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Trade Union Membership in Europe, 1960–1990: Rediscovering Local Unions
Author(s) -
Hancké Bob
Publication year - 1993
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/j.1467-8543.1993.tb00415.x
Subject(s) - quarter (canadian coin) , union density , trade union , political science , contrast (vision) , political economy , international trade , demographic economics , economics , law , geography , collective bargaining , archaeology , artificial intelligence , computer science
This article compares union density rates in seven Western European countries between 1960 and 1990. In contrast to conventional analyses, the paper argues that, in countries where workplace union organization is well developed, and where unions have managed to turn the official institutions for workers' participation such as works councils into extensions of their operations, they fared better during the 1960s and 1970s than in countries where this was not the case. This difference in the fate of unions was even more pronounced during the 1980s. Unions with strong locals lost few members or actually gained some, while unions without strong local structures saw union density drop by between one‐quarter and one‐third.