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Estlund, Cynthia L. --- "Why workers still need a collective voice in the era of norms and mandates" [2012] ELECD 1273; in Estlund, L. Cynthia; Wachter, L. Michael (eds), "Research Handbook on the Economics of Labor and Employment Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012) 463

Book Title: Research Handbook on the Economics of Labor and Employment Law

Editor(s): Estlund, L. Cynthia; Wachter, L. Michael

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849801010

Section: Chapter 16

Section Title: Why workers still need a collective voice in the era of norms and mandates

Author(s): Estlund, Cynthia L.

Number of pages: 32

Abstract/Description:

The drastic decline of union representation in the United States has opened up a large and by now familiar “representation gap” in the workplace – a gap between “what workers want,” to cite Freeman and Rogers’ (1999) important book on the question, and what they have by way of voice at work. But what workers want does not necessarily command the attention of policymakers. Is workers’ desire for greater voice at work any more compelling than their desire for higher wages, paid vacations, or any number of terms and conditions of employment that are left almost entirely to the tender mercies of labor markets and individual bargaining? On some accounts, workers no longer need collective representation (whether or not they want it) because their interests are adequately protected by a combination of legally enforceable mandates and self-enforcing norms. I will argue in this chapter that these accounts are wrong and workers are right: most workers not only want but need some form of collective representation in order to enforce the mix of legal mandates and informal norms by which they are currently governed at work.