Union Corporate Campaigns: An Assessment

The authors examine 28 labor disputes occurring during the period 1976–88 in which the unions involved publicly declared they conducted “corporate campaigns.†They distinguish three types of campaigns —complements to traditional organizing drives, complements to strikes, and substitutes for strikes—and argue that fundamental differences among these campaigns result in different prospects for success. Organizing-related campaigns, they find, were more likely to yield gains for the union than were bargaining-related campaigns. Strike complement campaigns resulted in the largest number of unequivocal failures; and several strike substitute campaigns appear to have played only limited roles in achieving contract settlements.