After unionization, corporate foot-dragging is a challenge to contract negotiation

Unionization is having a moment. Employees at Amazon, Starbucks and Apple have all held successful union drives. But forming a union and negotiating a contract are not the same thing. In a 2008 study, Desautels Prof. John-Paul Ferguson found that union election victories resulted in first contracts only 56.3 per cent of the time. “It’s even harder now,” says Ferguson. “Employers are treating the union’s success in a National Labor Relations Board election as just as another setback.” Companies appear to believe they will be able repeal it by refusing to negotiate a contract.