ABSTRACT
Richard Freeman and James Medoff's lengthy discussion of management opposition follows a common theme of US unions in emphasizing employers’ strategic use of the National Labor Relations Act, the main regulatory legislation governing US private sector collective bargaining. Decentralization of collective bargaining arrangements accompanied falling collective representation in many European countries. This broader pattern of decline cautions against over-reliance on uniquely US influences in explaining union membership trends. The adoption of advanced human resource management policies in many companies and increasing similarities between union and nonunion employment arrangements contribute to diminished demand for unionization. Persistent differences in unionization between the public and private sectors are more likely to reflect different incentives for management opposition. Over half of “The Slow Strangulation of Private Sector Unions” discusses the opposition of US management to unions, concluding “opposition, broadly defined, is a major cause of the slow strangulation of private sector unionism”.
