Liya Palagashvili and Revana Sharfuddin
These trade-offs arise not because unions are uniquely “aggressive,” but because US labor laws promote a legally protected union monopoly that crowds out constructive representation and worker voice. Drawing on 147 studies, we find that when the monopoly face dominates and delivers seemingly “big wins” at the bargaining table, companies respond to wage pressure by trimming R&D, cutting capital, reducing company growth, and ultimately shrinking jobs for unionized workers—dynamics that explain roughly 55 percent of the decline in the Rust Belt’s share of manufacturing employment between 1950 and 2000.
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Related: Act 10
