[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/pal/intecp/978-1-349-11562-4_12.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

On the Divergence of Unionism among Developed Countries

In: Labour Relations and Economic Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Richard Freeman
Abstract
In this paper I explore the evolution of unionism in 1970s and 1980s when the post oil-shock world economy created a ‘crisis of unionism’ throughout the western world. I try to explain why union representation of work-forces fell in some countries but not in others and contrast union responses to the challenge of the period. I find that: 1. Rates of unionisation diverged greatly among developed countries (Section 2.1). 2. The composition of union members shifted from private sector blue-collar workers to public sector and white-collar workers in all countries, producing increased divisions within union movements by category of worker (Section 2.2). 3. Changes in the industrial composition of employment, changes in public attitudes toward unionism, and the growth of governmental protection of labour do not explain the divergence in density (Section 3.1). 4. Differing rates of inflation contributed to the divergence, with unions doing better in countries with high inflation. In addition, unemployment raised density in settings where unions disperse unemployment benefits (Section 3.2; Section 3.5). 5. The primary reason for the divergence are differences in the incentives and opportunities different industrial relations systems give employers to oppose unions. Unions fared best in neo-corporatist settings and worst in settings where decentralised bargaining creates a strong profit incentive for managers to oppose unions and where management is relatively free to act on that incentive (Section 3.3; Section 3.5). 6. Union organisations and modes of operating changed significantly in some countries with declining or endangered unionism but not it others (Section 3.4).

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Freeman, 1990. "On the Divergence of Unionism among Developed Countries," International Economic Association Series, in: Renato Brunetta & Carlo Dell’Aringa (ed.), Labour Relations and Economic Performance, chapter 12, pages 304-322, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:intecp:978-1-349-11562-4_12
    DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-11562-4_12
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Joel Rogers, 1995. "United States: Lessons from Abroad and Home," NBER Chapters, in: Works Councils: Consultation, Representation, and Cooperation in Industrial Relations, pages 375-410, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Peter Kenyon & Philip E. T. Lewis, 1993. "Union Membership and the Legal and Institutional Environment: Labour Market Policy in Australia and the United Kingdom," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 26(2), pages 48-60, April.
    3. Robin Naylor, 1995. "Unions in Decline?," Nordic Journal of Political Economy, Nordic Journal of Political Economy, vol. 22, pages 127-142.
    4. Schnabel, Claus, 2002. "Determinants of trade union membership," Discussion Papers 15, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    5. Rosemary D. F. Bromley, 1998. "Market-place Trading and the Transformation of Retail Space in the Expanding Latin American City," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 35(8), pages 1311-1333, July.
    6. Bob Hancké, 1993. "Trade Union Membership in Europe, 1960–1990: Rediscovering Local Unions," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 31(4), pages 593-613, December.
    7. Henry S. Farber & Alan B. Krueger, 1992. "Union Membership in the United States: The Decline Continues," Working Papers 685, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:intecp:978-1-349-11562-4_12. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.