The Center for Economic and Policy Research, an economic think tank which counts Nobel Laureate economists Robert Solow and Joseph Stiglitz among its board members, has published a new report by John Schmitt and Ben Zipperer, Dropping the Ax: Illegal Firings During Union Election Campaigns.
Using National Labor Relations Board data, Schmitt and Zipperer conclude that 1 in every 5 American workers organizing unions are illegally fired — reflecting a steep rise in such firings since 2000.
Schmitt’s and Zipperer’s analysis of the effect of ‘card check’ organizing on these illegal firings will be of interest to those who have followed the debate over labor rights for charter school teachers in New York. They write:
Beginning in the mid-1960s, unions began to adapt more aggressively and more successfully to employer “union avoidance” strategies. An important component of these strategic changes by unions was a shift away from the traditional NLRB election process toward organizing campaigns centered around “card-check” recognition…
To the extent that the union strategy was successful, the shift to card check after the mid-1990s will have reduced the incidence of illegal firings. This [reduces] the apparent probability that a pro-union worker will be fired illegally. But, the resulting decline in illegal firings under these circumstances is not the result of a decline in anti-union behavior by employers, but rather the result of an adaptive strategy employed by unions…
