Unions, strikes, and labor's share of income: A quarterly analysis of the United States, 1949-1992

This paper examines a common assumption of much of the research on class re lations in capitalist economies that workers' collective action improves th e economic standing of the working class. Specifically, we utilize a quarte rly, time-series analysis to test hypotheses about the impact of changes in union membership and strike activity on changes in labor's share and its t hree components-changes in employment, compensation, and net revenue-during the past-World War II U.S. economy. We examine these hypotheses during a p eriod of transition in the capital-labor accord that has dominated the U.S. political economy since 1949. We identify three periods during the capital -labor accord-the peak, the transitional, and the post-accord periods-and a nticipate changing effects of strike activity and union membership on labor share and its components in the different periods. Our results provide mix ed support for the hypotheses, but generally confirm our expectations that trends in strike activity and union membership were more instrumental for i mpacting labor's share and its components as hypothesized during the peak p eriod of the capital-labor accord and less instrumental in later periods. I n the post-accord period, in particular, strikes and unions become virtuall y irrelevant for the economic standing of workers, a result that bespeaks t he changing configuration of class relations in the postwar U.S. economy. ( C) 1999 Academic Press.