Trade unions and productivity: Opening the harvard “black boxes”

Despite the now voluminous literature on unions and productivity, evidence in support of the Harvard thesis that unions can contribute to increasing productivity by giving workers a “voice” at the workplace and “shocking” management into better practices remains limited. In particular, the measurement of productivity and the empirical verification (or rejection) of the Harvard model is fraught with difficulties. This paper critically evaluates the Harvard model, in particular the neglect of union/worker objectives and management-labor relations at the workplace as they affect productivity outcomes. More detailed case study analysis is needed to explore these factors.