Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Bob Smale
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Younger Workers ◽  
Age Profile ◽  
Membership Decline ◽  
As If

The purpose of this book is to take a fresh look at trade unions by focusing upon their identities and exploring what in this work is termed ‘niche unionism’. While media and politicians frequently refer to the unions as if they were homogeneous, even the most rudimentary exploration of union names reveals that they project an extremely diverse range of identities. Although UK trade union membership decline has largely halted over recent years, unions seem to be making limited progress in recruiting beyond their traditional membership territories. While new and existing unions are making some inroads into the problem of organizing the unorganized, UK unions’ age profile shows a preponderance of older members, leaving the vast majority of younger workers unorganized (...

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.

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.

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.

The Protestant Work Ethic, Voting Behaviour and Attitudes to the Trade Unions

1984 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 420-436 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Furnham
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Sex Education ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Work Ethic ◽  
Protestant Work Ethic ◽  
Voting Behaviour ◽  
People’S Attitudes ◽  
The Protestant Work Ethic

This study set out to determine the structure and determinants of people's attitudes towards trade unions in Britain. Over two hundred subjects completed two questionnaires, the first measuring the Protestant work ethic, and the second attitudes towards the unions. Although there were few age, sex, education or trade union membership differences as regards attitudes toward the unions, subjects' beliefs in the Protestant work ethic and voting behaviour were clearly and predictably linked to their attitudes. Factor analysis of the attitude to the union scale revealed a number of interpretable factors. The results are discussed in terms of the psychology of voting and social and political attitudes in general.

scholarly journals On the outside looking in? A micro-level analysis of insiders’ and outsiders’ trade union membership

2019 ◽  
pp. 0143831X1989013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giedo Jansen ◽  
Alex Lehr
Keyword(s):  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Employment Status ◽  
Social Risk ◽  
Interest Representation ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Level Analysis

Although studies have signaled a gap in trade union representation between workers with secure employment (i.e., ‘insiders’) and those without (i.e., ‘outsiders’), this gap has rarely been empirically analyzed at the micro-level. With recent micro-level data from the Netherlands, this study addresses two questions. First, to what extent do insiders and outsiders, measured through individuals’ employment status and self-perceived social risk, differ in their willingness/probability to join trade unions? Second, to what extent can these differences in trade union membership be explained as resulting from perceptions of interest representation and/or workplace social cohesion? The results suggests a clear insider–outsider gap in trade union membership related to employment status, but not to social risk. Furthermore, this gap can be explained by differences in perceptions of representation, but not workplace social cohesion.

The focus of the new trade union. Opinions of members and non-members regarding social differences and trade union priorities in the Netherlands

2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 439-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Van Der Meer ◽  
Roos Van Os Van Den Abeelen ◽  
Jelle Visser
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Union Membership ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
National Level ◽  
Social Differences ◽  
Social Challenges ◽  
Union Democracy ◽  
The Social

Trade union legitimacy at national level is increasingly coming under pressure due to the new social challenges arising from the shifting of decision making from national to both international and decentralised levels. In this article we discuss representative opinion research on the social differences perceived by Dutch citizens and the priorities on which trade unions should focus. This allows us to relate the emerging criticisms of the unbalanced composition of Dutch trade union membership to issues of ‘positive’ coordination and policy-making legitimacy in light of internal trade union democracy and the representation of younger labour market cohorts.

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