Gely & Chandler: Empirical Work on Card Checks

Rafael Gely (Cincinnati, en route to Missouri) and Timothy Chandler (LSU Business) have just posted on SSRN their article (forthcoming Fordham Urb. L.J.) Card Check Recognition: New House Rules for Union Organizing?  Here's the abstract:

A significant policy debate has been occurring regarding union organizing methods in the United States. This debate focuses on the appropriateness of granting union recognition based on majority support as demonstrated by union authorization card signatures, also known as card checking. Despite their importance, little has been written in the academic literature about the experiences of unions and employers with the use of the card check organizing process. This Article seeks to fill this gap. We collected data on every organizing event the AFL-CIO publicly reported between 1998 and 2005. The list of events includes government-conducted elections, card checks, and other events. While the data are not exhaustive of all union organizing events, the data provide a more comprehensive view of the recent experience with card checks than other currently available sources. The data also allow us to evaluate some of the justifications that have been advanced in support of the proposed changes to existing law, as well as to explore the possible consequences of those changes.

Gely and Chandler are correct to point out that there is very little in the academic literature about this increasingly important method of union organizing.  Their empirical findings are quite significant.  They find, for example, that although card checks have not yet replaced traditional elections as the predominate method of union organizing, card checks have become extremely important for some particular unions, and in some particular industries. 

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