Beef and Pork Packing Costs and Input Demands: Effects of Unionization and Technology

The effects of unionization, technology, and structural considerations on value-added beef and pork packing costs and the demand for labor, capital, packaging, and other inputs are analyzed by econometric methods for the period 1963–88. Although unions do not appear to have had significant wage effects over this period (relative to broader U.S. wage rates), significant nonwage cost effects are observed. These nonwage effects help explain the technological, structural, and geographic changes that have occurred in meat packing in recent years which, in turn, help explain the erosion of union strength in meat packing observed over the study period.