Blackwell Reference Online

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The term trends in unionism means the direction over time of the membership of unions, and/or of union penetration of the labor market. The latter is often referred to as union density, or extent of organization. Union density is analogous to the concept of real wages: just as nominal wages are adjusted to determine real wages, or the buying power of wages, so union membership is adjusted by employment to get a measure of real membership. Density is expressed as a percentage. Trends in membership may be up, down, or unchanged, but in themselves are insufficient for understanding how well unions are succeeding in organizing; they do not account for changes compared to the labor market. Union density itself is a subtle index. It can rise even if membership is stable, as long as employment falls. Likewise, density can fall even if membership increases but employment rises more quickly. Historically, density usually falls as a result of a decline in union membership relative to a rise in employment. Economy‐wide measures of unions' density are membership figures compared to nonfarm employment, or the civilian labor force. Similarly, density can be calculated relative to employment by industry, occupation, geography, gender, race and age, and cross‐classifications of these variables. One of the most significant measures of trends in density compares the public with the private sectors ... log in or subscribe to read full text