Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-7jkgd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-17T11:59:18.806Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Individual-level determinants of current trade union membership and previous trade union membership in European countries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2023

Mehmet Iner Open the ORCID record for Mehmet Iner [Opens in a new window]
Mehmet Iner*
Affiliation:
Republic of Turkey Ministry of Labour and Social Security Directorate of European Union and Financial Assistance, Ankara, Turkey
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article aimed to explore the individual-level determinants of current and previous trade union memberships and to question if certain patterns are prevalent among European countries. Accordingly, repeated logit models across 15 European countries are applied drawing on the ninth round of the European Social Survey data. Variables are selected primarily considering the supply–demand theory, which explains the union membership based on the idea that employees are seeking to maximise the utility through cost and benefit analysis. In this context, this article offers a comprehensive analysis of the determinants of trade union membership with findings suggesting that personal, occupational and workplace characteristics affect current membership while occupational and workplace characteristics have effects with inverse directions on current membership and previous membership.

Keywords

Trade union membershipindividual-level determinantsunionisationde-unionisationmicro-level determinants
Type
Original Article
Information
Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , March 2023 , pp. 84 - 100
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Social Policy Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antos, J. R., Chandler, M., & Mellow, W. (1980). Sex differences in union membership. ILR Review, 33(2), 162–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashenfelter, O., & Johnson, G. E. (1972). Unionism, relative wages, and labor quality in US manufacturing industries. International Economic Review, 13, 488–508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berkowitz, M. (1954). The economics of trade union organization and administration. ILR Review, 7(4), 575–592.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanchflower, D. G. (2007). International patterns of union membership. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 45(1), 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Booth, A. L. (1985). The free rider problem and a social custom model of trade union membership. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 100(1), 253–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ebbinghaus, B., Göbel, C., & Koos, S. (2011). Social capital, ‘Ghent’and workplace contexts matter: Comparing union membership in Europe. European Journal of Industrial Relations, 17(2), 107–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ebbinghaus, B., & Visser, J. (1999). When institutions matter: Union growth and decline in Western Europe, 1950–1995. European Sociological Review, 15(2), 135–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehrenberg, R. G., & Smith, R. S. (2000). Modern labor economics (7th Edn.). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Fitzenberger, B., & Beck, M. (2003). Changes in union membership over time: A panel analysis for West Germany (No. 03–42). ZEW Discussion Papers.Google Scholar
Gorodzeisky, A., & Richards, A. (2013). Trade unions and migrant workers in Western Europe. European Journal of Industrial Relations, 19(3), 239–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartley, J. F. (1992). Joining a trade union. In Hartley, J. F., & Stephenson, G. M. (Eds.), Employment relations: The psychology of influence and control at work. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hirsch, B. T., & Addison, J. T. (1986). The economic analysis of unions: New approaches and evidence. Boston, MA: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Jódar, P., Alós, R., & Vidal, S. (2011). Why do workers leave unions? Group differences between workers in CCOO-Catalonia. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 17(4), 471–484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirmanoğlu, H., & Başlevent, C. (2012). Using basic personal values to test theories of union membership. Socio-Economic Review, 10(4), 683–703.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klandermans, B. (1986). Psychology and trade union participation: Joining, acting, quitting. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 59, 189–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kranendonk, M., & de Beer, P. (2016). What explains the union membership gap between migrants and natives? British Journal of Industrial Relations, 54(4), 846–869.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leschke, J., & Vandaele, K. (2018). Explaining leaving union membership by the degree of labour market attachment: Exploring the case of Germany. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 39(1), 64–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Long, J. S., & Mustillo, S. A. (2021). Using predictions and marginal effects to compare groups in regression models for binary outcomes. Sociological Methods & Research, 50(3), 1284–1320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, M. (1965). Logic of collective action: Public goods and the theory of groups (Harvard Economic Studies (Vol. 124). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Pencavel, J. H. (1971). The demand for union services: An exercise. ILR Review, 24(2), 180–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schnabel, C. (2002). Determinants of trade union membership (Vol. 15): Diskussionspapiere/Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Lehrstuhl für Arbeitsmarkt-und Regionalpolitik.Google Scholar
Schnabel, C., & Wagner, J. (2007). Union density and determinants of union membership in 18 EU countries: Evidence from micro data, 2002/03. 1. Industrial Relations Journal, 38(1), 5–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaona, A. (2010). A survival analysis approach to the duration of union membership in Italy. Applied Economics Letters, 17(11), 1089–1093.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Visser, J. (2002). Why fewer workers join unions in Europe: A social custom explanation of membership trends. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 40(3), 403–430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Visser, J. (2003). Unions and unionism around the world. In Addison, J. T., & Schnabel, C. (Eds.), International Handbook of Trade Unions. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 366–414.Google Scholar
Visser, J. (2019). Trade unions in the balance. ILO ACTRAV Working Paper, Geneva.Google Scholar
Waddington, J. (2006). Why do members leave? The importance of retention to trade union growth. Labor Studies Journal, 31(3), 15–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Windolf, P., & Haas, J. (1989). Who joins the union? Determinants of trade union membership in West Germany 1976–1984. European Sociological Review, 5(2), 147–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Witte, H. D. (1988). Waarom worden jongeren lid van een vakbond? Tijdschrift voor Arbeidsvraagstukken, 4(3), 18–34.Google Scholar