COLLECTIVE BARGAINING, COMPULSORY INTEREST ARBITRATION AND THE NARCOTIC EFFECT: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

WILLIAM A. KLEINTOP AND J. JOSEPH LOEWENBERG

---

DOI: 10.2190/XMPD-14L0-G9JK-YPR5

Abstract

A criticism of compulsory arbitration in interest disputes has been that parties who utilize arbitration become dependent on the procedure. This research investigates the collective bargaining experience of police and municipalities in a Pennsylvania county over a ten-year period and tests for the existence of the "narcotic effect." The results of the tests were mixed depending on the number of arbitration awards and the number of rounds of bargaining. No narcotic effect was found if negotiations ended in an arbitration award once in the last three rounds of collective bargaining or once or twice in four rounds of bargaining; however there was evidence of such an effect if there were two awards in three rounds of bargaining.

---

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.