In the latest issue of AJS, @adamreich and I provide empirical evidence that mass incarceration influences not just individual-level employment outcomes, but the structure of the labor market as a whole. THREAD @columbiasoc @CUEpidemiology @ColumbiaMSPH https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/709016

1/ Pre-print: https://bit.ly/2yw8F8D . We test a classic question from critical criminology and the sociology of punishment: Does mass incarceration discipline workers into accepting low-wage, precarious jobs they would otherwise resist through union organizing or quitting?

2/ In short, yes: We find that mass incarceration reduces workers’ odds of joining a labor organization and unions’ odds of winning NLRB elections. We do 3 analyses, using different individual- and group-level criminal legal exposures and labor organizing outcomes.

3/ In a 4th analysis, we find that increased employer power over those exposed to the criminal legal system likely explains workers’ reduced collective action: incarceration reduces their likelihood of quitting a job, and makes that decision less sensitive to job satisfaction.

4/ Data come from several different sources, including a survey of Walmart workers; zip-code, county, and state incarceration stats; the National Labor Relations Board; and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979.

5/ Our findings shed empirical light on declines in Black workers’ union membership over the past 20 years. Historically, African Americans were significantly more likely than whites to be in unions, but by the end of the 2010s, this was no longer the case.

6/ (The fact that black people have been overrepresented in labor unions since the civil rights movement has meant that the decline of organized labor has exacerbated racial wage inequality.)

7/ One of many reasons for Black workers’ declining rate of unionization may be the chilling effect of mass incarceration, which grossly disproportionately targets them. This suggests yet another way in which the criminal legal system is a racial project.

8/ Our findings are also relevant to discussions about social movement unionism—that unions should connect their struggles for worker power and economic justice to other social movement issues.

9/ Some unions are actively involved in struggles for criminal legal reform and against police brutality. Our findings suggest that these efforts may be more directly in the interests of unions than they realize, and could inform new organizing strategies.

10/ We’re so grateful to @WesternBruce, @brettpstory, Peter Bearman, @mireiatriguero, @JayDeeDubyu, the members of the Culture and Politics Workshop at UNC Chapel Hill, and incredibly thoughtful anonymous peer reviewers for their generous, crucial feedback.

Adam Reich @adamdreich is rarely on twitter: https://adamreich.org/