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IZA
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What Can We Learn About the Decline in U.S. Union Membership from International Data?
by
Solomon Polachek
(October 2003)
published in: Phanindra V. Wunnava (ed.), The Changing Forms of Unions: New Forms of Representation, M.E. Sharpe 2004
Abstract:
This paper is composed of two parts. First, using international data, I corroborate that union
density in the U.S. declined because of asymmetric growth between the union and nonunion
sectors. I show union density to increase in countries experiencing strong manufacturing
growth, and to decline in countries undergoing large women’s increases in nonagricultural
employment. Second, I borrow from international relations research on war and peace to
develop a cogent reason why union density differs by sector. In this vein, I apply a model
primarily used to describe bilateral political interactions to figure out why workers often
engage in hostile activities such as strikes. In doing so, I look at the contentious rather than
the cooperative “face” of unions.
Text: See Discussion Paper No. 896 
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