Hybrid industrial relations systems: Between Ghent and sliced-up bargaining units

Hybrid industrial relations systems are situated between those with a clear enterprise or social-wide logic. In the former, trade union membership rates are low, and as a derivative so is the coverage of collective agreements; while, in the latter, coverage of agreements is high and the state encourages high membership rates. In the hybrid industrial relations systems, the state provides institutional support for social-wide bargaining, but membership rates are declining. In this growing gap between coverage and membership the chapter explores the trade unions’ interest in membership-based revitalization strategies and the importance of enhancing membership rates to the legitimacy of trade unions’ role in the representation of labour. In countries where trade unions resort to these strategies the distinct logics of labour’s collective action meet, serving as the testing ground for the relationship between the two.