Spurts in Union Growth: Defining Moments and Social Processes

Richard Freeman

No 6012, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper examines the spurt in U.S. unionism during the Great Depression. It argues that the Depression spurt is better understood as resulting from a Depression sparked endogenous social process than from New Deal legislation and Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) leadership. Four pieces of evidence are offered for this interpretation: 1. The ubiquity of spurts in unionization across countries, particularly in the Depression. 2. The widespread use of recognition strikes during the 1930s spurt. 3. The growth of CIO affiliates with little CIO financial or organizing aid. 4. The growth of American Federation of Labor (AFL) affiliated unions. I model unionization as the outcome from a conflict between union/worker organizing activity and employer opposition, both of which depend on the proportion organized. Union organizing and activity rises with density, then falls with density. Employer opposition is high at low densities but falls once unions gain control of the relevant market. The result is a nonlinear difference equation that produces spurts of union growth. The Depression initiated a spurt by increasing worker desires for unions and by raising density above the critical level' for rapid growth in many industries.

Date: 1997-04
Note: LS
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Published as Freeman, Richard B. "Spurts in Union Growth: Defining Moments and Social Processes". The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century. Edited by Michael D.Bordo,Claudia Goldin, and Eugene N.White, Chicago: The Univ.of Chicago Press, 1998, pp.265-295.
Published as Spurts in Union Growth: Defining Moments and Social Processes , Richard B. Freeman. in The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century , Bordo, Goldin, and White. 1998

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w6012.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Chapter: Spurts in Union Growth: Defining Moments and Social Processes (1998)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:6012

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w6012

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().