Do unions protect injured workers from earnings losses?

Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 I employ a longitudinal framework to examine the impact of union membership on the earnings losses following a workplace injury, and explore some possible avenues through which unions can mitigate earnings losses. The annual earnings results suggest that those injured workers who were not under union contract the year of injury suffer large and persistent losses in the years following injury. In contrast, union workers who suffer an injury do not suffer significant post-injury earnings losses. Probit estimates suggest that following injury union workers are less likely to change occupations or be fired from their job, but no more likely to be accommodated for their injury