What has happened to union recognition in Britain?

Abstract

This paper examines the determinants of union recognition status using data from the three Workplace Industrial Relations Surveys of 1980, 1984 and 1990. Our theoretical approach argues that the level of industry quasi-rents and union density at the time of the establishment''s set-up should be considered the crucial determinants of recognition status. Confirmation of these predictions is found for private sector manufacturing establishments in the econometric analysis. Of particular interest are the non-linear relationship between historic industry quasi-rents and recognition status and the stability of the model over the three data sets, although there is evidence for a marked downward shift in recognition probabilities during the 1980s