Union Mergers Research Articles

How union mergers affect membership participation

Using data from a survey of union members, we explore how an amalgamation of two Swedish unions affects membership participation. The research literature on the topic is mostly anecdotal and speculative, suggesting that mergers might have detrimental effects on membership participation because they create large unions with centralized governance and administration. But in this study, we do not find a broad-based decline in membership participation measured before and after merger as well as in relation to a comparison union that did not merge. These results are discussed in terms of the national context of union mergers in Sweden and the ways that mergers are negotiated, presented, and implemented to preserve membership participation.

Unison and the people side of mergers

This article examines the merger of public service unions which resulted in the creation of Unison, the largest trade union in the UK. It examines the Unison merger from the perspective of the strategic capability of union management(s) to influence the success or otherwise of the merger process. Models and frameworks arising from research into for‐profit organisations are used, in particular those of Buono and Bowditch (1989). Use is also made of the more recent work of Cartwright and Cooper (1996). Both studies highlight the importance of the cultural aspects of the merger process. The article concludes that the chosen models illuminate the process and demonstrate the importance of further research to enable a better understanding of the management of trade unions.

Union mergers in hard times: The view from five countries

Union mergers in hard times: The view from five countries

The British merger movement: the importance of the ‘aggressive’ unions

Union mergers in Britain are dominated numerically by transfers of engagements from minor unions to major unions. Just five major or acquiring unions were responsible for absorbing 79% of all transfers to TUC affiliated unions between 1978 and 1994. This study establishes the extent of this domination, examines the characteristics of the five unions’ aggressive merger policies and considers the consequences of the findings for theories of union mergers.

Union merger runs into problems

Management Report for Nonunion OrganizationsVolume 22, Issue 9 p. 4-6 News Union merger runs into problems First published: 13 March 2007 https://doi.org/10.1002/mare.4080220906AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume22, Issue9September 1999Pages 4-6 RelatedInformation

The x-efficiency and allocative efficiency effects of credit union mergers

The relative efficiency effects of Australian credit union mergers are examined. The period of investigation is June 1992–June 1997, which allows the examination of 16 credit union mergers in the 1993–1994 financial year. Multiple regression is applied to examine the impact of credit union mergers on x-efficiency and allocative efficiency. The data envelopment analysis (DEA) frontier approach is used to provide measures of x-efficiency and allocative efficiency. Results provide statistical evidence that, on average, credit union mergers do not result in an increase in x-efficiency or allocative efficiency postmerger relative to other credit unions.

Breakaway Unions: A Study of the Australian Entertainment Industry

AbstractPrevious research reveals that failure to resolve intra-union conflict may lead to the emergence of breakaways. Drawing on evidence from the Australian entertainment industry, this study examines the more unusual case of an attempt to secede by elements of the leadership (rather than membership) from the Australian Theatrical and Amusement Employees Association. Following secession, the breakaway group merged with a different union. The paper argues that the country’s system of industrial relations shaped the form of the breakaway and ultimately provided the legal vehicle for the disaffected group to split from its parent union. It further shows how union breakaways are not necessarily caused by union merger activity although it often appears that they are.

Discretion and Politicization in EU Competition Policy: The Case of Merger Control

In a world where goods and services (but also people, capital and ideas) are increasingly ignoring national borders, competition policy has emerged as a highly salient issue at the heart of international trade discussions. Aspects of competition policy, from cartels and monopolies to state aids and the liberalization of the utilities, have become a regular feature in the pages of the financial and legal press and have become identified as a central element in any government's policy towards industry and its drive for competitiveness. This article focuses on European Union merger control and although appreciative of the dominance of economics and law in competition policy, stresses the political dimension to competition policy. A government and public administration perspective is essential. This is in evidence in the type of regime, the commitment to enforcing the law, the role of discretion and issues such as transparency and democracy. The example of merger control is used to illustrate how the European Commission (EC) has emerged and operates as a genuinely federal actor in determining and shaping merger policy throughout the EU. In short, this article accounts for policy development, the decision making process and in particular the degree to which discretion and politicization underpin one of the most crucial aspects of economic regulation.

Is Bigger Better? Union Size and Expenditure on Members

From the late 1980s to the mid-1990s Australian trade unions engaged in a series of amalgamations. One of the main rationales for these mergers was that larger unions would benefit from economies of scale. But this proposition has been contested in debates sparked by the Australian union amalgamation round. Research literature on union mergers and the economics of union administration is reviewed to identify factors affecting the costs incurred by unions in servicing their membership. Multivariate allalysis of data from a sample of thirty-four Australian unions suggests that larger unions incur lower costs in servicing their members when other factors thought to affect union cost structures are held constant. But methodological and conceptual issues meau that the findings do not provide unambiguous evidence for the existence of economies of scale.

The impact of mergers on credit union service provision

In this paper we conduct an empirical exercise in which we attempt to provide answers to three questions concerning credit union mergers: (i) do members of acquiring credit unions benefit from mergers?; (ii) do members of acquired credit unions benefit from mergers?; and (iii) what are the characteristics of relatively successful, and relatively unsuccessful, mergers? Our empirical exercise is based on annual samples of nearly 6000 credit unions, including nearly 300 merger participants, during the 1988–1995 period. We find member service provision to have improved in acquired credit unions, and to have been unchanged in acquiring credit unions. We also provide three separate analyses, from three different perspectives, of the role of various characteristics of merging credit unions in determining the success of mergers.

Book Reviews : Union Mergers in Hard Times: The View from Five Countries. By Gary N. Chaison. Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press, 1996. 248 pp. $39.95 cloth, $16.95 paper

Book Reviews : Union Mergers in Hard Times: The View from Five Countries. By Gary N. Chaison. Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press, 1996. 248 pp. $39.95 cloth, $16.95 paper

Book Reviews

Susan Kirk, Managing TogetherCharlotte A. B. Yates, Union Mergers in Hard TimesPaul Edwards, Between Class and MarketHarry Scarbrough, We are Motor MenV. L. Allen, Strikes and SolidarityRobert Taylor, Safety First

A Strategic Choice–resource Dependence Analysis of Union Mergers in the British and Australian Broadcasting and Film Industries

Since the late 1980s there has been a marked increase in the rate of union restructuring and merger in both Britain and Australia. This has been particularly prevalent in the film and broadcasting industries in both countries. This organizational change has largely been triggered by environmental turbulence which has altered the availability and control of resources required for organizational survival. Accepting the concept from strategic choice theory that trade unions are able to exercise a degree of choice over the way in which they manage and adapt to changes in their external and internal environments, the paper demonstrates how an integration of strategic choice and resource dependence perspectives can explain why organizations behave in different ways and, in particular, why trade union mergers in the film and broadcasting industries have occurred. Further, the perspective also explains why some trade unions chose not to merge. An integration of resource dependence theory with strategic choice theory explains why trade unions make particular strategic decisions. Conversely, strategic choice explains how organizations acquire resources and manage dependencies. The paper concludes by making the case for an integration of the two perspectives for future studies of organizational behaviour and change.

Book Review: International and Comparative: Union Mergers in Hard Times: The View from Five Countries

Book Review: International and Comparative: Union Mergers in Hard Times: The View from Five Countries

Union Mergers in Hard Times: The View from Five Countries.

Union Mergers in Hard Times: The View from Five Countries.

Union Merger Support

Union Merger Support

Union Mergers in Hard Times: The View from Five Countries

Union Mergers in Hard Times: The View from Five Countries

Trade Union Mergers in British and Australian Television Broadcasting

A complex set of forces facing trade union organizations has meant that union restructuring vis‐à‐vis merger activity has been a prominent feature of many Western labour movements in the 1980s and 1990s. This paper is located in these structural developments, and its main contribution lies in the insights provided by an in‐depth examination of recent union merger activity in commercial television in the UK and Australia. In contrast to the work of Undy et al. (1981), the results suggest that union mergers are influenced by more than changes in membership patterns, and that the delineation of merger categories may be far more complex than what has previously been identified by their model. It is argued, too, that the nature of the forces and the processes that led to the broadcasting union mergers in the UK and Australia were significantly influenced by the different institutional contexts of both countries. Finally, and related to this, it would appear that union merger outcomes (at least in the short term) are linked to the preceding processes by which merger is brought about. One policy implication of this is that anything other than a case‐by‐case evaluation of union mergers may be misleading.

Trade Union Congress Policy towards union mergers: a statistical analysis, 1960-83

This letter extends Elgar and Simpson's (1994) analysis on the working of the Bridlington Principles to the analysis of the working of TUC voluntary policy with respect to mergers among affiliated unions over the period 1960–83. Univariate analysis is applied to microdata to investigate the effectiveness of voluntary policy on mergers with respect both to the implementation and to the achievement of the underlying objectives of the policy. The results of the tests clearly show the achievement of the implementation of the policy in terms of when and how mergers occurred and the achievement of the policy objective of rationalizing the structure of affiliated unions; the results of the tests about the achievement of the policy objective of reducing competition for membership among affiliated unions are less conclusive. The results of our analysis on mergers broadly confirm Edgar and Simpson's results about the effectiveness of TUC voluntary policies.

Union mergers in hard times: the view from five countries

Union mergers in hard times: the view from five countries