Union Organizing and the Allocation of Union Resources

Abstract

This study examines the propensity of unions to allocate resources to organizing activity. The author hypothesizes that as a union increases its extent of organization, the need of its members for organizing services declines relative to their need for representation services and also the costs of organizing are more likely to exceed its benefits. Consequently, the percentage of a union's resources devoted to organizing is expected to vary inversely with the extent to which the union has organized its primary jurisdiction. Data limitations prevent a direct test of this hypothesis, but a model based on this reasoning is used to predict differences across labor unions in the number of NLRB representation elections per 1000 union members. An analysis of relevant data for 1972–78 tends to support the model.