2024/10/30 by Maite Tapia, Christian Lyhne Ibsen, Mark Strolle +2 · 1 voice · 1 citation
Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Digital Economy and Work Transformation #Employment and Welfare Studies #Labor Movements and Unions
paper · doi:10.1177/00197939241290228
openalex publication_date 2024/10/30 · openalex created_date 2024/10/31 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
Industrial relations (IR) scholars emphasize the strategic choices of industrial relations actors to explain IR processes and outcomes. This article asserts that union member satisfaction is critical to realize unions’ objectives and that the local union and work context shapes satisfaction. The authors study the 2019 national UAW strike against General Motors in two, at first sight, very similar union locals. Union members of one local approved the agreement while the other local rejected the agreement. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis, the authors explain the different outcomes. Their analysis of a unique worker survey conducted during the strike shows that general member satisfaction was an important dimension for supporting the union’s strategic choices. Qualitative case studies of the two locals highlight the importance of shares of transfer workers—“invisible divides”—when examining member satisfaction. Broadly, findings contribute to the strategic choice literature and emphasize the local union context as a key locus for producing successful outcomes.