Trade Union Membership and Works Councils in West Germany

Laszlo Goerke and Markus Pannenberg

Industrielle Beziehungen - Zeitschrift fuer Arbeit, Organisation und Management - The German Journal of Industrial Relations, 2007, vol. 14, issue 2, 154 - 175

Abstract: The fraction of works councillors belonging to a trade union in Germany is much higher than union density among employees. If works councils represent the face of unions, union membership of employees should be related positively to the existence of works councils and their proximity to unions. Using data from the German Socio-Economic-Panel SOEP for West Germany we find that (a) works councillors exhibit a higher probability of being a union member, (b) the mere existence of a works council within an establishment has no significant impact on union membership and (c) a ten percent decrease in the average share of unionised works councillors coincides with a ten percent fall in the probability of being a union member. Hence, the decline in the unionisation of works councillors and the fall in union density in West Germany are closely linked.

Keywords: Panel Data; Trade Union Membership; Works Councils (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A14 C23 J51 J52 J53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (38)

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Working Paper: Trade Union Membership and Works Councils in West Germany (2007)
Working Paper: Trade union membership and work councils in West Germany (2007)
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