AGRICULTURAL LABOR STRIKES AND FARMERS' INCOME

This paper assesses the effectiveness of union strikes against agricultural industries. Various factors including input substitution possibilities create special challenges for union leaders. We develop the concept of a minimum-effective union and apply it empirically to the 1979 California lettuce strike. To be effective, a union has to reduce producer profits below the prestrike level. In the lettuce strike case, producer profits were actually increased, not reduced.