Keywords
United States
labor unions
workers
labor force
How to Cite
Abstract
This article examines labor unions decline in the United States over the period 1980-2015, using union density rates as the main indicator to measure labor union representation in the employed labor force. The analysis relies on an analytical framework which classifies the factors accounting for union decline in cyclical, structural and political-institutional. Similarly, unionization trends are contrasted between the United States and other developed countries; a notable divergence is detected. The results show that union decline in the U.S. has been determined mostly by institutions regulating the labor system than by economic globalization.
References
AGUILAR, JAVIER
La población trabajadora y sindicalizada en México en el periodo de la globalización, 2a. ed., México, FCE/Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales (IIS)-UNAM.
BALDWIN, ROBERT E.
The Decline of US Labor Unions and the Role of Trade, Washington, D.C., Institute for International Economics.
BERNSTEIN, JARED, SYLVIA ALLEGRETO y LAWRENCE MISHEL
The State of Working America 2004-05, Economic Policy Institute.
BLANCHFLOWER, DAVID
“International Patterns of Union Membership”, British Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.2007.00600.x
BOERI, TITO, AGAR BRUGIAVINI y LARS CALMFORS
The Role of Unions in the Twenty-first Century: A Report for the Fondazione Rodolfo Debenedetti, Nueva York, Oxford University Press.
CLAWSON, DAN y MARY ANN CLAWSON
“What Has Happened to the U.S. Labor Movement? Union Decline and Renewal”, Annual Review of Sociology, no. 25, pp. 95-119. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.25.1.95
COMMONS, J.
History of Labor in the United States, vol. 1, Nueva York, Macmillan.
DEVINATZ, VICTOR G.
“Right-to-Work Laws, the Southernization of US Labor Relations and the US Trade Union Movement’s Decline”, Labor Studies Journal, vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 297-318. https://doi.org/10.1177/0160449X15622702
EBBINGHAUS, BERNHARD
“Trade Union’s Changing Role: Membership Erosion, Organisational Reform, and Social Partnership in Europe”, Industrial Relations Journal, vol. 33, no. 5, pp. 465-483. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2338.00248
EBBINGHAUS, BERNHARD y JELLE VISSER
“When Institutions Matter: Union Growth and Decline in Western Europe, 1950-95”, European Sociological Review, no. 15, pp. 135-158. http://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.esr.a018257
FAIRRIS, DAVID y EDWARD LEVINE
“Declining Union Density in Mexico, 1984-2000”, Monthly Labor Review, vol. 127, no. 9, pp. 10-17. https://doi.org/10.2307/41888140
FARBER, HENRY S. y BRUCE WESTERN
“Ronald Reagan and the Politics of Declining Union Organization”, British Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 385-401. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8543.00240
GALENSON, WALTER
Trade Union Growth and Decline. An International Study, Nueva York, Praeger.
GOLDEN, M.A., M. WALLERSTEIN y P. LANGE
“Post-war Trade Union Organization and Industrial Relations in Twelve Countries”, en H. Kitschelt, Continuity and Change in Contemporary Capitalism, Cambridge University Press.
GOLDFIELD, MICHAEL
The Decline of Organized Labor in the United States, Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
GRAUBART, JONATHAN
Legalizing Transnational Activism: The Struggle to Gain Social Change from NAFTA’ s Citizen Petitions, Penn State Press.
HUFBAUER, GARY y JEFFREY SCHOTT
NAFTA Revisited: Achievements and Challenges, Washington, D.C., Institute for International Economics.
INTERNATIONAL LABOR ORGANIZATION (ILO)
World Labor Report 1997-1998, Ginebra, ILO.
LIPSET, SEYMOUR M.
El excepcionalismo norteamericano, México, FCE.
MAINVILLE, DIANE y CAREY OLINECK
Unionization in Canada: A Retrospective. Statistics Canada.
MISHEL, LAWRENCE, JOSH BIVENS, ELISE GOULD y HEIDI SHIERHOLZ
The State of Working America, Cornell University Press.
NATIONAL RIGHT TO WORK. LEGAL DEFENSE FOUNDATION
Right to Work States, Inc., en <http://www.nrtw.org/rtws.htm>, consultada en noviembre de 2015.
O’BRIEN, ROBERT y MARC WILLIAMS
Global Political Economy: Evolution and Dynamics, Palgrave Macmillan.
ORGANIZATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT (OECD)
Society at a Glance 2009 - OECD Social Indicators, Statistical Annexe, Trade Union members.
“Trade Union Density and Collective Bargaining Coverage”, Economic Outlook, OECD.
OECD Employment outlook. Paris: OECD.
PETERS, JOHN
“A Fine Balance: Canadian Unions Confront Globalization”, Long-term Trends in Unionization, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (diciembre).
PRICE, ROBERT
“The Comparative Analysis of Union Growth”, en Roy J. Adams, Comparative Industrial Relations, Londres, Harper Collins Academic.
SANO, JOELLE y JOHN B.WILLIAMSON
“Factors Affecting Union Decline in 18 OECD Countries”, International Journal of Comparative Sociology, vol. 49, no. 6, pp. 479-500. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020715208098614
SCRUGGS, LYLE y PETER LANGE
“Where Have All the Members Gone? Globalization, Institutions and Union Density”, The Journal of Politics, vol. 64, no. 1, pp. 126-153. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2508.00121
SHELFIN, NEIL y LEO TROY
Union Sourcebook 1947-1983, IRDIS Press.
STATISTICS CANADA
“Unionization Rates Falling”, en <http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-630-x/11-630-x2015005-eng.htm>, consultada el 27 de noviembre de 2015.
U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
“Union Members 2015”, 28 de enero, en <http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf>, consultada en julio de 2016.
“Major Work Stoppages in 2014”, 11 de febrero, en <http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/wkstp.pdf>, consultada el 15 de noviembre de 2015.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR (DOL)
“Contingent workers”, en <https://www.dol.gov/_sec/media/reports/dunlop/section5.htm>, consultada en julio de 2016.
VILLEGAS, RAÚL
“La devastación del mundo laboral”, en Raúl Villegas, coord., La devastación imperial del mundo, Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México.
VISSER, JELLE
“Union Membership Statistics in 24 Countries”, Monthly Labor Review, vol. 129, no. 1, pp. 38-49.
Trends in Unionisation and Collective Bargaining, Ginebra, International Labor Office.
WALLERSTEIN, IMMANUEL
The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist System, Oxford, Blackwell.
WALLERSTEIN, MICHAEL y BRUCE WESTERN
“Unions in Decline? What Has Changed and Why”, Annual Review of Political Science, no. 3, pp. 355-377. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.3.1.355
WATTS, JULIE
“Mexico-US Migration and Labor Unions: Obstacles to Building Cross Border Solidarity”, Working Paper 79, San Diego, University of California.
WESTERN, BRUCE
Between Class and Market: Postwar Unionization in the Capitalist Democracies, Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press.
WILLIAMSON, JOHN
“What Should the World Bank Think about the Washington Consensus?”, World Bank Research Observer, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 251-264. https://doi.org/10.1093/wbro/15.2.251
ZEPEDA, ROBERTO
“Disminución de la tasa de trabajadores sindicalizados en México durante el periodo neoliberal”, Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales, vol. 51, no. 207, pp. 57-81.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.