Factors Affecting Union Decline in 18 OECD Countries and their Implications for Labor Movement Reform

Abstract

In recent years, researchers have given much attention to union density decline in industrialized countries. While several have asked whether this decline can be attributed to specifi c economic, social, or institutional causes, few have provided concrete suggestions about how cross-national studies in this genre can inform efforts that seek to reverse this decline in the United States. This study uses cross-sectional time-series analysis of a pooled sample of 18 OECD countries from 1980 to 2005 to consider the effect of the business cycle, domestic institutions, globalization, and strike activity on union density. We identify interaction with the variable 'Traditional Union Density' and utilize fi ndings on corporatism, collective bargaining, globalization, and infl ation to make suggestions for those working to reverse union decline in the US.

Union membership and density: Some (not so) stylized facts and challenges

“…Similarly, Sano and Williamson (2008) find no robust impact of FDI and trade openness in a pooled sample of 18 OECD countries from 1980 to 2005, and for a panel of 14 European countries Checchi and Visser (2005) report that changes in union density are unaffected by proxies for increased globalization. In a multilevel analysis for a group of 18 affluent democracies in the late 1990s, Brady (2007) finds that net trade and investment do not significantly affect unionization (see also Martin and Brady, 2007).…”

A Causality Analysis of Economic Growth and Union Density inEuropean Countries

“…According to the authors, this might be linked to a homogenization of thought and politics. This absence of effect of economic globalization was confirmed by Lee (2005) or Sano and Williamson (2008).…”

“…Our results then depart from previous ones. But, as underlined in Sano and Williamson (2008), unemployment might be an imperfect indicator to predict union density (Bain and Elsheikh, 1976;Booth, 1983;Roche and Larragy, 1990). More recent econometric studies find a significant relation but they are obtained on different data set (OECD countries for Checchi and Nunziata, 2011) and/or different time period (1950-96 for Checchi andVisser, 2005).…”

Is Labor Green?

“…Here, we employ union membership as an indicator of union strength to evaluate the influence of unionization on CO 2 emissions per capita. Our union density measurement is commonly employed by other researchers (Sano and Williamson 2008). It does not include those individuals who are not working or actively looking for work, such as prisoners and students.…”

“…It does not include those individuals who are not working or actively looking for work, such as prisoners and students. Scholars have used similar data to those we use to investigate the connections between union density and various social, economic, and institutional factors (Checchi and Visser 2005;Sano and Williamson 2008;Scruggs and Lange 2002).…”