TY  - JOUR
AU  - Diamond,Wayne J.
AU  - Freeman,Richard B.
TI  - Will Unionism Prosper in Cyber-Space? The Promise of the Internet for Employee Organization
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8483
PY  - 2001
Y2  - September 2001
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8483
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8483.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Wayne Diamond
E-Mail: wdiamond@nber.org

Richard B. Freeman
NBER
1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA  02138
Tel: 617/868-3900
Fax: 617/868-2742
E-Mail: freeman@nber.org
AB  - This paper argues that the low cost of information, communication, and interaction on the Web offers trade unions opportunities to improve services and attract members and thus reinvent themselves for the 21st Century.  Analyzing current use of the Internet by unions in the United Kingdom and United States, we develop five hypothesis about the impact of the Internet on unions. 1) the Customized Services hypothesis that unions will individualize services; 2) the Cyber-organizing hypothesis that the Web will ease organization and produce virtual minority unions at many non-union firms; 3) the Cyber-democracy hypothesis that the Web will enhance democracy in unions; 4) the Cyber-dispute hypothesis that the Web will become an important space for industrial disputes; and 5) the New Internationalism hypothesis that the Web will strengthen the international labor community.  If unions fail to exploit the opportunities on the Web to gain members, we expect other organizations, Internet recruitment sites, specialized advice centers, and the like, to fill the e-union niche.
ER  -