Consenting to be Governed: Union Transformation and Teamster Democracy

In their efforts to define and assess union democracy, researchers have principally relied on a “legalistic” perspective (Taft 1948; Edelstein and Warner 1976; Stephan-Norris 1998), which focuses on formal constitutional measures and a “behavioral” perspective (Lipset, Trow and Coleman 1956; McConnell 1958; Martin 1968; Nyden 1985; Stephan-Norris and Zeitlin1992; Needlemen 1998), which addresses the effects … Read more

Democratic Goods: Teamster Reform and Collective Bargaining Outcomes

Ever since Lipset, Trow and Coleman’s, Union Democracy (1956), the mechanics of democratic trade unionism have been a beguiling subject for labor academics. Much of the work, like Edelstein and Warner’s Comparative Union Democracy (1979), focused on organizational theory. The classic theorists of modern institutions (Fisher and McConnell, 1954; Michels, 1962; May, 1965; Jenkin, 1968; … Read more

From Union Identity to Union Voting: An Assessment of the 1996 Election

An important but remarkably under analyzed labor studies subject is the relationship between union identity and union member voting behavior. The dominant political theory in America holds that pluralism generates overlapping and crosscutting interests that militate against the formation of a dominant political orientation. However, it is the thesis of this work that once subjected … Read more

Contract Campaigns, Union Organizing and Leadership Development: The Case of Teamster Psychologists

Industrial relation research on union organizing (Despande and Viswesvaran 1987; Henenman and Sandver 1989; Grabelsky 1995; Hurd and Uehlein; Lucas 1997), leadership development (Burns et al 1987; Elkiss 1994; Goldberg 1995; Heshizer and Lund 1997) and strategic campaigns (Perry 1987; Northrup 1994; Bruno 1997a, b; Gramm, Maranto and Schnell 1997; Bronfrenbrenner and Juravich forthcoming) has … Read more

Voting the ‘New Union’ Label: Illinois Labor and The Return to Class Politics

Electoral behavior studies on post-WWII union voters have most often been framed within two contrasting theories. On one hand, many of the empirical works on employee attitudes and voting behavior give support to an organizational segmentation theory. The theory postulates that because union members’ political attitudes are influenced by divergent variables, organized labor’s social heterogeneity … Read more

Presidential Labor Regimes: Democrats from Roosevelt to Clinton

Much has been made of the AFL-CIO’s Labor ‘96 political campaign. Not since the CIO’s “People Campaign” in 1944 has the relationship between labor relations at the shop floor and executive political power been more central to the political education provided to millions of rank-and-file voters. The re-election of Bill Clinton then provides students of … Read more