Trade unions in Northern Europe

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Trade unions in Northern Europe

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Lecture
Résumé
Sommaire
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Résumé du document

Among the five countries where the unionization density is currently the highest in the world, four are Nordic European ones. Sweden (78%), Finland (74.1%) and Denmark (70.4%) constitute the group of the most unionized countries, far beyond Belgium (55.4%) and Norway (53.3%). Austria is ranked sixth with a unionization rate of 35.4%, or about 20% less than in Belgium and Norway. Moreover, it seems that the Nordic countries – together with Belgium – have not been affected by the global de-unionization trend which has been striking the Western countries since the 1970s: The trade union membership rate roughly speaking stayed the same in Norway between 1970 and 1996, whereas it dramatically increased in the other four countries – as shown in Annex 2. From then on, this paper wonders if there is a Nordic model of trade union membership. How to explain high unionization rate in Nordic countries? Are union membership features similar among these countries? Do they differ from the ones in the other states? Indeed, in order to deal with this issue, the common points and the differences must be sought both within the Nordic countries, and in comparison with the rest of the other advanced capitalist states.

Sommaire

Introduction.
The irrelevance of the conjectural approach in the case of the Nordic countries.
1. Presentation of the conjectural approach.
2. An approach unable to explain the differences in late 20th century national unionization trends.
The social structural approach.
1. Presentation of the social structural approach.
2. White-collars: As unionized as the manual workers in the Nordic countries.
3. The high unionization rate of women in the Nordic countries.
The importance of the institutional approach in the study of northern European unionization.
1. Presentation of the institutional approach.
2. Access to unions on the work places.
3. Collaboration between left-wing political parties and trade unions.
4. The labour market centralisation.
5. The Ghent systems.
The ideological approach: Are Nordic trade unions still social movements?
1. Presentation of the ideological approach.
2. Affinity with the labour movement.
3. The motives to be a union member.
4. Participation in unions.
Conclusion.
Bibliography.

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Extraits

[...] The Nordic trade unions are with the Belgian one the most successful to attract workers in the world. In the most unionized one i.e. Sweden, Denmark and Finland one major factor for unionization is the existence of Ghent systems. From then on, one risk for trade unions in these countries is that union membership becomes first and foremost an individualistic utilitarian decision. Trade unions are historically social movements representing the interests of the workers in the labour negotiation with employers. There is no consensus on the definition of the notion of “social movement”. [...]

[...] This point once more underlines the problem of unions running UI schemes to be strong social movements. To make a long story short, Danish and Swedish unions appear as acting poorly as social movement, since despite their high density, their members are not very involved in the political life of their movement, present the participation to the union-run UI schemes as the main explanation for their membership, do not largely consider their belonging to the union as an act of solidarity with other workers, and do not feel affinity with the labour movement in great proportions. [...]

[...] National Ghent systems wide spread rapidly in the first decades of the 20th century. Norway removed its in 1938 when it created a compulsory state system of UI. Only four countries kept their union-run UI schemes after the Second World War: Belgium, Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Annex 1.1 shows that between 1970 and 2003, de-unionization is a global trend: the union growth rate on the period is negative in all the countries except five: Finland 22.8 Belgium 13.3 Sweden 10.3 Denmark 10.1 ) and Spain 3.4 It is striking that in a context of economical crisis and global de-unionisation, the four Ghent system countries if Spain is put aside - are the only one where unions grew, and even in important proportions. [...]

[...] Unsurprisingly given Schnabel and Wagner's findings, if Germany is put aside, these five countries are currently among the six most unionized (see Annex 1.2 However, although this factor is important to explain the particularly high unionization rate in the Nordic countries, it can not alone account for the cross-national variations on this issue. For instance, Austrian union density dramatically declined since 1970. As shown on Annex it decreased by between 1970 and 1996. Moreover, the unionisation rates in Austria and in Germany are significantly lower than in the Nordic countries. [...]

[...] Actually, in these two countries, one does not have to be member of a union in order to benefit from its UI scheme. Consequently, as Lyle Scruggs explains it (2002), it is not really the union control over UI per se which accounts for the unionization trends in the countries where they are settled, but rather the daily control of the process of providing benefits and finding new jobs for the unemployed. Indeed, the author argues that people are afraid of being discriminated while asking a union for UI or for new jobs if they are not part of the movement, in particular when the unemployment rate is high. [...]

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