DOCUMENT RESUME ED 313- CE 053 780 AUTHOR Hutchens, Robert; And Others TITLE Strikers-and Subsidies. The Influence of Government Transfer Ptograms on:Strike Activity. INSTITUTION Upjohn (W.E.) Inst. for Employment Research, Kalamazoo, Mich. 'REPORT NO ISBN-0,88099-079-1 PUB DATE 89 NOTE 234p. AVAILABLE FROMW.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, 300 South Westnedge Avenue, Kalamazoo, NI 49007 ($12.95 paperbackISBN-0-88099-079-1; $21.95 hardcover -- ISBN -0- 88099- 080 -5). pUB TYPE Books (010) --'Reports - Research/Technical (143) EDRS PRICE MFO1 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS. DESCRIPTORS *Eligibility; Labor Demands; Labor Problems; *Strikes; *Unemployment Insurance; *Unions; Welfare .Recipients; *Welfare Services IDENTIFIERS Aid. to Families with Dependent Children ABSTRACT The effects of government transfer programs such as unemployment insurance and welfare assistance on strikes were studied -by analyzing state -level -data on strike frequency from 1960 through 1974. Effects -were estimated 1.,4 using ordinary least squares_ regression, supplementing traditional models of strike activity with Measures of transfer program characteri'.ics. No support Was found for the claim that-Aid to Families with Dependent Children, food stamps, or general assistance affect strikes. HoWever, evidence was found linking unemployment insurance payments to the frequency of strikeF., with a more generous unemployment insurance program being as....:)ciated with a higher strike frequency. No conclusions were possiblepn-whether unemployment insurance programs affect either strike duration-or the number of workers involved in strikes. Either there are no effects or-the-methods used were not precise enough to measure the_effects,of two states, -(New York and Rhode Island) provision of unemployment compensation to strikers after a waiting period of 7-8 weeks. (The document includes a list of 109 references.) (OIL) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from theorigihal document. 0- p 0 &IL DEPARTMENT Or EOUCA7101 'Pace or careabonst Research and Imptevenent ECt. TIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) docuMent hes be sn reproduced as f." mowed from the parson or organs:Atm" ononebno it 3 'Amor changes have be made to improve rerooduchon oughts. o 'Points°. reser), %moans stated on the door- 'meta do not womanly represent othcm1 OEM position or pokey. "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL IN MICCORCHE ONLY HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONL_ ACES iNFORMATKIN CENTER (ENO." STRIKERS and SUBSIDIES The Influence of Government Transfer Programs on Strike Activity Robert Hutchens. David Lipsky Robert Stern New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations Cornell University 1989 W. E. UPJOHN INSTITUTE for Employment Research Kalamazoo, Michigan 3 Library of Congress Catalogig-in-Pablicadon Data Hutchens, Robert M. Strikers and subsidies : the influence of government transfer programs on Artie activity / by Robert Hutchens, David Lipsky, Robert Stern. p. cm. Inchides bibliographical refererrAts. ISBN 0-88099-080-5. ISBN 0-88099-079-1 (pbk.) 1. Strikes and lockoutsGovernment policyUnited States. 2. Insurance, UnemploymcntUnited States.3. Labor disputes United States.4. Insurance, Strike -- United States.5. Trade unionsUnited StatesStrike benefits.6. Transfer payments United States. I. Lipsky, David B., 1939- .H. Stern, Robert N., 1948- .III. Title. HD5324.H79 331.89'8dc20 89-16693 Up co Copyright © 1989 W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research THE INSTITUTE, a nonprofit research orpnization was established on July 1, 1945. It is an activity of the W. E. Upjohn Unemployment Trustee Corporation, which was formed in 1932 to administer a fund set aside by the late Dr. W. E Upjohn for the purpose of carrying on "research into the causes and effects of unemployment and measures for the alleviation of unemployment." The facts presented in this study and the obs-rvations and viewpoints expressed are the sole responsibility of the authors. They do not necessarily represent positions of the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. 4 Authors Robert Hutcheni is professor of LaborEconomics at Comell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He also serves as Chairman of the Depart- ment of Labor Economics. Hutchens received his Ph.D. in-economics from. the University bf Wisconsin in 1976, specializing in labor economics,-public finance, and econometrics. He has&written several papers on the economics of government transfer programs, With an einphit.sis on unemployment insurance and Aid to Families with Dependent Children. In 198041- he was a Policy FehOW at the Brookings InStitutionicleyoting-part of his time to the Depart- -4 ment of Health and Human Serviem In 1984 he was a visitor in the Depart- ment Of Ebonomies at the University Of British Columbia. His current research, encompasses not only government duapsfer programs, but also long-term im- plicit contracts and Ai market for older Workers: David Lipsky is Dean of the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell UniVerSity. Lipsky has been a Memb er. of the Cornell Univer; shy faculty for 20 years. His field of teaching and research is collective bargain- ing. He has been associate dean for academic affairs at ILR, and assistant prd- fessor, SUNY, Buffalo; visiting associate professor, MIT; visiting associate professor, Reston University; C->Director, Harvard Institute in Employment and Training Administration, adjunct lecturer,t0randeisPniVersity; and visiting scholar, University:of British :Columbia. He has Served' as Chairman of the Department of colleciiv,e Bargaining, Labor Law; and Ltor History; and as Editor and Associate Editor of-the ILR Review. He haS published over X_ articles anii-essayS and is the author or editor of 11 hobo, including Collec- tive Bargaining in American Industry (1987), and Paying for Better Teaching (1984): Robert Stern is associate professor of,9rganizational Behavior and Sociology at Cornelrs School of Industrial and Labcir Relations. He has completed ex- tensive research on the determinants of strikes and currently works in the areas of worker partiiapation and union-management cooperation. He has been a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Leiden,`The Netherlands and a visiting professor at the School of Management and:Institute of Industrial -Relations at the Uni,yersity of 'California at Berkeley. Stern has written or. coauthored 30 articles and 4 boblcs, including Employee Ownership in Plant Shutdowns, ESOPs: Benefits for,Whom? and Worker Participation and Ownership: Cooperative Strategies for Strengthening Local Economies. iv 6 Acknowledgements This volume is the culmination of a research project that we conducted over the courseilf several years. During that period we relied on numerous people for support, advice, information, data, and assistance. The project was sup- :ported by a grant from The W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Rese,arch. We owe a special debt of gratitiide to the Upjohn Institute, and particularly to H. Allan Hunt, Louis Jacobson, and the late Earl Wright for their encourage- nienti comments, and suggestions. We especially thank Lou Jacobson for pro- viding us with valuable .comments on and criticisms of the early versions of several chapters. Charles Relunin, former dean of the School of Industrial and Labor Rela- tioni at Cornell University, was enthusiastic about the project and encouraged us to begin: we are grateful for his support. Robert Doherty, the current dean ofthe ILR Schcidl, was equally encouraging and we acknowledge our gratitude 'to .iin. We also thank Ronald Ehrenberg, professor and Director of Research at the ILR School, who:helped to make our research task-a little easier than it :night have been and offered advice at every stage of the project. The nuthors conducted interviews with many government, union, and manager eat representatives, and we thank them all for their cooperation and assistance: Through the auspices of the Interstate Conference of Employment Security Agencies, we also conducted a survey of administrators of 54 state- level employment security agencies. We wish to thank William L. Heartwell, Jr. of the ICESA for making this survey possible. Many of the survey respondents supplied us with invaluable information on the treatment of labor disputes wider their unemployment insurance statutes, and we thank them all fortheirhelp. William J. Yost,Chief Hearing Officer with,the Iowa empldy= went sec' ity agency, and George A. Michaud, Chief Hearing Officer Viith 'Alaska Agency, also provided us with information on some of the impoitant aspects of their state laws, and we appreciate their assistance. We obtained the information and'Jata we needed to conduct this stud from individuals in a variety of federal, 'Srate, and private agencies; we benefited from having the services of several research assistan: computer program- mers; we used several' secretaries to type and re-type our work; and we used a crew of students to code and verify the data used in the analysis. All of these individuals ars thanked by name in Appendix A. If we have inadvertently omit- ted from this appendix the names of people who assisted us, we apologize to them and want them to know that we are grateful. We would be remiss if we did not especially thank Tim Schmid le, who supervised the collection, coding, and verification of the data, and Nancy Hank. and Melissa Barringer, whose diligent assistance greatly improved the quality of the manuscript. Of course