IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/20116.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why do non-union employees want to unionise? Evidence from Britain

Author

Listed:
  • Charlwood, Andy

Abstract

The introduction of a statutory recognition procedure offers British unions the opportunity to reverse membership decline by organising non-union workers. The aim of this paper is to test theories of individual union joining in order to assess the likely impact of the new procedure on British union membership. Responses of a nationally representative sample of non-union employees to the question ''how willing would you be to join a union if one were available at your workplace?'' are analysed. Results suggest that the new legislation will cause union membership to rise among manual employees, but that unions will face a much harder challenge organising non-manual employees. Unless unions can change their environment, or change themselves then long-term decline is likely.

Suggested Citation

  • Charlwood, Andy, 2001. "Why do non-union employees want to unionise? Evidence from Britain," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20116, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:20116
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/20116/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Willman, 2001. "The Viability of Trade Union Organization: A Bargaining Unit Analysis," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 39(1), pages 97-117, March.
    2. Farber, Henry S & Saks, Daniel H, 1980. "Why Workers Want Unions: The Role of Relative Wages and Job Characteristics," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 88(2), pages 349-369, April.
    3. Stephen Wood & John Goddard, 1999. "The Statutory Union Recognition Procedure in the Employment Relations Bill: A Comparative Analysis," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 37(2), pages 203-245, June.
    4. A Charlwood, 2001. "Influences on Trade Union Organising Effectiveness in Great Britain," CEP Discussion Papers dp0504, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    5. Towers, Brian, 1997. "The Representation Gap: Change and Reform in the British and American Workplace," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198289463.
    6. Green, Francis, 1990. "Trade Union Availability and Trade Union Membership in Britain," The Manchester School of Economic & Social Studies, University of Manchester, vol. 58(4), pages 378-394, December.
    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. Anna Kim & Karin Kurz, 2001. "Precarious Employment, Education and Gender: A comparison of Germany and the United Kingdom," MZES Working Papers 39, MZES.

    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. A Charlwood, 2001. "Why Do Non-Union Employees Want To Unionise? Evidence from Britain," CEP Discussion Papers dp0498, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    2. Charlwood, Andy, 2001. "Influences on trade union organising effectiveness in Great Britain," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20111, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. John H. Pencavel, 2004. "The Surprising Retreat of Union Britain," NBER Chapters, in: Seeking a Premier Economy: The Economic Effects of British Economic Reforms, 1980–2000, pages 181-232, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Robin Naylor, 1995. "Unions in Decline?," Nordic Journal of Political Economy, Nordic Journal of Political Economy, vol. 22, pages 127-142.
    5. David Peetz, 1998. "Why Join? Why Stay? Instrumentality, Beliefs, Satisfaction and Individual Decisions on Union Membership," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 9(1), pages 123-148, June.
    6. Metcalf, David, 2001. "British unions: dissolution or resurgence revisited," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20124, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Bob Carter, 2001. "Lessons from America: Changes in the US Trade Union Movement," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 15(1), pages 185-194, March.
    8. Johan Stennek, 2020. "Why Unions Reduce Wage Inequality: A Theory of Domino Effects," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 122(3), pages 1045-1072, July.
    9. C Green & J S Heywood, 2010. "Unions, Dissatisfied Workers and Sorting," Working Papers 615292, Lancaster University Management School, Economics Department.
    10. Alex Bryson & Rafael Gomez & P Willman, 2003. "Why Do Voice Regimes Differ?," CEP Discussion Papers dp0591, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    11. Jonathan E. Booth & John W. Budd & Kristen M. Munday, 2010. "Never Say Never? Uncovering the Never‐Unionized in the United States," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 48(1), pages 26-52, March.
    12. Andrew E. Clark & Nicolai Kristensen & Niels Westergård‐Nielsen, 2009. "Job Satisfaction and Co‐worker Wages: Status or Signal?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(536), pages 430-447, March.
    13. Magnani, Elisabetta & Prentice, David, 2003. "Did globalization reduce unionization? Evidence from US manufacturing," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(6), pages 705-726, December.
    14. Martin Behrens & Markus Helfen, 2016. "The Foundations of Social Partnership," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 54(2), pages 334-357, June.
    15. Michele Campolieti & Chris Riddell & Sara Slinn, 2007. "Labor Law Reform and the Role of Delay in Union Organizing: Empirical Evidence from Canada," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 61(1), pages 32-58, October.
    16. Stephen Machin, 2000. "Union Decline in Britain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 38(4), pages 631-645, December.
    17. Lacroix, Robert & Montmarquette, Claude & Mahseredjian, Sophie & Froment, Nicole, 1991. "Disparités interindustrielles dans les taux de départs volontaires : une étude empirique," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 67(4), pages 458-481, décembre.
    18. Blanchflower, D. & Crouchley, R. & Estrin, S. & Oswald, A., 1990. "Unemployment And The Demand For Unions," Papers 372, London School of Economics - Centre for Labour Economics.
    19. King, Robert P. & Park, Timothy A., 2002. "Modeling Scale Economies In Supermarket Operations: Incorporating The Impacts Of Store Characteristics And Information Technologies," 2002 Annual meeting, July 28-31, Long Beach, CA 19881, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    20. Rupayan Pal, 2008. "Estimating the Probability of Trade Union Membership in India: Impact of Communist Parties, Personal Attributes and Industrial Characteristics," Working Papers id:1669, eSocialSciences.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Trade Unions; employee attitudes; unionisation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
    • D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ehl:lserod:20116. 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: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    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.