Institutional effects on the presence of trade unions at the workplace: Moderation in a multilevel setting

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoltán Fazekas
Keyword(s):  
Multilevel Analysis ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Institutional Effects ◽  
Collective Agreements ◽  
Very High

Previous research has found that the presence of a union at a workplace is an important individual-level determinant of union membership. The present article, drawing on a multilevel analysis of 21 European countries, provides further evidence which nuances the conclusions of previous studies by introducing and testing institutional moderation effects. Thus, in countries with Ghent systems, having a union at workplace is less important, since probability of membership is already very high. Conversely, if there are extension mechanisms for collective agreements there is less incentive to join a trade union, and this is not compensated even when there is an active union at the workplace.

scholarly journals How do union membership, union density and institutionalization affect perceptions of conflict between management and workers?

2020 ◽  
pp. 095968012096354
Author(s):  
Josef Ringqvist
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
International Social

This article contributes to debates about trade unions and conflict by studying how individuals’ perceptions of conflicts between management and workers relate to trade union membership, country-level trade union density and institutionalization (collective bargaining coverage, centralization and policy concertation). Hierarchical multi-level models are fitted to data from the International Social Survey Programme from 2009. The results show that union members tend to be more likely than non-members to perceive management–worker conflicts and that this appears not to vary substantially between countries. However, regardless of union membership, individuals in countries with higher trade union density and with policy concertation tend to be significantly less likely to perceive conflicts. These findings highlight the risk of atomic fallacies in research limited to the individual-level effects of union membership. Contrary to an argument often raised by pluralists, neither bargaining coverage nor centralization has significant effects. Overall, the results question depictions of trade unions as divisive organizations.

scholarly journals A PERSPECTIVE ON CLOSED SHOP AGREEMENTS THROUGH CORRELATIVE RIGHTS

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Adriaan Norval
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Freedom Of Association ◽  
Union Security ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Collective Agreements ◽  
Generic Term ◽  
The Right

Section 26 of the Labour Relations Act gives employers and employers’ organisations the power to conclude closed shop agreements through collective agreements with representative trade unions. The closed shop agreement is known as a union security agreement which has been defined as: [a] generic term for an agreement between an employer and a union or unions in terms of which union membership or, alternatively, payment of union subscription is a condition of employment for all employees. Therefore employees are forced to join the representative trade union subject to the conditions being met in section 26(3) of the Labour Relations Act. This has resulted in a lot of debate on whether closed shop agreements are violating the right to freedom of association, or simply limiting it. This article takes the debate further by not only looking at the right to associate, but also looking at this right as a correlative right because ‘freedom of association buttresses and makes good the promise of a variety of other rights.’ Rights such as labour relations rights and political rights rely on the right to associate. Their dependence on the right to associate means that they have to be looked at when determining if closed shop agreements violate or limit the right to associate.

scholarly journals Trade Unions’ Rights, Work Councils’ Functions and the Legal Framework for Governing European Corporations: a Spanish Perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-31
Author(s):  
Juan Pablo Landa
Keyword(s):  
Trade Unions ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Collective Agreements ◽  
Effective System ◽  
Toma De Decisiones ◽  
European Regulations ◽  
Analytical Research ◽  
Double Channel

This paper provides analytical research about changing legislation on the functions of work councils and trade unions in participating in the decision making process at firm level in European countries with systems of double channel based models of representation (like Spain, France or Germany). The paper tests European regulations on the involvement of workers in management decisions, in connection with national rulings passed in some European countries, especially during the financial crisis. The paper will aim at responding the following key questions: What kind of complementarity is to be statutorily built between the functions of work councils and collective agreements in order to guarantee workers’ participation in the governance of corporations? Is codetermination a more effective system than collective bargaining to build on new forms of corporate governance in a transnational context? El presente artículo ofrece una investigación analítica de la cambiante legislación sobre las funciones de los comités de empresa y de los sindicatos para participar en los procesos de toma de decisiones en el seno de la empresa, en países europeos con sistemas basados en la doble representación, como España, Francia y Alemania. El artículo pone a prueba la capacidad de las regulaciones para implicar a los trabajadores en decisiones administrativas, en relación con legislaciones nacionales aprobadas en algunos países, especialmente durante la crisis financiera. El artículo se propone responder a las siguientes preguntas claves: ¿Qué tipo de complementariedad estatutaria debería construirse entre las funciones de los comités de empresa y los acuerdos colectivos para garantizar la participación de los trabajadores en el gobierno de las empresas? ¿Es acaso la codeterminación un sistema más efectivo que la negociación colectiva para construir nuevas formas de gobernanza corporativa en un contexto trasnacional?

Political attitudes and trade union membership in the Nordic countries

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 381-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten Strøby Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Survey Data ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Impact

Do political attitudes influence the likelihood of employees being members of a trade union, and to what extent is this the case in the Nordic countries with their high aggregate levels of membership? In this article, I address these questions using European Social Survey data from 2012. The results show that left-wing political attitudes have the most impact on the likelihood of trade union membership in Sweden and to a lesser extent in Denmark. In Norway and Finland, there is no statistically significant impact. I argue that the impact of left-wing political attitudes on unionization in Sweden and Denmark reflects a conception among employees that trade unions are normative organizations.

Een halve eeuw vakbondslidmaatschap : Een verkennende longitudinale studie naar enkele cyclische determinanten voor de ledenontwikkeling van de Belgische vakbonden, 1946-1995

Res Publica ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-32
Author(s):  
Kurt Vandaele
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Econometric Model ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Free Riding ◽  
Structural Variable ◽  
Explanatory Variables ◽  
The Impact

This article explains the ebb and flow in Belgian trade union membership from 1946 to 1995 by replicating the econometric model by Bain and Elsheikhn in which changes in macro-economic variables are highly significant. Since the automatic indexation of wages and the extension of collective labour agreements invite free riding, the relevance of the change in inflation and real wage is quite striking. However, the free riding-effect is slowed down by the institutionalised presence of the trade unions on the work floor. The Ghent system explains the positive impact of the unemployment rate . The model is furthermore improved by the trade union density as a structural variable. The linear form reflects the enforcement effect, while the quadratic form mirrors the saturation effect on the trade union membership. Mainly due to the 'Allgemeinkoalitionsfähighkeit' of the Belgian government system, the impact of left parties on union growth and decline is not significant in a quantitative framework. With only four explanatory variables the model clarifies more than 75% of the fluctuations in Belgian trade union membership.

Purging the Trade Unions

2020 ◽  
pp. 343-373
Author(s):  
Ewing Mahoney
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Service Trade ◽  
Public Sector Employment ◽  
Legal Foundations ◽  
Legal Position

This chapter looks at government attempts to ban trade unions, considering the steps that were taken in lieu of an outright ban on trade union membership. Consistently with other measures taken at the time under the cover of security, government intervention to deal with the alleged menace of Communist infiltration of the civil service trade unions did not take the form of legislation. The legal position reflected both the lack of legal regulation of industrial relations generally and the lack of legal regulation of public-sector employment in particular. In practice, governments rarely needed to reveal or justify the legal foundations for their actions. The benefit for government is that although security policies might well be announced and made public, there would be little accountability thereafter if operated unobtrusively.

Who Cares? Child-Care, Trade Unions and Staff Turnover

1996 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-647 ◽  
Author(s):  
Micheal Lyons
Keyword(s):  
Child Care ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Staff Turnover ◽  
Child Care Workers ◽  
Turnover Rates ◽  
High Turnover ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Union Voice

This article analyzes survey results from the female-dominated occupation of child-care. It examines job satisfaction and trade union membership in an industry that has high turnover rates. The article explores why child-care workers prefer the exit voice over the trade union voice despite a favotrrable attitude to trade unions generally. The article concludes that unless the political factors that dominate the industry are also addressed, the ability to reduce staff turnover, improve the industrial conditions of child-care and increase union membership will be extremely difficult, though not impossible, as the example of nurses in the 1980s demonstrates.

Union Amalgamations and the Decline in Union Density

1999 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Wooden
Keyword(s):  
Panel Data ◽  
Regression Model ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
Marked Decline

Confronted by a marked decline in trade union density, the union movement in Australia bas responded by promoting the restructuring and amolgamation of trade unions. As a result, the number of active trade unions in Australia has fallen markedly since 1990. Despite tbis, the decline in trade union density accelerated during the 1990s, leading some analysts to suggest that the union amalgamation process may actually have been counterproductive in terms of overall trade union membership. This article tests this hypothesis using panel data collected as part of the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey. A regression model of changes in union density in the period 1989/90 to 1995 is developed and estimated. The results indicate that while declining union numbers have been associated with the decline in union density, none of the blame for the fall can be traced to the amalgamation process.

Trade unionism in Europe: Are the working class still members?

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-120
Author(s):  
Carsten Strøby Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Trade Unionism

How far does social class position influence the likelihood that employees will be members of a trade union? I use European Social Survey data to compare trade union membership of ‘working-class’ and ‘middle- and upper class’ employees in different European countries. Although the former dominate the trade unions in absolute numbers in most (but not all) countries, the likelihood that the latter will be members of a trade union is higher in most of the countries analysed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document