Just over a week ago I promised readers I would discuss some of the papers given at the recent SOLE-EALE world conference in San Francisco. The first paper that caught my eye was by the ubiquitous Richard Freeman (NBER, Harvard, LSE) and Alex Bryson (Policy Studies Institute).
The paper, The Voice Workers Want and What They Get in the US and the UK (PDF), notes that UK union membership rates (29%) are more than double those in the US (13%). But while "in the US a large and growing proportion of non-union workers say that they want union representation ..in the UK a large and growing proportion of workers at sites where employers recognize unions choose to be free riders."
What might explain the differences? Is it the different set of institutions on offer? Do the workplace problems that generate a desire for unionism differ greatly? Or are other factors at work? Using data from three US surveys and two UK ones, the authors conclude:
We rejected the hypothesis that density was falling in the US because workers no longer wanted unions, but attributed some of the decline in the UK to workers choosing to free ride in recognized workplaces. We found some support for the hypothesis that union ineffectiveness contributed to union decline in the US and UK, and found some support for the hypothesis that managerial policies also affected the outcomes. In the US positive HR policies reduce desire for unionism, so that they substitute for unions, whereas in the UK, such policies had a positive impact on worker preferences for unionism, suggesting a complementary relation.
Our main conclusion is that the principal factor for the different unfilled demand for unionism is the different choices on offer in the two countries. The dichotomous choice between collective bargaining and no representation in the US coupled with large union differentials and management opposition produces greater unfilled demand for unions than does the wider choice of voice institutions, smaller union differentials, and milder management attitudes in the UK.
The problem for American trade unions is to tap the unfilled demand and deliver services to the millions who favor unions but cannot gain collective bargaining at the workplace. The problem for British unions is to develop enough services for workers to convince those at unionized workplaces to join unions and to exploit the works council option to expand union influence through this new voice option.
The paper is still a little rough around the edges, but it is a fascinating distillation of research that anyone interested in unions or industrial relations ought to read.
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