The Rise and Fall of Unions: The Public Sector and the Private

This paper has a single purpose: to explain why unionism (interpreted as percentage of union adherents among eligible employees) has been declining in the private sector for the past 30 to 35 years, but, for most of this period, has been increasing in the public sector. To provide this explanation,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of economic perspectives 1988-04, Vol.2 (2), p.89-110
Main Author: Reder, Melvin W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Collective bargaining
Compensation
Employees
Employers
Employment
Employment statistics
Labor unionization
Labor unions
Private sector
Public sector
Strikes
Symposia: Public and Private Unionization
Trends
Union contracts
Union membership
Union organizing
Wages & salaries
Workers
Working conditions
World wars
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Summary:This paper has a single purpose: to explain why unionism (interpreted as percentage of union adherents among eligible employees) has been declining in the private sector for the past 30 to 35 years, but, for most of this period, has been increasing in the public sector. To provide this explanation, I offer an ad hoc theory. For the private sector, the paper tries to account for differences in the trends of union adherence during five “epochs”: before 1917; 1917 to 1920; 1920 to 1933; 1933 to the early 1950s; and since the early 1950s. In the public sector, two epochs are distinguished: before and after 1960. Finally, I distinguish between the public and private sectors since 1960.
ISSN:0895-3309
1944-7965
DOI:10.1257/jep.2.2.89