A struggle on two fronts

Labour resistance to changing layoff policies at large US companies

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4237311
AutoresJ Jung (0000-0002-9784-1206, autor de correspondencia)
Año2015
Páginasmwv015
Fecha de publicación2015-07-11
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSocio-Economic Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1475-1461 • E-ISSN: 1475-147X
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/ser/mwv015
OpenAlexW2342456450
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7
Referencias citadas75

In the 1980s, the layoff policy of large US companies changed from temporary suspension of employment to permanent termination. Previous studies have examined how powerful shareholders and shareholder-value-oriented managers promoted this change, but they have failed to capture the fuller extent of the underlying inter-class power dynamics, overlooking how labour contested the change. Building on models of both temporary and permanent layoff announcements made by 679 large US companies from 1984 to 2006, this article examines labour unions' resistance to the shift from temporary to permanent layoffs. Results suggest that labour unions resisted the shift, both by bargaining with firms for more reliance on temporary layoffs, when workforce adjustment was unavoidable, and by discouraging firms from making permanent layoffs through direct confrontation. The results further suggest that the hostile political environment in the 1980s and the early 1990s significantly undermined unions' ability to maintain temporary layoffs, contributing to the shift.

Bargaining power · Business · Collective bargaining · Corporate governance · Economic growth · Economics · Labour economics · Layoff · Market economy · Political science · Politics · Resistance (ecology) · Shareholder · Shareholder value · Unemployment · Workforce · Employment and Welfare Studies · Finance · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Organizational Downsizing and Restructuring