Premium
Union Decline in Britain
Author(s) -
Machin Stephen
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
british journal of industrial relations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.665
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-8543
pISSN - 0007-1080
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8543.00183
Subject(s) - falling (accident) , underpinning , work (physics) , demographic economics , period (music) , political science , economic history , labour economics , economics , psychology , engineering , art , mechanical engineering , civil engineering , psychiatry , aesthetics
This paper considers the rapid decline in unionization that has occurred in Britain since the late 1970s. The overwhelming factor underpinning falling unionization was a failure to organize new establishments set up in the last twenty years or so, thus confirming that developments since 1990 represent a continuation of the pattern revealed in earlier work for the 1980–90 period. The sharpest falls in unionization occurred in private manufacturing establishments set up after 1980. Finally, there is some evidence that it is age of workplace, rather than age of worker, that is the critical age‐based factor behind union decline.