This study of union organizing activity in U.S. manufacturing industries is designed to help business executives weigh one of the must important factors in site selection for new facilities¡Xlabor climate.
The study provides the most complete record and analysis available of National Labor Relations Board certification election data. The basis for the analyses in this study are the raw data reported by union by the NLRB. To make the data more mean-ingful, Kearney: Management Consultant developed a computerized database to simplify the task of comparing geographic areas and to enable the conduct of more discrete analyses.
Measuring Union Climate first analyzes the factors that are contributing to heightened interest in labor climate as a consideration in facility location. The study then proceeds to several analyses designed to help manufacturing executives evaluate labor climate in different geographic areas of the U.S. Among these are:
„h Geographic analyses of union election success trends in the U. S. regions of the U.S. states and metro areas
„h Analysis of trends in decertification elections.
„h Analysis of most active and most successful unions by U. S., states and metro areas.
„h Growth in manufacturing employ-ment versus growth in union membership.
Additional analyses establish previously undocumented relationships affecting unionization. These include the propensity to unionize versus the size of the group voting in the election; unionization among minority v populations in areas history of unto a unionization on and the likelihood that it will unionize in the future; and the effect of right-to-work laws on union success rates. In many cases, the conclusions explode popular conceptions.
Numerous appendices detail and sup-port the conclusions of the authors. Here NLRB data give election results by indus-try and by moat active unions for the nation, region and selected metropolitan areas. Thus, the study enables the business executive to select those areas for new plant sites which match his company's prefer-ences in labor climate.
Shervin Freed is a vice president the Manufacturing Group of Kearney: Management Consultants He has conducted and supervised many studies manufacturing strategy, facilities planning and site selection. Before joining Kearney. Freed held positions as Chief Industrial Engineer and Plant Industrial Engineer for manufacturing companies.
Joseph Lichko is an associate with Kearney Management Consultants. His education includes B.S. and M.S. degrees in mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago, where he worked primarily in corporate finance and marketing.
