The Curse of Institutional Security: The Erosion of German Trade Unionism**/Die Nachteile Institutioneller Stabilität: Die Erosion Der Deutschen Gewerkschaften

Zusammenfassung

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Among all EU member states, German unions have the widest gap between male and female trade union density rates and are least adjusted to the structural changes stemming from the rise of the service sector on the labour market. This development asks for a more subtle understanding of the role of industrial relations institutions for trade union membership. The paper addresses the phenomenon by locating the main problem areas of membership erosion, such as weak service sector membership and the ageing of membership in manufacturing trade unions. It argues that industrial relations institutions have a double effect. Industry unionism is on the one hand a key pillar for centralized bargaining and institutional stability. On the other hand, stable institutional structures might have contributed to the membership decline.

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Auszug

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The Curse of Institutional Security: The Erosion of German Trade Unionism**/Die Nachteile Institutioneller Stabilität: Die Erosion Der Deutschen Gewerkschaften

1. Introduction

Over the last 15 years, German trade unions have experienced a drastic decline in membership. During the ten years between 1993 and 2003 they lost 24% of their total members. This scope of membership loss was exceeded only by trade unions in a few eastern European countries (EIRO 2004). In the developed world, German trade unions now belong to the group of countries with the lowest trade unionization. Germany also has the highest gap between male and female unionization within Europe (Table 1).

This development is not only worrisome for the unions themselves. It can also serve as a starting point to broaden our theoretical assumptions on factors determining union membership and recruitment. In recent years, research has pointed consistently to two factors that largely determine union membership. In cross-country studies, institutional factors were highlighted. Research studies have particularly established the role of the Ghent system, centralized wage bargaining and union representation at the workplace as crucial factors influencing membership developments (Visser 2002). Within countries, personal characteristics such as gender, sector and professional status can explain large shares of membership structures (Schnabel and Wagner 2007).

However, with a few exceptions (for instance Willman et al. 1993) little research has examined the interaction of institutions and organizational characteristics of trade union systems. The organizational capacity of trade unions to deal with the changing structure of the labour market as a factor on how well unions adapt to a fast deindustrializing economy has hardly been researched.1 However, the distinc...

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