Determinants of Trade Union Membership

This contribution scrutinises how introducing a statutory minimum wage of EUR 8.50 per hour, in January 2015, impacted German employees’ decision with regard to union membership. Based on representative data from the Labour Market and Social Security panel, the study applies a logistic difference-in-differences propensity score matching approach on entries into and withdrawals from unions in the German Trade Union Confederation (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB). The results show no separate effect on withdrawals from or entries into unions after the minimum wage introduction for those employees who benefited financially from it, but a significant increase of entries overall. Thus, unions’ campaign for a minimum wage strengthened their position in total but did not reverse the segmentation of union membership patterns.

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Baanonzekerheid als schending van het psychologisch contract bij vakbondsleden: gevolgen voor vakbondsattitudes en opzegintentie in België en Nederland

Gedrag & Organisatie ◽

10.5117/2005.018.001.001 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Hans De Witte ◽

Sjoerd Goslinga ◽

Antonio Chirumbolo ◽

Johnny Hellgren ◽

Katharina Näswall ◽

...

Keyword(s):

The Netherlands ◽

Trade Union ◽

Union Membership ◽

Psychological Contract ◽

Affective Commitment ◽

Contract Theory ◽

Job Insecurity ◽

Union Commitment ◽

Union Support ◽

Psychological Contract Theory

Job insecurity as violation of the psychological contract among trade union members: consequences on attitudes towards unions and the intention to resign membership in Belgium and the Netherlands Job insecurity as violation of the psychological contract among trade union members: consequences on attitudes towards unions and the intention to resign membership in Belgium and the Netherlands Hans De Witte, Sjoerd Goslinga, Antonio Chirumbolo, Johnny Hellgren, Katharina Näswall & Magnus Sverke, Gedrag & Organisatie, Volume 18, February 2005, nr. 1, pp. 1-20 In this article the consequences of job insecurity among union members are explored. Having established that most employees have instrumental motives for joining a union, and using psychological contract theory, we hypothesize that job insecurity among union members correlates with a lower level of perceived union support, lower satisfaction with the union, reduced (affective) commitment towards the union, and a higher intention to resign union membership. These hypotheses were tested in Belgium and the Netherlands. Evidence was found to support the assumed association between job insecurity and a reduction in perceived union support. In Belgium, job insecurity was also associated with reduced union satisfaction and intention to resign membership. In neither country job insecurity was associated with union commitment. These results partly support the hypothesis that union members experience job insecurity as a violation of their psychological contract with the union.

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Political attitudes and trade union membership in the Nordic countries

European Journal of Industrial Relations ◽

10.1177/0959680117708372 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 23 (4) ◽

pp. 381-395 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

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.

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Trade union membership retention in Europe: The challenge of difficult times

European Journal of Industrial Relations ◽

10.1177/0959680114538708 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 21 (3) ◽

pp. 205-221 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Jeremy Waddington

Keyword(s):

Trade Union ◽

Union Membership ◽

Membership Retention ◽

Difficult Times

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

Res Publica ◽

10.21825/rp.v46i1.18419 ◽

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.

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