The MandatoryPermissive distinction and collective bargaining outcomes

1
The Mandatory-Permissive distinction and
collective bargaining outcomes

• Delaney and Sockell (1989)
• Industrial and Labor Relations Review

2
Mandatory-Permissive subjects

• Key differences between categorizations
• Mandatory
• Must be negotiated
• Can be cause to strike/lockout legally
• Permissive
• Need not be negotiated
• Unilateral changes can be made
• Do negotiations bias away from perm. Items?
• Are duplicitous negotiations used?

3
Contract Data Analysis

• Items classified as permissive
• Labor-man. Committees
• Point productivity committees
• Wage garnishment
• 16 of contracts had permissive issues
• Mand/Perm issues index calculated
• Bargaining over mandatory issues apparently
  similar over subsamples
• More union power needed for favorable outcomes on
  permissive issues.

4
Laboratory Experiment

• Three contract issues used
• Hourly pay
• workers guaranteed employment
• Advertising expenditures
• Different treatments described each of these
  topics as mandatory, permissive, or unknown to
  MBA student subjects.
• Results shown in Table 3
• Unknown status hurts union outcome
• Permissive status hurts union outcome

5
Why Care?

• NLRB determines status of issues
• Changes in legal status may also add uncertainty
  as to the status of an issue
• This may affect bargaining outcomes