scholarly journals Stéttarfélagsaðild á Íslandi

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-90
Author(s):  
Gylfi Dalmann Aðalsteinsson ◽  
Þórhallur Örn Guðlaugsson
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Employment Contracts ◽  
Employment Rates ◽  
Fierce Competition ◽  
Second World

Few studies have been conducted on trade union density in Iceland, some has been written about trade unions in Iceland. There has been a lot of debate in Europe over the last 20 years of declining trade union density. There are various reasons for this decline, such as general economic prosperity since the end of the Second World War, EU directives and regulations on increased rights and protection of workers, more focus on work life balance, increased economic growth, higher employment rates, structural change in the labour market and new management practices that encourage employees to be outside of trade unions. Furthermore, as a possible explanation, internationalization and fierce competition of companies in global markets has also been pointed out, greater emphasis on flexibility in employment contracts, job outsourcing and the fact that it is more difficult to get well-educated professionals to be union members. The development of trade union density in Iceland has been different. For the last 20 years, trade union density in Iceland has been very high and remained fairly stable. This paper deals with trade union density in Iceland from 1994 to 2016. Few proposition, according to the authors’ assessment, are put forward that can shed light on high union density in Iceland. They are: 1) closed shop agreements, 2) check-off system, legal obligation for employers to deducts a portion of an employee’s wages to pay union dues, 3) large public sector, 4) strategic work of trade unions to make union membership attracting with various services and benefits for members, 5) trade unions has emphasized on reaching to young people in the labour market, 6) trade union membership granted union members access to pension fund, 7) the “Ghent system” which linked unemployment benefits to union membership.

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.

scholarly journals Restoring Democracy to the Workplace? An Analysis of Union Membership Patters Before and After the Employment Contracts Act

1970 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Cregan ◽  
Chris Rudd ◽  
Stewart Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Employment Contracts ◽  
Market Participants ◽  
Before And After ◽  
One Year ◽  
The Impact

This paper investigates the impact of the Employment Contracts Act on trade union membership. Two separate surveys of labour market participants lvere conducted in Dunedin on the eve of the legislation and one year later. The findings demonstrated that for these samples, trade union membership in aggregate was not based on compulsion before the legislation and remained at a similar level a year later. Democracy was not restored to the workplace it was already apparent there. This implies that changes in the industrial relations system had already taken place prior to the legislation and it is suggested that these findings are explicable if the effect of the exigencies of the recession on both parries is taken account of In the ensuing discussion, reasons for the persistence of the same level of union membership after the legislation were considered. It was demonstrated that most members li'anted the union to act as their bargaining agent and felt few pressures regarding their choice of employment contract. In other words, employers did not utilise the provisions of the Act to weaken union membership, at least in the short term.

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.

scholarly journals An Institutional Approach to Trade Union Density. The Case of Legal Origins and Political Ideology

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (49) ◽  
pp. 35-49
Author(s):  
Jacek Lewkowicz ◽  
Anna Lewczuk
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Terms Of Trade ◽  
Institutional Research ◽  
Institutional Approach ◽  
Legal Origins ◽  
The Status

Abstract Which institutions may be important in terms of trade union density and how significant they are? Although the status of trade unions may be very different among states, unions are still a very meaningful component of labour markets. In this paper, we contribute to the debate about the institutions that may affect the outcome of trade unions in different legal systems. Firstly, we draw on the theoretical underpinnings of trade union activity and density. Then, we conduct an empirical analysis of the relationships between trade union density in a particular country, country’s legal origins and government’s ideology. In this way, the paper enriches an underexploited niche in institutional research devoted to labour market issues.

Regional Differentiation in Trade Union Density

1993 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Van der Laan
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Regional Differentiation ◽  
Regional Economic ◽  
Labour Unions ◽  
Locational Analysis ◽  
Regional Economic Analysis

In general, regional economic analysis of trade unions is particularly directed at the effects of labour unions, whereas the conditions and causal aspects which influence the presence of labour unions in regions are studied far less. In this paper an attempt is made to fill part of this gap in knowledge by means of an analysis of the causes of the regional differentiation in labour union membership in the Netherlands. A theoretical survey into the causes of variation in regional membership is reported on. Subsequently, the effects of the potential causes of this regional differentiation are analysed empirically. First, it was found that several potentially important aspects do not explain the regional variation in membership. Second, those aspects that were relevant can be reduced to two common factors. Third, it can be concluded that the rather low level of explanation of the regional differentiation suggests that present economic locational analysis should be supplemented by an approach in which the economic historical context is taken into account too. Regional differentiation in trade union membership can only fully be understood from a regional economic historical approach.

scholarly journals Norm-Based Trade Union Membership: Evidence for Germany

2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 481-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laszlo Goerke ◽  
Markus Pannenberg
Keyword(s):  
Panel Data ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Free Rider ◽  
Free Rider Problem ◽  
Social Custom ◽  
The Impact

Abstract In the absence of closed shops and discriminatory wage policies, union membership can be explained by the existence of social norms.We describe a model, incorporating institutional features of the German labour market, which explicitly allows for social custom effects in the determination of union membership. Using panel data for Germany, we find evidence for according effects which restrict freeriding. The impact of social norms tends to increase with net union density. Hence, observed reductions in the demand for union membership can weaken the impact of a norm and accentuate the free-rider problem.

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.

Labour market segmentation and mobility as determinants of trade union membership: A study from Denmark

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 824-838 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten Strøby Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Market Segmentation ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Labour Market Segmentation ◽  
Stable Employment ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Labour Market Mobility

This article analyses if and to what extent labour market segmentation and labour market mobility influence trade union density. Some industries and sectors have stable employment domains and employees stay to a high degree within the industry even if they change jobs. Other industries and sectors have more unstable employments domains and employees to a higher degree shift to employment in other industries and sectors when they move to another job. In this article, it is analysed how differences in segmentation and employee mobility out of an industry influence union density. The analysis is based on a statistical analysis of registry data from Denmark and contains almost 2 million employees employed in 111 different industries (NACE-coded). The analysis shows that trade union density especially in the private sector industries is significantly influenced by level of segmentation and level of mobility.

How can trade unions in Europe connect with young workers?

2018 ◽  
pp. 660-688 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Vandaele
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Young Workers ◽  
Huge Amount ◽  
Social Custom ◽  
Generational Shift ◽  
Low Rate

Trade union density has almost universally declined across Europe in recent decades, although substantial cross-country variation still exists. This chapter argues that the currently low rate of youth unionization is not the outcome of a generational shift in attitudes and beliefs regarding the value of trade unions. This phenomenon is a result rather of the decline of union membership as a social custom and the diminishing exposure to unionism in the workplace. This chapter argues that unions have a huge amount of agency as they play a particularly important role in the effort to develop effective, tailor-made strategies for organizing young workers.

Organizational career management practices

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomislav Hernaus ◽  
Dejana Pavlovic ◽  
Maja Klindzic
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Organizational Context ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Union Density ◽  
Career Management ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organizational Career Management ◽  
Private Sector Organizations ◽  
Development Paths

Purpose Organizations profoundly create development paths of individual’s careers. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to gain understanding about how organizational context (shaped by the complex relationship between trade union strength and HRM strength) influences the application of organizational career management (OCM) practices seen through the lens of the theory of cooperation and competition (Deutsch, 1949; Tjosvold, 1984). Design/methodology/approach Inferential statistical analyses (Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney tests) were applied to test the CRANET survey data collected from 92 large-sized private-sector organizations within an EU country characterized by a medium to high-trade union density. Findings Results offered consistent empirical evidence that a comprehensive set of OCM practices are applied differently across four distinctive modalities of the union-HRM relationship. Specifically, the “union-HRM synergy” relationship (high-HRM/high-unionization) has been recognized as the most promising for adopting such developmental practices, providing an evidence of complementarities between trade unions and HRM professionalism. Practical implications The research suggests that synergistic collaboration between trade unions and HRM might provide employees with even more career development opportunities than when organizations pursue the asynchronous single-sided “Total HRM strategy.” Originality/value This study rejuvenate a traditional career management research agenda by introducing a new theoretical lens for studying the interplay between trade unions and HRM and have put an emphasis on how their strength is related to the incidence of OCM practices.

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