Abstract
We use a cross-country survey of attitudes toward work and unions, which includes a sample of managers in both the US and Canada, to explore whether there is greater attitudinal hostility to unions in the U.S. Our estimates indicate that American manager’s attitudes towards unions are, perhaps surprisingly, less hostile than those of Canadian managers. We explain this first finding by the differential effect of perceived union power, which is greater in Canada than the US and which is correlated negatively with union approval. We also find that US managers are less likely to use extreme methods to oppose union organizing drives, implying that the lower union rates in the US as compared to Canada are not likely the result of greater negativity towards unions themselves but rather some other factor or combination of factors. The implication is that if Canadian managers faced the same labor relations playing field as their US counterparts, they would likely find it easier to thwart union certification drives as well. Alternatively stated, Canadian-style labor relations reforms (such as card-check systems or quicker certification votes) could perhaps tip the balance in favor of unions when organizing in the US.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Because of their expense, difficulty in achieving appropriate response rates through telephone surveying, and complexity, cross-national surveys of this kind—with such a comprehensive focus on labor relations—are now quite rare.
At the time of the Lipset and Meltz survey, 1996, there were 16 US sates that had union density rates less than 10 %. The lowest rate in Canada by contrast was found in Alberta at 22 %. This sets up another potential supporting piece of evidence for this explanation of our findings. The states that enacted right-to-work laws after the Taft-Hartley amendments of 1947 were States in which union density had always been historically low (North Carolina, Alabama etc.,). This can be seen in Appendix table 5. In other words, non-favourable union laws were an affirmation (and to some extent an insurance) of union weakness, not the direct cause.
Lipset and Katachanovski (2001) also used the Lipset-Meltz data. However, they only provided comparisons of means and did not undertake any multivariate analyses of the manager subsample that is used in this paper.
For example, in 1994 the ratio of complaints to elections in the US was 0.630 compared to 0.242 in British Columbia [US Data: Annual Report of the National Labour Relations Board; B.C. Data: Labour Relations Board, Annual Reports to the Minister of Labour].
The implicit assumption here is that union organizing is of equal “quality” and “quantity” in both countries. Meltz (1985) argued that the lack of competition among unions for members in the US had reduced proactive organizing as compared to Canada.
Changes to labor law in a number of Canadian provinces during the 1990s allowed for longer delays in the union certification process (Campolieti et al. 2007).
Findings from the survey (upon which the data for this paper is based) were originally made available in Lipset et al. (2004). Our paper however draws on primary data, literature and results not published in that volume.
An exception is the “What Workers Want” data collected by Freeman and Rogers (1999) for the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
In terms of extrapolating to national observations, the survey was undertaken by a well-known pollster Ipsos-Reid (then known as Angus-Reid) familiar with nationally representative surveys of this kind. When the survey was originally completed, the three survey samples for each country (so six in total)—there was a general population sample, a workforce sample and a union member sample—were examined against the various socio-demographic and workforce characteristics of the representative populations. According to Ipsos-Reid “The samples were considered to be satisfactorily representative across the range of descriptors examined with one exception of reported educational attainment, which [was] higher than the actual across all six samples.” (Lipset et al. 2004: 182).
Results presented in the text refer to the self-reported sample of managers who responded yes to the question “Would you describe yourself as a manager—that is, as someone who participates in establishing policies at your company or organization?” and who responded yes to the question “In your capacity as manager are you responsible for supervising or monitoring the work of subordinates?”
Lipset et al. (2004: 109) show correlations between historical average union density in the following periods (1939–1992), (1939 to 1974), (1939 to 1964), and (1982 to 1992) and demonstrate a strong positive relationship between current union density levels across states. The correlations are respectively 0.89, 0.82, 0.77, and 0.96.
The correlation between historical average union densities (1939 to 1992) in Canada was 0.51.
References
Abraham S, Eaton AE, Voos PB (2009) Card check recognition: resulting labor relations and investor reaction. Adv Ind Labor Relat 17:1–30
Artz B (2011) The voice effect of unions: evidence from the US. J Lab Res 32(4):326–335
Baird M, Lansbury R (2007) Reworking or restoring the American dream. Labor Hist 48(3):347–354
Betcherman G, McMullen K, Leckie N, Caron C (1994) The Canadian workplace in transition. Queens University IRC Press, Kingston
Blanchflower D, Bryson A (2004) What effect do unions have on wages now and would Freeman and Medoff be surprised? J Lab Res 25(3):383–414
Blanchflower D, Freeman R (1992) Unionism in the Unites States and other advanced OECD countries. Ind Relat 31(1):56–79
Bruce PG (1989) Political parties and labour legislation in Canada and the US. Ind Relat 28(2):115–141
Campolieti M, Riddell C, Slinn S (2007) Labor law reform and the role of delay in union organizing: empirical evidence from Canada. Ind Labor Relat Rev 61(1):32–48
Cooper R, Ellem Briggs B, van den Broek D (2009) Anti-unionism, employer strategy, and the Australian State, 1996–2005. Labor Stud J 34(3):339–362
Eaton A, Kriesky J (2009) NLRB campaigns vs. card check campaigns: results of a worker survey. Ind Labor Relat Rev 62(2):157–172
Farber H, Western B (2004) Can increased organizing reverse the decline of unions in the United States? In: Wunnava P (ed) The changing role of unions: new forms of representation. M.E. Sharpe, New York, pp 323–361
Ferguson J-P (2008) The eyes of the needles: a sequential model of union organizing drives, 1999–2004. Ind Labor Relat Rev 62(1):3–21
Freeman R (1988) Contraction and expansion: the divergence of public and private sector unionism in the United States. J Econ Perspect 2:188–201
Freeman R, Kleiner M (1990) The impact of new unionization on wages and working conditions. J Labor Econ 8(1):S8–S25
Freeman R, Rogers J (1999) What workers want. Cornell University Press and Russell Sage Foundation, Ithaca and London
Goddard J (2003) Do labor laws matter? the density decline and convergence thesis revisited. Ind Relat 42(3):458–492
Gould WB (1993) Agenda for reform: the future of employment relationships and the law. MIT Press, Cambridge
Jacoby S (1991) American exceptionalism revisited: the importance of management. In: Jacoby S (ed) Masters to managers: historical and comparative perspectives on American employers. Columbia University Press, New York
Kaufman B (1996) Why the Wagner act? reestablishing contact with its original purpose. In: Lewin D, Kaufman B, Sockell D (eds) Advances in industrial and labor relations, vol. 7. JAI Press, Greenwich, pp 15–68
Kaufman B (2004) Prospects for union growth in the United States in the early twenty-first century. In: Verma A, Kochan T (eds) Unions in the 21st century. Palgrave, London, pp 44–60
Kochan T, Katz H, McKersie R (1986 [1994]) The transformation of American industrial relations, 2nd edn. Cornell ILR Press: Ithaca
Kumar P (1993) From uniformity to divergence: industrial relations in Canada and the United States. Queens’ University IRC Press, Kingston
Lipset SM, Katachanovski I (2001) The future of private sector unions in the U.S. J Lab Res 22(2):229–244
Lipset SM, Meltz N (1998) Canadian and American attitudes toward work and institutions. Perspect Work 1(3):14–20
Lipset SM, Meltz N, Gomez R, Katachanovski I (2004) The paradox of American unionism. Cornell University Press
Logan J (2002) “Consultants, lawyers and the union-free movement in the United States since the 1970s.” Ind Relat J (August): 197–214
Logan J (2006) The union avoidance industry in the United States. Br J Ind Relat 44(4):651–675
Martinello F, Yates C (2004) Union and employer tactics in Ontario Organizing Campaigns. Adv Ind Labor Relat 13:157–190
Meltz N (1985) Labor movements in Canada and the United Sates. In: Kochan TA (ed) Challenges and choices facing American labor. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 315–334
Meltz N, Verma A (1996) “Beyond union density: union organizing and certification as indicators of union strength in Canada and the United States.” Paper presented for the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Canadian Industrial Relations Association
Poole M (1986) Industrial relations: origins and patterns of national diversity. Routledge, London
Riddell WC (1993) Unionization in Canada and the United States: a tale of two countries. In: Card D, Freeman R (eds) Small differences that matter: labor markets and income maintenance in Canada and the United States. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Riddell C (2004) Union certification success under voting versus card-check procedures: evidence from British Columbia, 1978–1998. Ind Labor Relat Rev 57(4):493–517
Robinson I (1996) “Re-thinking labor movement power: from movement character to mobilization capacity.” Paper Presented to the Annual meeting of the Comparative Industrial relations Research and Teaching Society
Rose J, Chaison G (1990) New measures of union organizing effectiveness. Ind Relat 20(3):457–468
Saporta I, Lincoln B (1995) Managers and workers attitudes toward unions in the US and Canada. Relat Ind/Ind Relat 50(3):550–566
Singh G (1999) “An analysis of public policy options to address the representation gap: elites’ values and diverging approaches in Canada and the US.” In: Proceedings of the 51st Annual Meeting of the Industrial Relations Research Association. Urbana-Champagne: Industrial and Labor Relations Association: 122–131
Slinn S (2004) An empirical analysis of the effects of the change from card-check to mandatory vote certification. Can Labor Employ Law J 11(2):258–301
Taras D (1994) The impact of industrial relations strategies on selected human resource practices. Ph.D dissertation, University of Calgary
Taras D (1997) Collective bargaining regulation in Canada and the United States: divergent cultures, divergent outcomes. In: Kaufman BE (ed) Governmental regulation of the employment relationship. Industrial and Labor Relations Research Association, Urbana-Champagne, pp 295–342
Taras D (2001) “Explaining Canadian-American differences in union density”. In: Proceedings of the 53rd Annual Meeting of the Industrial Relations Research Association. Urbana-Champagne: Industrial and Labor Relations Association, 153–162
Thompson M (1995) The management of industrial relations. In: Gunderson M, Ponak A (eds) Union-management relations in Canada, 3rd edn. Addison-Wesley, Don Mills, pp 105–129
Towers B (1997) The representation gap: change and reform in the British and American workplace. Oxford University Press, New York
Troy L (1990) Is the U.S. unique in the decline of private sector unionism? J Lab Res 11:111–143
Weiler PC (1983) Promises to keep: securing workers’ rights to self- organization under the NLRA. Harv Law Rev 96:1769–1827
Weiler PC (1984) Striking a new balance: freedom of contract and the prospects for union representation. Harv Law Rev 98:351–420
Wood S, Godard J (1999) The statutory recognition procedure in the employee relations bill: a comparative perspective. Brit J Ind Relat 37(2):203–45
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Appendix
Appendix
Table
Table
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Campolieti, M., Gomez, R. & Gunderson, M. Managerial Hostility and Attitudes Towards Unions: A Canada-US Comparison. J Labor Res 34, 99–119 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12122-012-9150-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12122-012-9150-0