Journal
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Volume 27, Issue 2, Pages 131-148Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/0959680120963546
Keywords
Class; conflict perceptions; conflict; management workers; union density; union membership
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This article contributes to debates about trade unions and conflict by studying how individuals' perceptions of conflicts between management and workers relate to trade union membership, country-level trade union density and institutionalization. The study shows that union members tend to be more likely than non-members to perceive management-worker conflicts but individuals in countries with higher trade union density and policy concertation tend to be significantly less likely to perceive conflicts. The results question depictions of trade unions as divisive organizations.
This article contributes to debates about trade unions and conflict by studying how individuals' perceptions of conflicts between management and workers relate to trade union membership, country-level trade union density and institutionalization (collective bargaining coverage, centralization and policy concertation). Hierarchical multi-level models are fitted to data from the International Social Survey Programme from 2009. The results show that union members tend to be more likely than non-members to perceive management-worker conflicts and that this appears not to vary substantially between countries. However, regardless of union membership, individuals in countries with higher trade union density and with policy concertation tend to be significantly less likely to perceive conflicts. These findings highlight the risk of atomic fallacies in research limited to the individual-level effects of union membership. Contrary to an argument often raised by pluralists, neither bargaining coverage nor centralization has significant effects. Overall, the results question depictions of trade unions as divisive organizations.
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