Section Sixa multitude of potential influences on the incidence of
grievances. Such influences include managerial behavior, the
technology of the workplace, the personality and motivation of
union representatives, the company’s relationship with the
union, and individual employee characteristics.^67
It is also important for nonunion companies to evaluate
the effectiveness of their employee relations functions. For such
companies, the prospects of unionization should not be
discounted even though overall union membership is only
16.5 million or approximately 13.9 percent of wage and salary
workers. (Union members account for 9.4 percent of wage and
salary workers in the private sector.^68 ) One reason is that
downsizing and layoffs are now commonplace in the U.S.
economy, and job security has become a major concern for
many U.S. workers. In the past, several industry leaders such
as Hewlett-Packard and IBM maintained no-layoff approaches
or employment security policies.^69 Such approaches and policies
were probably a major reason why these companies were able
to remain nonunion. However, because of competitive
pressures, many such companies have abandoned these
policies.^70 In addition, the casual approach of many companies
to downsizing and the emergence of unbundled or network
organizations have probably reduced employee loyalty to the
extent that more employees may be willing to unionize in order
gain job security. The question remains as to whether