief that they could not be successful unless they played the game according the rules. It was with these changes that the deunionization has emerged. Bosses aimed at decreasing the power of the union at the workplace and pulverize workers&rsquo / reaction. This study presents the results of a field study consisting of a survey of 285 journalists among which there are unionised as well as non-unionised members and in-depth interviews with 35 journalists who occupy posts such as editors, chief editors or managers. The study reveals that most journalists choose not to become a member of a union due to the fear of losing their jobs. Factors such as the structure of the media, the employment legislation and the organisation of the unions are also important in understanding the journalists&rsquo / conception of unionization. Furthermore, the lack of class consciousness among journalists also causes denunionazation in the media sector. Today, most journalists believe that they belong to the elite class of the society just like the media proprietors. Therefore, it becomes inevitable for them to represent their bosses&rsquo / class and act according to the media group&rsquo / s expectations and business interests.

This dissertation consists of three essays on firms' behaviors under staggered treatment adoption. The first essay draws information from a micro-lender and a credit bureau to identify the causal effects of small loans on the financial health of a group of small U.S. business owners. To achieve this, we exploit temporal variations in the loan disbursements and use an estimation strategy that controls for potential biases due to treatment effect heterogeneity. The results suggest that even small loans are effective in generating lasting positive impacts on widely accepted financial health indicators, such as Vantage Score (Credit Score), Debt-to-Income Ratio, and Credit Utilization Ratio. We obtain similar robust results for subprime and startup borrowers, who are known to face difficulties in securing credit. The second essay combines unionization data from the National Labor Relations Board and financial data from Compustat to examine the causal effects of unionization on the financing decisions of publicly traded firms in the United States. In this essay, I exploit temporal variations in the election date of unionization across firms and use a dynamic difference-in- difference estimation strategy to identify the effects of unionization on a range of financial indicators, including the Debt-to-Equity ratio, market leverage, book leverage, long-term book leverage, net leverage and cash to asset ratio. I find that unionization negatively affect firms' financing decisions. For example, after unionization, firms rely less on leverage to raise capital. At the same time, unionization offers incentive to firms to hold more cash in hand. My analysis also suggests that the effects of unionization vary according to the political and institutional structure of the states in which firms operate. For instance, the impacts on the outcome variables are more pronounced for the firms in democrat-led states and for firms which operate in states without right-to-work laws. The effects of unionization are also more noticeable for multi-establishment firms versus one-establishment firms. In addition, we find that the effects vary according to the margin of support for unionization within a firm. The third essay examines the causal effects of unionization on innovation activities of publicly traded firms in the United States. As in the case of chapters 1 and 2, the analysis uses a dynamic difference-in-difference estimation strategy on a dataset that is compiled using information on unionization data from the National Labor Relations Board, financial data from Compustat and KPSS patent data. My analysis encompasses a wide range of innovation indicators, including the number of patents, number of forward citations, market value of patents, average citations, number of patents to RandD expenditures ratio, number of citations to RandD expenditures ratio, number of patents per 1000 employees, capital expenditures to sales ratio and RandD expenditures to sales ratio. The findings suggest a small positive impact of unionization on most of these innovation indicators, with the exception of market value of patents and number of patents to RandD expenditures ratio. I also find that the effects of unionization vary according to political orientations of states, industry type, firm size and firm age. The results demonstrate that the effects on innovation are more pronounced for smaller and younger firms and for firms operating in democrat-led states as well as manufacturing firms. / Doctor of Philosophy / This thesis is a collection of three self-contained essays that examine the firms' behaviors in contexts where not all the units received the treatment at the same point in time. In the first essay, we investigate how small loans affect the financial health of small business owners. By analyzing data from a lender and credit bureau, we identify the causal effects of receiving loans on the financial health of borrowers. The results indicate that even small loans have a positive and lasting impact on credit scores, debt-to-income ratios, and credit utilization ratios. This research also sheds light on the effects of loans on borrowers with less favorable credit status or those starting a new business, who often face challenges in accessing credit. In the second essay, the focus shifts to the impact of unionization on the financing decisions of publicly traded firms in the United States. We examine the causal effects of unionization on various financial indicators. The findings reveal a negative effect of unionization on metrics such as debt-to-equity ratio, market leverage, and book leverage. However, cash holdings experience an increase. Furthermore, the effects of unionization vary based on the political and institutional structure of the states where firms operate, as well as the margin of support for unionization within a firm. The impact of unionization is more pronounced in democrat- led/without right-to-work law states, multi-establishment firms and when the support for unionization is stronger among employees. In the third essay, we investigate the effects of unionization on innovation activities within publicly traded firms in the United States. By analyzing unionization data, financial data, and patent data, the study examines the causal effects of unionization on various innovation indicators. The results reveal a small positive impact of unionization on most innovation indicators, such as the number of citations, number of patents per 1000 employees as well as ratio of number of citations to RandD expenditures. However, the effects on market value of patents and number of patent-to-RandD expenditure ratios are not statistically significant. Moreover, the analysis considers factors like political orientations of states in which the firms operate, industry type, firm size and firm age. The findings indicate that the effects on innovation outcomes are more pronounced for smaller firms, younger firms, firms operating in democrat-led states and manufacturing firms.

Thesis advisor: Geoffrey Sanzenbacher / Labor unions are generally considered to be beneficial for workers wages and benefits, but have been on the decline for decades. This analysis questions why workers appear more hesitant to vote for labor unions now than in the past by investigating what factors influence individual labor union votes. Specifically, this analysis aims to pinpoint the effect that outside minimum wages have on union election outcomes. Using data from the United States National Labor Relations Board, Michigan State, IPUMS USA and the US Census Bureau, I generated two models – a logistic regression, and an ordinary least squares regression – that each predict the likelihood of union support based upon outside minimum wages, after controlling for a variety of factors including but not limited to the county unemployment rate, the existence of the Right to Work law, and county-level demographics. I find that the difference between state-level or city-level minimum wages and the federal minimum wage has a positive relationship with the likelihood of union certification. Specifically, I find that union support is most likely in areas where the local-level minimum wage is $4.18 higher than the federal minimum wage in the logistic model, and $5.13 higher than the federal minimum in the ordinary least squares model, ceteris paribus. Put differently, with a federal minimum wage of $7.25, areas with minimum wages around $12 are most likely to see union elections pass. Overall, these results suggest that workers are more likely to vote for a union when local exogenous economic environments are strong. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Economics.

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To improve U.S. residents' health, advocates are focusing their efforts on workplace health. Researchers have found that unionization is a positive influence on workers' participation in health promotion programs relating to smoking and obesity prevention. However, the effect of union membership on other health promotion initiatives, such as influenza vaccination compliance among health care workers, has not been examined. The purpose of this quantitative study was to address this knowledge gap between a union and a nonunion health care facility in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The health belief model was used to determine if different domains of influenza vaccination perception predicted vaccination behaviors among union and nonunion health care workers. A secondary analysis was performed on the 2013-2014 Influenza Vaccination Survey, which was completed by 2,480 health care workers. While a chi-square analysis showed that vaccination compliance was not statistically different between facilities, a binary logistic regression revealed a significant difference in predicted vaccination behaviors for each domain of influenza vaccination perceptions. Among union health care workers, perceived barriers yielded the highest positive predictability of vaccination compliance, whereas perceived benefits were positively associated with vaccination compliance among nonunion workers. These study findings affect social change by identifying vaccine compliance predictors among union and nonunion health care workers. By focusing on these predictors, health care facilities may be able to improve levels of vaccination compliance and achieve the Joint Commissions' vaccination goal of 90% compliance amongst all healthcare workers.