Union density
The union density or union membership rate conveys the number of trade union members who are employees as a percentage of the total number of employees in a given industry or country.[1] This is normally lower than collective agreement coverage rate, which refers to all people whose terms of work are collectively negotiated. Trade unions bargain with employers to improve pay, conditions, and decision-making in workplaces; higher rates of union density within an industry or country will generally indicate higher levels of trade union bargaining power, lower rates of density will indicate less bargaining power.[1]
Causes
[edit]The causes of higher or lower union membership are widely debated. Common causes are often identified as including the following:
- whether a jurisdiction encourages sectoral collective bargaining (higher coverage) or enterprise bargaining (lower coverage)
- whether collective agreements to create a closed shop or allow automatic enrollment in union membership are lawful
- whether the government, for instance through a Ministry or Department of Labour, actively promotes collective agreement coverage with a power to impose terms if employers refuse to bargain with the workforce
- whether a country enables collective agreements to be extended by government regulations to all workers when the coverage rate reaches a majority in a sector, or similar level
- whether laws on collective bargaining and strikes are more or less favourable
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2016) |
By country
[edit]| Now | Older | |
|---|---|---|
|
8%[2] | |
|
||
|
68% | |
|
14.3% | |
|
13.7%[3] |
In the United States in 2015 there were 14.8m union members, and 16.4m people covered by collective bargaining or union representation. Union membership was 7.4% in private sector, but 39% in the public sector. In the five largest states, California has 15.9% union membership, Texas 4.5%, Florida 6.8%, New York 24.7% (the highest in the country), and Illinois had 15.2%.[4]
In December 2021, 14.3% of the Australian workforce were union members; this was a decline of more than 5 percentage points since 2010 and nearly 10 percentage points since 2005.[5]
In Sweden union density was 68% in 2019.[6] [7] In all the Nordic countries with a Ghent system—Sweden, Denmark and Finland—union density is almost 70%. In all these countries union density has declined.[8][9]
In France while the overall union density is 8%, in companies over 50 employees this level reaches 43%.
US Bureau of Labor in 2010 notes a difference of median income of 200 dollars between union-members (917), and non-union members (717) without indicating if higher salaries link to more unionisation, or the reverse or in mutuality.[10]
| This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2016) |
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ a b "Trade union density and collective bargaining coverage: International Statistical Inquiry 2008-09" (PDF). International Labour Organisation. 2008. p. 2. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
- ^ "Syndicats : 1,8 million d'adhérents en France". Franceinfo (in French). 2015-10-18. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
- ^ "La afiliación sindical en España alcanza su nivel más bajo en 30 años". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 2019-12-22. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
- ^ See Bureau of Labor Statistics, ‘Union Members – 2015’ (28 January 2016)
- ^ Sakkal, Paul. "'Mugged by reality': Unions urged to shift focus from federal Labor to state action". The Age. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
- ^ Excluding full-time students working part-time. See Anders Kjellberg (2020) Kollektivavtalens täckningsgrad samt organisationsgraden hos arbetsgivarförbund och fackförbund, Department of Sociology, Lund University. Studies in Social Policy, Industrial Relations, Working Life and Mobility. Research Reports 2020:1, Appendix 3 (in English) Tables A-G
- ^ Anders Kjellberg (2020) Den svenska modellen i en oviss tid. Fack, arbetsgivare och kollektivavtal på en föränderlig arbetsmarknad – Statistik och analyser: facklig medlemsutveckling, organisationsgrad och kollektivavtalstäckning 2000-2029". Stockholm: Arena Idé 2020
- ^ On Sweden, see Anders Kjellberg (2011) "The Decline in Swedish Union Density since 2007" Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies (NJWLS) Vol. 1. No 1 (August 2011), pp. 67–93
- ^ On Sweden and Denmark, see Anders Kjellberg and Christian Lyhne Ibsen (2016) "Attacks on union organizing: Reversible and irreversible changes to the Ghent-systems in Sweden and Denmark" in Trine Pernille Larsen and Anna Ilsøe (eds.)(2016) Den Danske Model set udefra (The Danish Model Inside Out) - komparative perspektiver på dansk arbejdsmarkedsregulering, Copenhagen: Jurist- og Økonomforbundets Forlag (pp.279-302)
- ^ "The Difference Between a Union and a non-Union Workplace". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 2022-06-12.
References
[edit]- Dickens, William T.; Leonard, Jonathan S. (April 1985). "Accounting for the decline union membership, 1950–1980" (PDF). Industrial and Labor Relations Review. 38 (3). SAGE: 323–334. doi:10.1177/001979398503800301. JSTOR 2523761. S2CID 155005060.
- Visser, Jelle (September 2002). "Why fewer workers join unions in Europe: a social custom explanation of membership trends". British Journal of Industrial Relations. 40 (3). Wiley: 403–430. doi:10.1111/1467-8543.00241. S2CID 154877898.
- Schnabel, Claus; Wagner, Joachim (January 2005). "Determinants of trade union membership in West Germany: evidence from micro data, 1980–2000". Socio-Economic Review. 3 (1). Oxford Journals: 1–24. doi:10.1093/SER/mwh011. S2CID 55433670.
- Schnabel, Claus (September 2013). "Union membership and density: Some (not so) stylized facts and challenges" (PDF). European Journal of Industrial Relations. 19 (3). Sage: 255–272. doi:10.1177/0959680113493373. S2CID 14168949.