ABSTRACT
In their book What Do Unions Do? (1984), Richard B. Freeman and James Medoff argue that unions have two faces, each of which lead to a different view of the institution. They call these the “monopoly face” and “collective voice face.” The monopoly face arises from the ability of unions to use their market power to raise wages and other terms and conditions of employment above the competitive level. The collective voice face is the ability of unions to articulate and communicate to management the collective opinions and preferences of the workforce and to effectively speak up and represent the workers’ interests in workplace decisions. Although the boundaries between the two faces are not entirely separable, they can be thought of as the exercise of “muscle” and “voice.”
