This project will examine worker, labor union, and management responses to occupational safety hazards using statistical data from 1977 through 1987. The pimary emphasis will be on how working conditions influence the industrial relations environment and, in turn, the level of productivity in the workplace. The 1982 Census of Construction Industries and the 1987 Censuses of Manufactures and Construction Industries will be used to examine the influence of hazardous working conditions and hazard-related industrial conflict on productivity. Research by the investigator, using the 1977 Census of Manufactures, found hazard-related conflict to significantly reduce productivity in that sector of the economy. This decrease in productivity is the greatest hidden cost of occupational safety and health hazards. The causal chain linking occupational exposures to decreased productivity will be analyzed using five statistical data sources that include information on the quality of industrial relations. Two national cohorts, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the National Longitudinal Survey, will be analyzed to examine the influence of hazardous conditions on worker turnover. The study will also examine how differences in working conditions influence worker attitudes towards unions, the incidence of union representation elections, the strategies developed by management desirous of remaining nonunion, and the outcomes of union representation elections. Data sets for these analyses will include the 1984 Harris Poll of worker attitudes towards union representation, the 1977-87 National Labor Relations Board union election outcomes data, and the 1978-83 Conference Board surveys of corporate personnel policies and responses to union organizing efforts.
