---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 11:19:04 -0800 From: "Ellen Dannin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: WSJ on labor's "opportunity" The view in the WSJ article is not out of the mainstream. There have recently been several proposals to reform US labor law to promote what are referred to as "value-added" unions. Professor Samuel Estreicher of NYU Law School has been a key proponent of the concept. Essentially, a value-added union would be an enterprise union (as opposed to a union that would represent workers at many employers) that would engage in win-win bargaining with the end of improving the employer's productivity. The proposals are more complex than this, but this is the core concept. Estreicher argues that his value-added unions would prevail over what he calls traditional adversarial unions because (1) workers will prefer value-added unions and (2) employers will prefer value-added unions. It's difficult to predict how any legal change will operate, since there are no social science laboratories in which to run the experiment; however, my experience with how things have gone in New Zealand since the Employment Contracts Act was passed suggested that it might provide some insights in this case. Not only does the ECA have many features in common with Estreicher's proposals, but the two union umbrella organizations there -- the CTU and the TUF -- embody value-added versus traditional adversarial unionism. I have written about this at length, but, to summarize here, the results do not bear out any of Estreicher's predictions as to the economic impact, worker preferences or employer preferences. Furthermore, there have been some negative consequences from any point of view, such as a loss of skilled workers and growing worker unhappiness on a number of scales. Finally, there is no evidence of improved productivity. Ellen J. Dannin California Western School of Law 225 Cedar Street San Diego, CA 92101 Phone: 619-525-1449 Fax: 619-696-9999
