The geography of collective bargaining in French multi-establishment companies
Philippe Askenazy (Maurice Halbwachs Center (CMH))
Clémentine Cottineau (Maurice Halbwachs Center (CMH), TU Delft - Urban Studies)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
Despite growing interest in the firm bargaining process, little research focuses on the structure of bargaining within multi-establishment firms. We question whether running negotiations at the workplace level and/or firm level is a strategic choice for employers. We hypothesize that the level chosen depends on the geography of the firm. Employers face a trade-off: workplace bargaining is more efficient because it meets local conditions; yet higher level negotiations increase coordination costs for workers and weakens their bargaining power, which can benefit the employer. Using a French representative survey, we find a significant relation between the level of bargaining within a firm and the number, spatial distribution and heterogeneity of its establishments, suggesting that the structure of multi-establishment firms can inform the level at which collective bargaining takes place.
help_outline