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May 1 is International Workers' Day or Labor Day depending on where in the world you are. To mark this date, our Editor-in-Chief Daniel Hamermesh writes about the relevance of International Workers' Day to the modern workforce:
"Often for political reasons Workers’ Day is treated as a day honoring the trade union movement. Indeed, in the US the rhetoric often uses the word 'labor' in the context of the holiday to refer to organized labor—trade unions. This conflating may be harmful to workers’ interests generally, since, except in Scandinavian countries, trade union membership is a small fraction of the total workforce..." Read more.
Professor Hamermesh has also selected three articles on the effects of unions:
These articles ask the questions: Has collective bargaining had its day? and, what effects do unions have on the modern worker?
Alex Bryson writes, "Without unions bargaining successfully to raise worker wages, income inequality would almost certainly be higher than it is," and John Addison remarks that "Declining union power would not be an overwhelming cause for concern if not for rising wage inequality and the loss of worker voice."
Olaf Hübler notes in his article that despite this, employee interest in collective bargaining and work councils is obviously declining, giving the example of a recent event where workers at the Volkswagen factory in Tennessee voted against union representation. Hübler adds that "Works councils can have a positive impact on firm productivity, but only when specific conditions are in place... [and] policymakers should provide the necessary resources and appropriate, non-discriminatory incentives in order to encourage this."
More articles on labor market institutions.
May 1, 2016 is also the second anniversary of the launch of IZA World of Labor! Watch our video "3 minutes with Daniel Hamermesh" to gain insight into why our new Editor-in-Chief thinks evidence-based policy is so important, and his aims for IZA World of Labor in the years ahead.
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