Union Decline Research Articles

Visibility and voice in organisations

PurposeThe paper aims to focus on the activism of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people and their allies within work organisations. Specifically, it explores whether LGBT trade union groups and company employee network groups provide mechanisms for visibility, voice and activism for LGBT employees within UK organisations.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on in‐depth interviews with 149 LGB employees within 14 UK case study organisations. These took place within four local authorities, three fire and emergency services, two national voluntary sector organisations and five private sector organisations between 2004‐2006. In addition, 55 in‐depth interviews with management, trade union and LGBT company employee network group representatives within the organisations plus analysis of company and trade union web sites and publications provided information on organisation policy and practice. Interviews were conducted using a semi‐structured interview schedule and the data collected were coded and analysed with the assistance of Nvivo software.FindingsThis paper outlines the history of LGBT trade union groups and company employee network groups within the UK. It found that both LGBT trade union groups and company employee network groups have provided important and at times complimentary mechanisms for visibility, community and voice for LGBT employees. However, the paper recognised that LGBT company network groups were relatively “new actors” within the case study organisations and suggests that some early gains may have been those which companies were willing to concede. It concludes that more research will be needed to see whether both LGBT trade union and company employee network groups can maintain their momentum during a time of economic recession as equality and diversity budgets are squeezed.Originality/valueA decline in trade unions and increasing non‐unionisation despite labour movement revitalisation campaigns has meant that there is growing interest in whether employee network groups can provide meaningful avenues for “employee voice” in both unionised and non‐unionised workplaces. The paper addresses a gap in knowledge by focusing firstly on LGBT activism in the workplace and secondly on the rationale for and development of LGBT trade union and company employee network groups as mechanisms for “employee voice” for LGBT employees.

Union Membership and Perceived Job Insecurity: Thirty Years of Evidence from the American General Social Survey

Using the American General Social Survey covering the period 1978–2008, the authors investigate the link between union membership and perceived job insecurity. They find that overall, union members are 3.5 percentage points more likely than non-union members to feel insecure about their current jobs as well as future job prospects, especially during recessionary periods. This result is twice that in the manufacturing sector. By contrast, there is virtually no union effect on job insecurity in transportation, communication, and other services sectors. The use of instrumental-variables estimation methods and attitudinal proxy variables indicates that the positive correlation between union membership and perceived job insecurity is not due to self-selection, nor it is related to the decline of unionism in the United States.

Is Bigger Still Better? The Decline of the Wage Premium at Large Firms

This study shows that the wage premium paid by large firms fell over the past 20 years and that this decline in the size premium is most pronounced among the least educated workers. Empirical evidence supports several explanations for the shrinking size premium. First, there has been a convergence in the returns to worker characteristics at large and small firms over time. Second, small and large firms are hiring more workers with similar characteristics. Particularly important are the declining share of workers at large manufacturing firms and the rising share of workers at large retail firms. Also, the greater decline of unionism at large firms has contributed significantly to the decline in the size premium.

Organized Labor and Racial Wage Inequality in the United States.

Why have African-American private-sector unionization rates surpassed those of white workers for decades, and how has private-sector union decline exacerbated black-white wage inequality? Using data from the Current Population Survey (1973-2007), the authors show that African-Americans join unions for protection against discriminatory treatment in nonunion sectors. A model-predicted wage series also shows that, among women, black-white weekly wage gaps would be between 13% and 30% lower if union representation remained at high levels. The effect of deunionization on racial wage inequality for men is less substantial, but without deunionization, weekly wages for black men would be an estimated $49 higher. The results recast organized labor as an institution vital for its economic inclusion of African-American men and women. This study points to the need to move beyond class-based analyses of union decline to an understanding of the gendered role unions once played in mitigating racial inequality.

The Involvement of Civil Society Organizations in British Industrial Relations: Extent, Origins and Significance

AbstractThis article examines the involvement of civil society organizations (CSOs) in UK industrial relations. Organizations of this type, including advocacy, campaigning, identity and community organizations have attracted increasing attention from employment relations scholars in recent years. The study reported in this article demonstrates that CSOs have become increasingly active in the sphere of work and employment, partly in response to trade union decline but also owing to political opportunities, afforded by the labour market policy of the New Labour government. It is claimed that CSOs operate at multiple levels of the industrial relations system and interact with the state, employers and trade unions. They generate significant effects within UK industrial relations and can rightly be judged significant ‘new actors’ on the UK employment scene.

Union Decline and Voice among Minority Ethnic Workers

This paper reports on a study of the experiences of minority ethnic workers in seeking advice and support for workplace problems. Our focus on three minority ethnic groups (Kurdish, Black Caribbean and South Asian) in three specific localities of London is unique in that it provides new micro-level qualitative data on whether or not local social networks are utilised to assist with employment problems. The research explores workers’ knowledge of what employment advice is available in their localities and their experiences of seeking advice. Interviewees included community advice workers, trade unionists, lawyers and funding bodies about the extent of local employment provision. The findings show that there are few places to turn and a dearth of individual employment advice.

New Forms to Settle Old Scores: Updating the Worker Centre Story in the United States

Worker centres are community-based mediating institutions that organize, advocate and provide direct support to low-wage workers. Moving into the void left by the decline of labour unions, local political parties and other groups, these centres are addressing issues that low wage, largely immigrant workers face at the workplace. In 1992, there were five such organizations, but by 2003, there were at least 137 worker centres in the United States rooted in communities where immigrant populations had settled. I estimate there to be more than 200 worker centres in 2011. Worker centres attract labourers who are often the hardest-to-organize and, because the organizations are unencumbered by the Wagner Act and subsequent Taft Hartley amendments which stripped unions of some of their most potent tactics, they can sometimes act as “organizing laboratories” creating and testing new and innovative strategies. Centres have had some significant organizing and public policy successes and have placed labour standards enforcement on the public policy agenda at the state and national levels. During their formative years, these organizations displayed important strengths but also exhibited weaknesses that appeared to limit their ability to get to scale. Over the last five years, they have moved into a new phase of development. Centres have shown institutional resilience. Not only have new centres emerged, but there has been a growing trend toward federation in which strong individual centres have joined existing national networks or formed new ones which have in turn helped to establish new organizations or affiliate existing ones. While some early worker centres were rejectionist toward the mainstream labour movement, the over-arching trajectory has been in the opposite direction with worker centres seeking cooperation. In fact, there is a growing trend toward institutional partnerships with unions and government. Finally, centres and their national networks are playing strategic roles in broader movement building around immigrant rights, global justice and the right to organize.

Public Sector Unions Need the Private Sector or Why the Wisconsin Protests Were Not Labor's Lazarus Moment

I argue that the extension of collective bargaining rights and formation of public sector labor unions requires the prior existence of these rights among significant sections of the private sector economy. The secular decline in private sector unionization will undermine the political bases of support for public sector unions. I demonstrate that public sector unionism emerged where private sector unions were initially strong. Declining private sector unionism has led to a marked decrease in support for public sector unions. The diminution of their allies in the private sector and the prospect of extended periods of austerity at the state and local level have put public sector unions in a precarious position that Republican governors and legislatures are taking full advantage of. The prospects for renewal in the labor movement are dim.

American Unions in Comparative Perspective

American unions have been stronger and more politically active than a simple “exceptionalist” perspective would suggest. However, the combination of economic trends evident in other advanced democracies combined with an unsympathetic legal environment has made the decline of private sector unions in the US particularly severe. The growth of unions in the public sector compensates only partially for this decline and creates additional problems for the cause of organized labor in general.

Union Membership and Density: Some (Not So) Stylized Facts and Challenges

Surveying some recent data and the empirical literature from various disciplines, this paper attempts to shed some light on what we know and don't know about (trends in) unionization and its determinants in advanced countries. It shows that there are relatively few robust stylized facts, for instance that unionization is positively related to public sector employment, to establishment size and to the business cycle (with union growth being procyclical). The existence of a union-administered unemployment insurance and unions' presence at the workplace also play a positive role for (changes in) unionization. However, some seemingly obvious explanations for the decline in unionization over the last decades do not hold on closer scrutiny. Various trends like the ongoing economic globalization and changes in the sectoral structure of the economy and the composition of the workforce do not seem to have impeded union membership and density everywhere. Similarly, the trend towards decentralization of collective bargaining has not resulted in large-scale deunionization. It also remains an open question whether changes in social values, rising individualism, and changing attitudes of employees towards unions have affected or will affect unionization negatively.

Union Decline in Britain: Is Chauvinism Also to Blame?

The paper examines if workplace gender diversity offers some explanation for the decline of unions in Britain. Using the WERS2004 linked employer-employee data and alternative econometric estimators it reports an inverse relationship between workplace union density and gender diversity. Gender and ownership status based sub-group analyses suggest the inverse relationship to be stronger for male union members and those in the private sector. Gender group size based analysis reveals a positive link between workplace union density and gender diversity in workplaces with a female majority. The findings in this paper may mean that unions (and their main constituents, men) may need to embrace the changing workplace demography genuinely to improve their fate.

The Effects of Creativity and Culture on Trade Union Density

Empirical studies of trade union membership growth have used the standard BainElsheikh [Bain, G. S. and F. Elsheikh, Union Growth and the Business Cycle, Oxford: Blackwell, 1976) model. In this model, rate of change of trade union membership is the dependent variable and rate of change in money wages, rate of change in prices, level of unionization, and unemployment rate are the independent variables. However, trade union density (unionization rate) has been falling in many developed countries. The decline started over four decades ago and has not reached a turning point yet. Traditional models do not seem to adequately explain the decline of trade unions. Hence I examined the influence of creativity and culture on union density within the B-E model for a sample of 22 developed market economies. I used union density as the dependent variable, unemployment rate, rate of growth of gross domestic product (GDP), and creativity and culture as independent variables. Since employers can easily oppose trade unions and unemployed union members drop out of unions in times of high unemployment rate, it should have a negative effect on trade union density. Growth of GDP is a proxy for price increases and money wage increases. In growing economies, prices generally increase and trade unions try negotiating higher wages for not letting real wages erode. This may attract more workers to join the union, thereby creating a positive effect on trade union density. According to Florida [The Rise of the Creative Class, Melbourne: Pluto Press, Australia, 2002], a creative community is characterized by three t’s—technology, talent, and tolerance. Since one of the components of Florida’s creativity index is tolerance, one can assume that tolerant communities will be accepting of and willing to work with various interest groups, including trade unions. Thus, I hypothesize that the higher the level of creativity of a country, the higher the level of union density will be. Hofstede [Culture and Organizations, London: Harper Collins, 1991] has identified four dimensions of national culture—power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity, and uncertainty avoidance. Higher power Atl Econ J (2012) 40:101–102 DOI 10.1007/s11293-011-9296-9

Regional Convergence in Low-Wage Work and Earnings, 1970–2000

Southern and non-Southern labor markets entered the period of economic restructuring from different starting points. Industrial and occupational differences across regions were eroded by the growth of the service industry in all regions, the decline in personal services within the South, and the decline of unions and manufacturing jobs outside of the South. This analysis underscores that indicators of precarity such as unionization and part-time jobs are really at the core of understanding regional low-wage earnings convergence. Furthermore, the authors find that an interaction between the regional structure of occupational opportunities and the racial and gender makeup of workers in jobs, particularly black women, plays an important role in producing the sharp low-wage earnings growth observed in the South in the 1970s and 1980s.

Supportive Legislation, Unsupportive Employers and Collective Bargaining in New Zealand

In New Zealand in the 1990s, labour market decentralization and new employment legislation precipitated a sharp decline in unionism and collective bargaining coverage; trends that continued well into the 2000s even after the introduction of the more supportive Employment Relations Act 2000 (ERA). The ERA prescribed new bargaining rules, which included a good faith obligation, increased union rights and promoted collective bargaining as the key to building productive employment relationships (Anderson, 2004; May and Walsh, 2002). In this respect the ERA provided scope for increased collective bargaining and union renewal (Harbridge and Thickett, 2003; May, 2003a and 2003b; May and Walsh, 2002). Despite these predictions and the ERA's overall intent, the decline in collective bargaining coverage begun in the 1990s has continued unabated in the private sector. It has naturally been questioned why the ERA has not reversed, or at least halted, this downward trend. So far research has focused on the impact of the legislation itself and much less on employer behaviour and perceptions, or on their contribution to these trends. This article addresses the paucity of employer focused research in New Zealand. The research explores views of employers on the benefi ts of collective bargaining, how decisions to engage or not engage in collective bargaining are made and the factors instrumental to them. It is demonstrated that the preferred method of setting pay and conditions continues to be individual bargaining. This is especially so for organizations with less than 50 employees, by far the largest majority of fi rms in New Zealand. Frequently, these smaller organizations see no perceived benefits from collective bargaining. Overall, these fi ndings suggest that despite a decade of supportive legislation there are few signs that the 20 year decline in collective bargaining coverage in New Zealand will be reversed.

MODELING INFORMALITY FORMALLY: HOUSEHOLDS AND FIRMS

Informality is widespread in most developing countries. In Latin America, 50% of salaried employees work informally. Three stylized facts characterize informality: (1) small firms tend to operate informally while large firms tend to operate formally; (2) unskilled workers tend to be informal while skilled ones have formal jobs; (3) ceteris paribus, secondary workers (a worker other than the household head) are less likely to operate formally than primary workers. We develop a model that accounts for all these facts. In our model, both heterogeneous firms and workers have preferences over the sector they operate and choose optimally whether to function formally or informally. There are two labor markets, one formal and the other informal, and both firms and workers act unconstrained in them. By contrast, a prominent feature of the preexisting literature is that workers' decisions play no role in determining the equilibrium of the economy. In our model, policies that reduce the supply of workers in the informal labor market at given wages will increase the level of formality in the economy. This has noteworthy implications for the design of social programs in developing countries. We also show that an increase in the participation of secondary workers would tend to raise the level of informality in the economy. (JEL J24, J33)

Do Unions Affect Labor's Share of Income: Evidence Using Panel Data

There have been a number of studies analyzing the impact of unions on labor's share of income. Most have relied on either time series or cross-section data. The purpose of this paper is to determine the impact of unions on labor's share of income in the U.S. This study adds to the understanding of this topic by developing an analytical model of imperfect competition and estimating the model using panel data for the manufacturing sector. This study finds that unions have a positive impact on labor's share of income. Specifically, this paper finds that labor's share declined 17.9 percent between 1997 and 2006 whereas, if unionization density had remained at its 1997 level, labor's share would have declined only 13.9 percent. Thus, the decline in unionization explains about 29 percent of the decline in labor's share of income. This paper is important for three reasons. First, this paper sheds light on whether social and institutional forces play an important role in determining the distribution of income between labor and capital. Second, it helps to explain recent increases in wage inequality. Third, it has implications for understanding the potential impact of legislation, such as the Employee Free Choice Act, that would make it easier for workers in the U.S. to unionize.

SLIP SLIDING AWAY: FURTHER UNION DECLINE IN GERMANY AND BRITAIN

ABSTRACTThis paper presents the first comparative analysis of the decline in collective bargaining in two European countries where that decline has been among the most pronounced. Using establishment‐level data and a common model, we present decompositions of changes in collective bargaining in the private sector in Germany and Britain over the period 1998–2004. In both countries, within‐effects dominate compositional changes as the source of the recent decline in unionism. Overall, the decline in collective bargaining is more pronounced in Britain than in Germany, thus continuing a trend apparent since the 1980s. Although establishment characteristics differ markedly across the two countries, assuming counterfactual values of these characteristics makes little difference to unionization levels. Expressed differently, the German dummy looms large.

Introduction: Causes, consequences and cures of union decline

In 2000 the political leaders of the European Union declared that strong economic growth and advance towards a knowledge society, together with a high degree of social cohesion, would be the pre-eminent goals for the subsequent decade. A question never asked was what would happen, and what remedial action would be taken, should the conditions conducive to growth and the knowledge economy conflict with the political and institutional underpinnings of social cohesion. What if strong employment growth turned out to be founded on the destabilization of the standard employment contract, or if the advance towards a knowledge economy brought about a sharp rise in social inequality and polarization between skilled and unskilled workers and between those with and without stable jobs? Would trade unions be willing and able to counteract or attenuate such trends and bridge the differences between the new haves and have-nots? Or would they be marginalized, slowly but irreversibly, together with the stable employment relationships that characterized the mid-20th century? In this special issue we consider the evidence on the causes, consequences and cures of union decline. The contributions stem from an open call for papers from the EQUALSOC network of excellence (economic growth, quality of life and social cohesion), funded by the European Union’s Sixth Framework Programme. With financial assistance from the EU, the papers were discussed at two workshops at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES), University of Mannheim and the

Decline in Unionism?

There was much discussion in the 1980s and 1990s about the crisis in the union movement in Brazil, and some writers even began to talk of its historic decline. An analysis of union activity in Brazil from 2000 to 2009—how many strikes took place, how many strikers were involved, whether their objectives were defensive or offensive, how such conflicts were conducted, the extent of each, and, perhaps most important, what the workers thought they were achieving—suggests that, on the contrary, we are witnessing a definite recovery in union effectiveness.

The Rise and Decline of Australian Unionism: A History of Industrial Labour from the 1820s to 2010

In exploring the factors that contributed to the rise and decline of industrial labour in Australia, this article argues that support for unionism initially emerged from a working class that was a product of the country's unusual economic history. In the twentieth century the implementation of systems of compulsory arbitration, devised to mediate industrial conflict, reinforced support for unionism. In 1948, however, support for unionism peaked and a long process of decline began as the working class constituency that had provided its social anchor disintegrated as a result of structural changes in the economy. The dismantling of arbitration after 1986 exacerbated this established pattern of decline, as did a growth in precarious employment and employer anti-union strategies.