Labor Law and Reaching a First Collective Agreement: Evidence From a Quasi-Experimental Set of Reforms in Ontario

This paper examines the effects of a major labor law reform package in the Canadian province of Ontario on the negotiation of first agreements for newly certified bargaining units using a quasi-experimental research design. The findings indicate that first contract success rates were 8-14 percentage points higher under the regime that included automatic first contract arbitration relative to the comparison regime of no-fault first contract arbitration, despite imposition rates being only 2-4 percentage points higher. Further, in the more hostile-to-labor regime, only 38 percent of petitions ultimately reached a first agreement despite the presence of quick-votes, and no-fault first contract arbitration.