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Unions and Collective Bargaining in the Wake of the Great Recession: Evidence from Portugal
Author(s) -
Addison John T.,
Portugal Pedro,
Vilares Hugo
Publication year - 2017
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/bjir.12198
Subject(s) - union density , collective bargaining , great recession , wage , recession , economics , industrial relations , trade union , portuguese , rigidity (electromagnetism) , bargaining power , labour economics , macroeconomics , linguistics , philosophy , management , structural engineering , engineering , microeconomics
Against the backdrop of its industrial relations architecture, characteristic of the ‘southern European group’ and intimately linked to the recommendations of the Troika, this paper examines four key aspects of Portuguese collective bargaining. First, it provides definitive estimates of private sector union density for that nation. Second, it models the determinants of union density at firm level. Third, it yields estimates of the union wage gap for different ranges of union density. The final issue examined is contract coverage. The received notion that the pronounced reduction in the number of industry‐wide agreements and extension ordinances of late is to be equated with a fall in coverage is shown to be a chimera, the number of workers covered by new and existing agreements remaining largely unaffected by the economic crisis. The reduced frequency of new agreements and extensions is instead attributed to downward nominal wage rigidity in low‐inflation regimes.