Young Workers and Trade Unions

A Global View

A. Hodder, L. Kretsos, A. Hodder, L. Kretsos

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781349682553, 9781137429513
• eBook ISBN: 9781137429537
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

This book provides an understanding of the processes in which unions engage with young people, and views and opinions young people hold relating to collective representation. It features a selection of specific national cases of high relevance to contemporary debates of precariousness, trade union revitalization strategies and austerity policies.

1

Young Workers and Unions: Context and Overview

Andy Hodder and Lefteris Kretsos

Introduction

The transition of young people into employment is fraught with difficulties in finding stable and well-paid employment when compared to older workers. Young workers have been particularly affected by the wider changes in global economic conditions as such changes have seen an increase in employee insecurity and instability. Young workers predominantly carry out low-paid, low-status and insecure work and as their position in the labour market is increasingly precarious, one may expect them to join unions to get more protection. Nevertheless most remain disengaged from trade union activity and unions are suffering from a loss of members and an increasing ageing effect. In this context the future existence of trade unionism depends on to what extent trade unions can grasp the complex realities of young people at work. This edited collection aims to address these issues, providing examples from around the world.

It is important to be clear from the outset what is understood by the term ‘trade unionism’. Despite the varied accounts of union purpose within the literature, it cannot be disputed that unions are primarily organisations that exist for the representation of members’ interests (both individual and collective) (Allen, 1966: 149). Whilst the varieties of union purpose have been outlined elsewhere (see Martin, 1989; Hyman, 2001), one of the most universally quoted definitions of a trade union was provided by Sidney and Beatrice Webb, who described unions as a ‘continuous association of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment’ (Webb and Webb, 1894: 1). This definition had broadened out by 1920, replacing ‘employment’ with ‘working lives’. The history and development of unions has been the subject of much academic enquiry and need not be repeated here.

Throughout the twentieth century, unions grew to be important actors across much of the world until the 1980s when the socio-economic and political landscapes began to change. Since then, trade unions have been in a state of flux. They remain important institutions for the collective representation of the working class and yet have suffered dramatic losses in membership (Visser, 2006; Blanchflower, 2007), action (Godard, 2011) and influence (Gumbrell-McCormick and Hyman, 2013). Whilst it would be interesting to provide figures, issues of comparability relating to sources, definitions and data coverage mean this is a difficult task (Visser, 2006).

The reasons for union decline have been detailed across Europe (Ebbinghaus and Visser, 1999; Waddington, 2014) and beyond (Bronfenbrenner, 2003; Rosenfeld, 2014; Serdar, 2012; Peetz and Bailey, 2012), accompanied by the resurgence of the managerial prerogative (Smith and Morton, 2006), the rise in non-unionism (Dundon and Rollinson, 2004) and, increasingly, anti-unionism (Dundon and Gall, 2013).

In response to this decline, unions have sought to re-establish themselves as organisations of importance for the representation of working people. Much of the union revitalisation literature has focussed on the various positives and negatives of organising (Bronfenbrenner et al., 1998; Fairbrother and Yates, 2003; Milkman and Voss, 2004; Simms et al., 2013) and partnership (Martinez Lucio and Stuart, 2004; Kochan and Osterman, 1994; Roche and Geary, 2006), as well as broader attempts at community unionism and coalition building (Frege and Kelly, 2004; McBride and Greenwood, 2009; Tattersall, 2010). Common to each of these approaches has been the emphasis on the need for unions to increase their appeal to traditionally under-represented groups, including young workers (Gospel and Wood, 2003; Healy et al., 2004; Heery and Abbott, 2000; Moore, 2011).

Given the extent of union decline, it is vital for the future of trade unions as representative organisations that they engage with young workers across the globe. It has long been noted that union membership of young people is not common (Wray, 1957; Bain and Elias, 1985). Indeed, it was suggested by Blanchflower (2007: 1) that the ‘probability of being unionized follows an inverted U-shaped pattern in age, maximizing in the mid-to-late 40s’ and Budd (2009: 5), writing from an American perspective, has commented that if a worker does not join a union by the time they are 40, they are not likely to join a union at all, supporting earlier research by Arulampalam and Booth (2000) and Visser (2002). Such a claim has wider ramifications for the future of trade unions and may help explain the increase in the ‘never member’ (Bryson and Gomez, 2005; Booth et al., 2010). There are a number of reasons proposed for the low levels of unionisation amongst young people and these are the focus of the next section.

A review of the literature

Whilst important, the relationship between unions and young people surprisingly received little academic attention until the 1950s when union growth theorists provided the first analyses. Shister (1953: 421–422) suggested that younger workers showed a greater propensity to unionise than older workers and offered the following explanations for his claim. First, young workers usually experience shorter lengths of service, meaning they are less loyal to their employer. Second, and related to the first point, young workers have less to lose if they are dismissed or discriminated against as a result of union activity and will find it easier to get new jobs. Third, young workers are better educated than their older counterparts. As a result of this, leadership is more likely to develop amongst younger workers, as the better educated are less willing to accept unfair treatment at work. Last, young workers do not view trade unionism as a new or unknown concept, but rather it is seen as normal, having grown up in an era where trade unionism is the natural way of dealing with labour disputes.

However, other works written in the same period seemed to contradict Shister’s theories (Cole, 1955; Seidman et al., 1958; Wray, 1957) in noting the difficulties faced by unions in engaging young workers. Indeed, whilst the value of Shister’s wider theories on union growth have been acknowledged elsewhere, the lack of evidence provided to back up his claims regarding young workers has been criticised by Bain and Elsheikh (1979: 139–140), amongst others. Indeed, it was the work of Bain and colleagues in the UK that provided the first strong empirical evidence that suggested that young people were actually less likely to be union members (Bain and Elsheikh, 1979; Bain and Price, 1980; Bain and Elias, 1985).

Studies of union growth and recruitment have long outlined the reasons for trade union membership (e.g., Klandermans, 1986; Waddington and Whitston, 1997), often providing insights into the reasons why young people are less likely to join unions. These reasons can be split into a number of separate but not mutually exclusive categories:

•The changing nature of labour markets and a changing political economy

•Increased employer resistance to trade unionism

•Attitudes of young people

•Union inefficiencies.

Each of these will now be explored in more detail. Writing in the 1970s, Bain and Elsheikh (1979) noted that young workers had fewer opportunities and therefore a lower propensity to join unions, when compared to older workers. It was proposed that their age limited their time spent in employment and therefore reduced their exposure to unions and unionised workplaces. However, their work was criticised by Cregan and Johnston (1990: 86–88), amongst others, for neglecting issues associated with freeriding and endogeneity. Nevertheless, it remains true that the transition of young people into employment is often fractured, with young people facing ‘more difficulties in finding stable and well-paid employment’ compared to older workers (Kretsos, 2010: 7). The non-availability of trade unions in sectors where young people are employed has long been proposed as one of the reasons for the low levels of membership amongst young people (Spilsbury et al., 1987; Payne, 1989) and this problem has increased over time with Ebbinghaus (2002: 473) suggesting that young workers were unlikely to unionise due to problems associated with youth unemployment, atypical work and low opportunities for training.

Since the global financial crisis, governments have increasingly promoted non-standard forms of employment which provide workers with substantially weaker employment and social protection, having a disproportionate impact on young workers (Heyes and Lewis, 2013). Across the globe, young people suffer from high levels of unemployment (Heyes and Lewis, 2013; Simms, 2012; Bradford and Cullen, 2014) and those that do enter into employment are increasingly at risk of jobs with high levels of insecurity and instability (Ebralidze, 2012; Kretsos, 2010). Employers have been shown to be more likely to resist unionisation at times of high unemployment (Bain and Elsheikh, 1976: 58–68), which has the potential to impact adversely on youth unionisation, causing ‘some young workers to look askance at union membership, particularly if they feared victimisation’ (Waddington and Kerr, 2002: 300).

Although some have suggested that young workers may not always look for ‘decent employment’ (Standing, 2009: 259), the decline in stable employment and the rise of the insecure, precarious workforce (Heery and Salmon, 2000) have caused problems for trade unionism (Gumbrell-McCormick, 2011). Indeed, Lowe and Rastin (2000: 217) noted ‘the decision to join a union as being embedded in the context of an individual’s work history’. If the changing nature of labour markets means that young people are less likely to be employed in unionised industries (Haynes et al., 2005; Tailby and Pollert, 2011), it is likely that workers will not experience unionism at an early age, therefore potentially giving rise to the concept of the never member, as noted above (Bryson and Gomez, 2005). Indeed, Payne (1989: 128) acknowledged that ‘union membership often “goes with the job”’ yet Lowe and Rastin (2000: 205) stated that ‘the exposure effect is becoming a less reliable means of increasing union membership among the young’. When faced with precarious working conditions in a non-unionised environment, young workers often face the choice of exit or voice (Freeman and Medoff, 1984), and young workers most often choose exit (Haynes et al., 2005). Associated with the changing nature of labour markets and changing political economy, neo-liberal governments across the world have introduced swathes of anti-union legislation (e.g., Smith and Morton, 2006). Alongside such changes to legal frameworks, there has been a resurgence of the managerial prerogative (Storey, 1983), accompanied by changes to work organisation, which promote individualism (Bacon and Storey, 1996; Ezzy, 2001; McCabe, 2007) and increasing numbers of non-union firms (Dundon and Rollinson, 2004) and anti-union practices. More broadly, Logan (2008) details the use of union avoidance consultants in both the USA and UK whilst more detailed examples of global anti-unionism can be found in Dundon and Gall (2013).

Returning to the propensity argument of Bain and Elsheikh (1979), it was proposed that young people had less desire to join a union, holding negative attitudes towards unions and being more individual in attitude and outlook as a consequence of the changes to the labour market outlined above, as well as instrumental when it comes to decisions to join (Serrano Pascual and Waddington, 2000: 24). With regard to instrumentality, young workers are likely to feel less attachment to their workplace due to the changing nature of the labour market described above and are consequently more likely to question the benefits of unionisation (Serrano Pascual and Waddington, 2000: 25; Alivin and Sverke, 2000). Some research from Australia even noted how young people believed that only ‘victims’ needed to be unionised (Bulbeck, 2008). Additionally, the cost of union membership is sometimes perceived as an issue amongst young workers, although many unions have introduced reduced fees as an attempt to address this problem (Freeman and Diamond, 2003).

With regard to individual outlook, it cannot be denied that ‘attitudes about society, work and the economy are in a formative stage during the late teens and early twenties’ (Lowe and Rastin, 2000: 214). It is therefore necessary to consider the factors that can influence the attitudes held by young people, as the social elements that inform the opinions and attitudes held by them can be an important factor in the unionisation decision. For example, Blanden and Machin (2003) an...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• 1  Young Workers and Unions: Context and Overview
• 2  Trade Unions Deliberative Vitality towards Young Workers: Survey Evidence across Europe
• 3  New Times Are Still Coming, Old Times Are Still Leaving: Notes about Young Peoples Participation and Union Traditions in Contemporary Argentina
• 4  Ageing Australian Unions and the Youth Problem
• 5  Danish Trade Unions and Young People: Using Media in the Battle for Hearts and Minds
• 6  Mobilised but Not Unionised? An Analysis of the Relationship between Youth and Trade Unionism in France
• 7  Trade Unions and Young Workers in Times of Crisis: A Critical Reflection on the Case of Greece
• 8  Stop the Junk Contracts! Young Workers and Trade Union Mobilisation against Precarious Employment in Poland
• 9  Young Workers and Unions in Spain: A Failed Meeting?
• 10  Old Dusty Men? Young People and Trade Unions in the UK
• 11  Catching the Next Wave: A Study of Internal Organising Among Young Workers in a US Union
• 12  Concluding Comments
• Index