Coordination, Cooperation and Competition Among Unions in Canada

My dissertation explores the internal dynamics of the Canadian labour movement. While the labour movement faces numerous external challenges, shifting the focus inward to the organizations that comprise the labour movement can provide insights into pathways for union revitalization. Empirically, I examine how inter-union competition impacts wage settlements and whether and how the occurrence of a strike is impacted by strikes in other organizations. Chapter 1 situates these questions within the broader discourse on union revitalization and within the Canadian context. Chapter 2 presents a methodology for constructing a novel dataset on wage adjustments, which facilitates analysis of outcomes at the collective agreement level. This dataset is used in Chapter 3 to study the impact of inter-union competition. Inter-union conflicts have been argued to both damage and strengthen the labour movement. I examine the relationship between inter-union competition and wage adjustments for unionized workers in Ontario using measures of competition derived from the prevalence of alternative unions, as well as changes and attempted changes in union representation (i.e. raids). In Chapter 4, I explore whether strike activity spreads. While prior literature has hypothesized that strikes trigger further strikes, I develop the theory of strike spread by incorporating the strategic responses of employers and unions to a strike at an external organization. Strikes are predicted to spread only under narrow circumstances: a barrier to employer concessions at the focal organization, or when strike issues are broad and unions perceive an opportunity to coordinate their actions. In contrast strikes are not predicted to spread when the employer at the focal organization responds to workers’ strike-readiness by granting concessions, or when unions perceive an opportunity to free-ride on an external strike. I estimate the extent of strike spread by incorporating a measure of local strike activity in a model of strike incidence. I find limited evidence of spread, consistent with the theory but in contrast to prior literature which finds strikes spread “like wildfire”. Chapter 5 concludes by situating the findings of the empirical chapters within the context of union revitalization and discusses the implications of the studies for the labour movement.

Department dc:contributor.department

Industrial Relations and Human Resources

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Potter, Shannon Elizabeth

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Pohler, Dionne

• collective bargaining
• competition
• cooperation
• coordination
• strikes
• unions

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1807/141245

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/141245