Why have workers stopped joining unions? The rise in never-membership in Britain

Alex Bryson and Rafael Gomez

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This paper tracks the rise in the percentage of employees who have never become union members (‘never-member’) since the early 1980s and shows that it is the reduced likelihood of ever becoming a member, rather than the haemorrhaging of existing members, that is behind the decline in overall union membership in Britain. We estimate the determinants of ‘never-membership’ and consider how much of the rise can be explained by structural change in the labour market and how much by change in preferences among employees.

Keywords: union; membership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J31 J50 J51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2005-03-18
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (56)

Published in British Journal of Industrial Relations, 18, March, 2005, 43(1), pp. 67 - 92. ISSN: 0007-1080

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/360/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Why Have Workers Stopped Joining Unions? The Rise in Never‐Membership in Britain (2005)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:360

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().