Why Do People Join Unions in a Period of Membership Decline?

Drawing on a large survey of new members, this paper examines the reasons why people join unions and the methods of their recruitment. It shows that collective reasons remain central to union membership and that individual services are secondary in the recruitment process. While there is little variation in reasons for joining across industry, occupation and sex, there are marked differences in the methods used to recruit new members. These findings are used to examine existing explanations of membership decline and to assess the efficacy of the different recruitment policy options available to unions.     

Why Fewer Workers Join Unions in Europe: A Social Custom Explanation of Membership Trends

Can the recent decline in union density in Europe be attributed to specific economic, social or institutional causes? Can unions influence these causes and reverse decline? Using two data sources — a representative survey of Dutch employees and a data set for European countries between 1950 and 1997 — the author examines the determinants of union decline. The theoretical model is based on a social custom approach to unionization, integrating rational choice and social network theory. The empirical results show improbable small margins of union resurgence, that is, if institutional support for union representation can be maintained or regained within and beyond workplaces.     

Unions and Discriminatory Hiring: Evidence from New Zealand

This study examines the effects of unions on employer compliance with antidiscrimination legislation in New Zealand, using a sample of 227 employers. The results do indicate that unions do reduce discriminatory practices. More specifically, higher levels of unionization do increase the level of employer compliance. However, other union characteristics, such as union size and strike propensity, appeared to have no influence on employer practice.     

Why Do Non–union Employees Want to Unionize? Evidence from Britain

This paper assesses the determinants of the level of support for union membership among non–union employees. Using data from a representative sample of non–union employees in Great Britain, the research confirms the importance of job dissatisfaction, left–wing views and perceived union instrumentality as predictors of willingness to join a trade union, union instrumentality being the most significant.     

Why Have Workers Stopped Joining Unions? The Rise in Never‐Membership in Britain

This paper tracks the rise in the percentage of employees who have never become union members (‘never‐member’) since the early 1980s and shows that it is the reduced likelihood of ever becoming a member, rather than the haemorrhaging of existing members, that is behind the decline in overall union membership in Britain. We estimate the determinants of ‘never‐membership’ and consider how much of the rise can be explained by structural change in the labour market and how much by change in preferences among employees.     

Employees' Desire to Join or Leave a Union: Evidence from Poland

This research note provides an empirical analysis of the factors related to Polish employees' desire to join and leave a union. Our regression analysis, based on a sample of 298 unionized and 338 nonunionized employees, shows that the desire to join a union is positively associated with career prospects and negatively with company commitment, while the desire to leave a union is positively associated with one's intention to leave the company.     

Trade Unions and Productivity: The German Evidence

This paper provides a brief review of the empirical evidence on union productivity effects in Germany. The influence of trade unions on productivity is the net effect of conflicting forces which can lead to higher or lower productivity. Although the German dual system of workers' representation via unions and works councils is quite favourable to the existence of productivity-enhancing 'voice' effects, various empirical studies have not been able to detect significant positive net effects of these institutions on productivity.     

Why Strikes Occur: Evidence from the Capital Markets

New and existing empirical evidence regarding the stock market reaction to strikes is used to test the validity of three strike theories. A review of the existing capital market evidence reveals the need for information regarding the intraindustry announcement effects of strikes against manufacturing firms. This need is filled by applying event-study methodology, in a manner consistent with earlier studies, to a sample of strikes during the period 1982–1999. This new evidence, combined with that of previous studies, consistently supports the validity of Hick's theory that strikes are the result of bargaining errors, misperceptions of bargaining goals, or discrepancies between the expectations of union leaders and the rank and file.     

Unions and Unemployment Insurance Benefits Receipt: Evidence from the Current Population Survey

Using data from the January 1996 Current Population Survey's Displaced Worker Supplement, this article analyzes the effect of union representation on the likelihood that individuals eligible for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits receive UI benefits. For white-collar workers, unions do not have a significant effect on the probability of UI benefit receipt. Eligible blue-collar workers laid off from union jobs are approximately 23 percent more likely than comparable nonunion workers to receive UI benefits.     

Organizing the Next Generation: Influences on Young Workers' Willingness to Join Unions in Canada

This paper argues that union attitudes and behaviour are important but neglected features of the school–work transition process. Using longitudinal panel data from a study of high school and university graduates in three Canadian cities, we examine how young people's previous union membership, attitudes and educational, labour market and workplace experiences shape their willingness to join unions. This paper establishes that views about unions are emergent during youth, solidifying with age and experience. The implications of these findings for industrial relations, school–work transitions research and labour movement organizing are discussed.     

Female Part-time Workers' Attitudes to Trade Unions in Britain

This paper discusses the reasons that can be offered for the lower trade union membership rates of female part-time workers in the UK and focuses in particular on female part-timers' attitudes to trade unions. The findings are based on original research: 50 qualitative interviews with female part-time workers in the retail industry. The paper argues that female part-timers are supportive of the aims of the trade union movement and concludes that an integrated approach is necessary in order to understand part-timers' unionization rates. This includes structural factors, the approach that trade unions have taken towards part-time workers and attitudes towards trade unions.     

Unions and Flexible Employment in Britain and Spain: A Descriptive Note

Spain and Britain are known to have different labor market structures and degrees of employment protection. Despite such differences, they show remarkably similar associations of unionization with temporary employment and nonstandard hours of work. In particular, we find that unionization in both countries is correlated neither with overtime/long hours of work nor temporary employment. In both economies, instead, part-time work is negatively associated with unionization. These cross-national similarities warrant a rethinking of the strategies of enlargement toward flexible forms of work that unions have supposedly adopted in recent years.     

Factors Related to Employees’ Desire to Join and Leave Unions

Regression analyses based on a sample of 3372 nonunionized and unionized employees showed that, while the desire to join a union is associated with a wide range of work attitudes, perceived company performance, and facets of satisfaction, one's desire to leave one's union is associated with a narrow range of economic concerns. Implications of the findings are discussed in light of the declining unionization rate in the United States.     

Unions and the Employment Growth: Panel Data Evidence

This study adds to the small empirical literature on the impact unions have on employment growth using data from Australia. Unlike previous studies, the data used are from a panel of firms surveyed at two points in time rather than a single cross section. The results indicate a negative union effect on employment in private-sector firms of about 2.5 percent per annum that, despite the very different institutional framework that prevails in Australia, is consistent with results obtained with North American data.     

Unions,Wage Gaps,and Wage Dispersion: New Evidence from the Americas

Using a common methodology, the effects of unions on wage levels and wage dispersion are estimated for two neighboring countries, Bolivia and Chile, and for the United States. The analysis shows that unions have broadly similar effects on the wage distribution within these three economies. The findings suggest that the political economy of unions, coupled with market constraints on labor costs, produce commonality in union wage effects that transcend other economic and institutional differences.     

Worker Participation and Firm Performance: Evidence from Germany and Britain

The Freeman–Lazear works council/worker involvement model is assessed over two distinct industrial relations regimes. In non-union British establishments our measures of employee involvement are associated with improved economic performance, whereas for unionized plants negative results are detected. The suggestion is that local distributive bargaining can cause the wrong level of worker involvement to be chosen. Also consistent with the model is our finding that mandatory works councils do not impair, and may even improve, the performance of larger German establishments. Yet smaller plants with works councils under-perform, illustrating the problem of tailoring mandates to fit heterogeneous populations.     

Do Unions Benefit from Working in Partnership with Employers? Evidence from Ireland

Advocates and critics of voluntary workplace partnership have presented a series of theoretical arguments as to the potential consequences for unions working under partnership arrangements. A survey of Irish employees’ views is used to assess these competing claims. The study is timely on two counts: first, empirical investigations of the effects of partnership on union influence and members’ commitment to unions are rare; and, second, it is 11 years since employers, unions, and government in Ireland first signed a national framework agreement to promote the diffusion of partnership as a means for the handling of workplace change. The evidence provides support for the arguments as advanced by advocates.     

Unions and Collective Bargaining in the Wake of the Great Recession: Evidence from Portugal

Against the backdrop of its industrial relations architecture, characteristic of the ‘southern European group’ and intimately linked to the recommendations of the Troika, this paper examines four key aspects of Portuguese collective bargaining. First, it provides definitive estimates of private sector union density for that nation. Second, it models the determinants of union density at firm level. Third, it yields estimates of the union wage gap for different ranges of union density. The final issue examined is contract coverage. The received notion that the pronounced reduction in the number of industry‐wide agreements and extension ordinances of late is to be equated with a fall in coverage is shown to be a chimera, the number of workers covered by new and existing agreements remaining largely unaffected by the economic crisis. The reduced frequency of new agreements and extensions is instead attributed to downward nominal wage rigidity in low‐inflation regimes.