IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/eurjou/v28y2022i2p129-146.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Looking for a North Star? Ideological justifications and trade unions’ preferences for a universal basic income

Author

Listed:
  • Luca Michele Cigna

Abstract

Trade unions are often said to be hostile to a universal basic income (UBI). Their judgement may be affected by factors such as their work ethic, perceptions of the unemployed and preferences for labour decommodification. Yet, most studies fail to sketch out the reasons for which unions oppose or support a UBI from a normative standpoint. To understand the impact of ideology on unions’ appreciation for a UBI, I integrate results from 62 questionnaires with 27 in-depth qualitative interviews. This study illustrates that unions’ preferences for a UBI are associated with their theoretical understanding of labour, diverging substantially across welfare regimes. Whereas unions from Bismarckian and Nordic countries are generally opposed to a UBI, organizations from Liberal and Mediterranean countries tend to see UBI as a legitimate policy option. However, in some circumstances they set aside the policy for pragmatic reasons, thus disconnecting their normative orientations from perceptions of its concrete viability.

Suggested Citation

  • Luca Michele Cigna, 2022. "Looking for a North Star? Ideological justifications and trade unions’ preferences for a universal basic income," European Journal of Industrial Relations, , vol. 28(2), pages 129-146, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:eurjou:v:28:y:2022:i:2:p:129-146
    DOI: 10.1177/09596801211043094
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09596801211043094
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09596801211043094?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Quiggin & Troy Henderson, 2023. "Trade Unions and Basic Income," Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee, in: Malcolm Torry (ed.), The Palgrave International Handbook of Basic Income, edition 2, chapter 0, pages 565-580, Palgrave Macmillan.
    2. Bruno Palier & Kathleen Thelen, 2010. "Institutionalizing Dualism: Complementarities and Change in France and Germany," Politics & Society, , vol. 38(1), pages 119-148, March.
    3. Parijs, Philippe Van, 1997. "Real Freedom for All: What (if Anything) Can Justify Capitalism?," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198293576.
    4. Elgarte Julieta M., 2008. "Basic Income and the Gendered Division of Labour," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 3(3), pages 1-7, December.
    5. Birnbaum Simon & De Wispelaere Jurgen, 2016. "Basic Income in the Capitalist Economy: The Mirage of “Exit” from Employment," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 61-74, June.
    6. Stefano Lucarelli & Andrea Fumagalli, 2008. "Basic Income and Productivity in Cognitive Capitalism," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 66(1), pages 71-92.
    7. Daniel Nettle & Elliott Johnson & Matthew Johnson & Rebecca Saxe, 2021. "Why has the COVID-19 pandemic increased support for Universal Basic Income?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-12, December.
    8. Vanderborght Yannick, 2006. "Why Trade Unions Oppose Basic Income," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 1(1), pages 1-20, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elise Aerts; & Ive Marx; & Gerlinde Verbist;, 2023. "Not That Basic: How Level, Design and Context Matter for the Redistributive Outcomes of Universal Basic Income," Working Papers 2303, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    2. Aerts, Elise & Marx, Ive & Verbist, Gerlinde, 2023. "Not That Basic: How Level, Design and Context Matter for the Redistributive Outcomes of Universal Basic Income," IZA Discussion Papers 15952, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aerts, Elise & Marx, Ive & Verbist, Gerlinde, 2023. "Not That Basic: How Level, Design and Context Matter for the Redistributive Outcomes of Universal Basic Income," IZA Discussion Papers 15952, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Leone Leonida & Marianna Marra & Sergio Scicchitano & Antonio Giangreco & Marco Biagetti, 2020. "Estimating the Wage Premium to Supervision for Middle Managers in Different Contexts: Evidence from Germany and the UK," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(6), pages 1004-1026, December.
    3. Jeon, Heesang, 2015. "Knowledge and Contemporary Capitalism in Light of Marx's Value Theory," Thesis Commons g5njk, Center for Open Science.
    4. Mann Stefan, 2018. "A Mesoeconomic Approach to a Basic Income," Basic Income Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, June.
    5. Busemeyer, Marius R., 2011. "Varieties of cross-class coalitions in the politics of dualization: Insights from the case of vocational training in Germany," MPIfG Discussion Paper 11/13, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    6. Eichhorst, Werner & Tobsch, Verena, 2015. "Not so standard anymore? : employment duality in Germany (Vom Normalarbeitsverhältnis zu atypischen Verträgen? : die Dualisierung des deutschen Arbeitsmarktes)," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 48(2), pages 81-95.
    7. Waitkus, Nora & Minkus, Lara, 2021. "Investigating the gender wealth gap across occupational classes," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108206, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Tim Goedemé & Wim Van Lancker, 2009. "A Guaranteed Minimum Income for EuropeÂ’’s Elderly. Options and Pitfalls in the Design of a Harmonised Basic Pension Scheme in the European Union," Working Papers 0901, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    9. Fumagalli, Andrea & Lucarelli, Stefano, 2007. "A model of cognitive capitalism. A preliminary analysis," European Journal of Economic and Social Systems, Lavoisier, vol. 20(1), pages 117-133.
    10. Torben Krings, 2021. "‘Good’ Bad Jobs? The Evolution of Migrant Low-Wage Employment in Germany (1985–2015)," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 35(3), pages 527-544, June.
    11. Irene DINGELDEY & Jean‐Yves GERLITZ, 2022. "Not just black and white, but different shades of grey: Legal segmentation and its effect on labour market segmentation in Europe," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 161(4), pages 593-613, December.
    12. Imre Szabó, 2013. "Between polarization and statism – effects of the crisis on collective bargaining processes and outcomes in Hungary," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 19(2), pages 205-215, May.
    13. Gerber, Christine, 2022. "Gender and precarity in platform work: Old inequalities in the new world of work," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 37(2), pages 206-230.
    14. Niccolo Durazzi, 2015. "Inclusive unions in a dualised labour market? The challenge of organising labour market policy and social protection for labour market outsiders," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 99, European Institute, LSE.
    15. David Marsden, 2015. "The future of the German industrial relations model [Die Zukunft des deutschen Modells der Arbeitsbeziehungen]," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 48(2), pages 169-187, August.
    16. Weisstanner, David, 2019. "Insiders under pressure: Flexible employment and wage inequality," INET Oxford Working Papers 2019-06, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    17. Benassi, Chiara & Dorigatti, Lisa & Pannini, Elisa, 2018. "Explaining divergent bargaining outcomes for agency workers: the role of labour divides and labour market reforms," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 89371, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Ochsenfeld, Fabian, 2018. "The Relational Nature of Employment Dualization: Evidence from Subcontracting Establishments," SocArXiv ta4r6, Center for Open Science.
    19. Gianluca Busilacchi & Giovanni Gallo & Matteo Luppi, 2022. "I would like to but I cannot. The determinants of involuntary part-time employment: Evidence from Italy," Center for the Analysis of Public Policies (CAPP) 0177, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    20. Fleckenstein, Timo & Lee, Soohyun Christine, 2017. "The politics of labor market reform in coordinated welfare capitalism: comparing Sweden, Germany, and South Korea," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 68210, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:eurjou:v:28:y:2022:i:2:p:129-146. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.