The Impact of Labor Relations Characteristics on Occupational Injury and Illness in the Unionized Sector: An Application of ‘Two Faces of Trade Unionism’

We conduct an empirical study on whether some characteristics of labor relations affect occupational injury and illness(OII) in the unionized manufacturing sector, using the manufacturing sample of the 2nd-9th rounds(2007-21) of Workplace Panel Survey collected by Korea Labor Institute. We draw the following hypotheses, applying ‘two faces of trade unionism’ by Freeman and Medoff(1984): (1) Wage growth rate, labor dispute, labor participation, and union density as parts of the monopoly face will raise the OII rate, (2) IR climate, labor-management partnership, lower turnover rate, and job training as parts of the collective voice face will drop the OII rate, (3) IR climate and labor-management partnership will moderate negatively the impacts of union density and labor participation on the OII rate. We also explore how innovative work organization and firm-based performance pay affect the OII rate. The statistical models of this study are panel data fixed effect models whose dependent variable is the rate of OII approved by the Korean OSHA. The results of this study indicate that wage growth rate, labor dispute, and union density significantly raise the OII rate, and that IR climate and labor-management partnership significantly drop it. It also document that labor-management partnership has a significantly negative moderating effect on the relation between union density and the OII rate. Finally the results are summarized and interpreted, and their theoretical and practical implications are discussed.