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Foreign ownership and job insecurity during the recession: The moderating effect of union density in the UK

Author

Listed:
  • Wen Wang
  • Mark Cook
  • Roger Seifert

Abstract

The institutional influence, specifically trade unions, on the job insecurity of workers in foreign-owned enterprises (FoEs) has been generally overlooked. This study uses national representative private sector data to examine firms’ layoff incidence and the number of staff made redundant in response to the 2008–2012 recession in the UK. Probit regression and negative-binomial regression show that overall FoEs appear to be more likely to undertake redundancies and to lay off more workers than domestically-owned enterprises. However, the strength of trade unionism, measured by union membership density, has a moderating effect on the incidence of redundancies controlling for the adverse impact of the recession on companies studied and a wide range of industrial and firm characteristics. Furthermore, FoEs’ headquarter location seems to have no effect on the propensity of layoffs or quantity of layoffs in the UK.

Suggested Citation

  • Wen Wang & Mark Cook & Roger Seifert, 2021. "Foreign ownership and job insecurity during the recession: The moderating effect of union density in the UK," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 42(3), pages 785-804, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:42:y:2021:i:3:p:785-804
    DOI: 10.1177/0143831X18808596
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