Employee unions and company performance.

Summary Unions provide employee representation and thus enable collective action by employees. This manuscript discusses the effect of unions on firm performance and the responses that firms implement in response to union activity. The first chapter shows that the effect of unions on firm performance depends on the number and type of unions present in firms. Compared to a single union, the presence of several unions decreases firm profitability because the increase in wages is greater than the increase in labor productivity. The second chapter discusses the link between earnings smoothing and union presence. Earnings smoothing reduces the wage premium associated with union presence, by reducing the perceived risk to employment sustainability. Finally, the third chapter shows that the practice of gender pay differentials, as a method of individualizing pay, limits the influence of unions within firms.