Family economic security after the COVID-19 outbreak: unions, work-life balance policies and employment outcomes

Unionization has been associated with benefits to workers, including higher wages compared to non-unionized workers and greater access to family-friendly work arrangements. In this paper, we consider another potential benefit of union representation by examining whether and how unions protected working parents from employment losses during the pandemic. The analysis draws on responses to a unique survey administered in July 2021, after the critical first year of the pandemic, to working parents in the United States. We find that union-represented workers were less likely to have lost their jobs after the start of the pandemic but more likely to have had their working hours reduced compared to non-represented workers. Unionized workers were also more likely to be employed at the time of the survey. Use of leave rights and access to and use of employee-driven flexible work arrangements mediated some associations between union representation and employment outcomes. Overall, the findings affirm one of the primary functions of union representation, namely collective bargaining for stable employment, and emphasize the importance of work-life balance policies as tools for job retention.