A Micro-Level Study of Strikes During Contract Negotiations: Determinants and Effects on Wage Changes

Two distinct tasks are undertaken in this dissertation. First, a model of strike determination during the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement is developed and tested. The theoretical contribution of this model is its explicit analysis in a choice theoretic framework of the factors underlying both the union's and the employer's willingness to risk a strike. Hypotheses generated by the model are tested using pooled time series, cross-sectional data on individual contract negotiations by bargaining units in U.S. manufacturing industries to test the empirical model. The study is the first to use micro-level measures of strike duration and worker-days-idled as well as the occurrence or nonoccurrence of a strike as dependent variables. The model is estimated using tobit analysis for the former two variables and probit analysis for the latter.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Labor and Industrial Relations

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Gramm, Cynthia Louise

• Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8409934

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/71538