IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecoind/v25y2004i1p9-40.html

Organizing Marketized Services: Are Trade Unions Up to the Job?

Author

Listed:
  • Jon Erik Dølvik

    (Fafo, Institute for Labour and Social Research, Oslo)

  • Jeremy Waddington

    (The University of Manchester institute of Science and Technology)

Abstract

In most European countries trade union membership is declining. A contributory factor to this decline has been the failure of trade unions to recruit new members in marketized services at the same rate as members were being lost from areas of traditionally high unionization. This article examines the approaches adopted by trade unions to raise unionization rates in marketized services and identifies some elements of organizational change that might improve the current situation. Central to these reforms is the re-establishment of articulated trade union structures and activity, requiring greater organizational concentration and scope, on one hand, and decentralization of resources and activity on the other. Pivotal is also to develop agendas that accommodate heterogeneity and the needs of individual members and particular groups, at the same time highlighting the interdependence between individual self-realization and collective regulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Jon Erik Dølvik & Jeremy Waddington, 2004. "Organizing Marketized Services: Are Trade Unions Up to the Job?," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 25(1), pages 9-40, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:25:y:2004:i:1:p:9-40
    DOI: 10.1177/0143831X04040099
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0143831X04040099
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0143831X04040099?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. Ben Valkenburg & Leni Beukema, 1996. "The organisation of flexibility. Atypical jobs as a challenge for the modernisation of trade unions," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 2(4), pages 738-754, November.
    2. Jeremy Waddington & Colin Whitston, 1997. "Why Do People Join Unions in a Period of Membership Decline?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 515-546, 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. Johan E Ravn & Lisbeth Øyum, 2020. "Towards ‘multi-collar’ unionism: Cases of trespassing professionals in Norwegian industrial relations," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 41(4), pages 887-909, November.
    2. Virginia Doellgast & Ursula Holtgrewe & Stephen Deery, 2009. "The Effects of National Institutions and Collective Bargaining Arrangements on Job Quality in Front-Line Service Workplaces," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 62(4), pages 489-509, July.

    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. Peter Haynes & Jack Vowles & Peter Boxall, 2005. "Explaining the Younger– Older Worker Union Density Gap: Evidence from New Zealand," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 43(1), pages 93-116, March.
    2. Rebecca Bednarek & Stephen Blumenfeld & Sally Riad, 2012. "Union-division: on the paradoxes of purpose and membership scope in union mergers," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(6), pages 548-571, November.
    3. Cedric Dawkins, 2010. "Beyond Wages and Working Conditions: A Conceptualization of Labor Union Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 95(1), pages 129-143, August.
    4. Gregor Murray & Christian Lévesque & Christian Dufour & Adelheid Hege, 2013. "Special Issue. Edited by: Gregor Murray, Christian Lévesque, Christian Dufour and Adelheid Hege," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 340-354, July.
    5. A Charlwood, 2003. "The Anatomy of Union Decline in Britain: 1990-1998," CEP Discussion Papers dp0601, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    6. William Brown & Simon Deakin & David Nash & Sarah Oxenbridge, 2000. "The Employment Contract: From Collective Procedures to Individual Rights," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 38(4), pages 611-629, December.
    7. Getinet Astatike Haile, 2021. "Men, women and unions," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 201-217, May.
    8. Jeremy Waddington, 2014. "Workplace representation, its impact on trade union members and its capacity to compete with management in the European workplace," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 20(4), pages 537-558, November.
    9. Magali Jaoul-Grammare & Isabelle Terraz, 2013. "A Causality Analysis of Economic Growth and Union Density in European Countries," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 27(4), pages 421-442, December.
    10. Nickolaos Giovanis & Efstratios Giovanis, 2020. "Assessment On The Change Of Union Density Rate By Means Of Macroeconomic Indicators: A Quantitative Research," Noble International Journal of Economics and Financial Research, Noble Academic Publsiher, vol. 5(6), pages 63-73, June.
    11. Elisa Pannini, 2023. "Winning a battle against the odds: A cleaners’ campaign," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 44(1), pages 68-87, February.
    12. Catherine Cassell & Bill Lee, 2009. "Trade unions learning representatives: progressing partnership?," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 23(2), pages 213-230, June.
    13. Jeremy Waddington & Allan Kerr, 2015. "Joining UNISON: does the reform of a union organising strategy change how members perceive their recruitment?," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 187-207, May.
    14. Daniele Checchi, 2000. "Time series evidence on union densities in European countries," Departmental Working Papers 2000-10, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    15. Schnabel, Claus & Wagner, Joachim, 2003. "Trade Union Membership in Eastern and Western Germany: Convergence or Divergence?," IZA Discussion Papers 707, IZA Network @ LISER.
    16. Anastasia Gorodzeisky & Andrew Richards, 2020. "Do Immigrants Trust Trade Unions? A Study of 18 European Countries," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(1), pages 3-26, March.
    17. Schnabel, Claus, 2012. "Union Membership and Density: Some (Not So) Stylized Facts and Challenges," IZA Discussion Papers 6792, IZA Network @ LISER.
    18. Philip James & Joanna Karmowska, 2016. "British union renewal: does salvation really lie beyond the workplace?," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 102-116, March.
    19. Schnabel, Claus & Wagner, Joachim, 2003. "Determinants of Trade Union Membership in Western Germany: Evidence from Micro Data, 1980-2000," IZA Discussion Papers 708, IZA Network @ LISER.
    20. Geraldine Healy & Gill Kirton, 2013. "The Early Mobilization of Women Union Leaders — A Comparative Perspective," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 51(4), pages 709-732, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:sae:ecoind:v:25:y:2004:i:1:p:9-40. 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: http://www.ekhist.uu.se/english.htm .

    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.