Statistics of Trade Union Membership
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STATISTICS OF TRADE UNION MEMBERSHIP Data for 49 countries taken mainly from national statistical publications August 2010 ILO Bureau of Statistics (unpublished) 2. Data are currently available in Excel for the following countries: Antigua and Barbuda Australia Barbados Belgium Belize Bermuda Brazil Canada China Colombia Denmark Dominica Egypt El Salvador Finland France Germany Guatemala Guyana Hong Kong, China Iceland India Ireland Japan Korea, Republic of Kuwait Malaysia Malta Montserrat Netherlands New Zealand Norway Pakistan Philippines St Kitts and Nevis St Lucia St Vincent and the Grenadines Singapore Slovakia South Africa Sri Lanka Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic Turkey United Kingdom United States 3. METHODOLOGICAL NOTE the coverage of the union membership may be broader or narrower, depending on the inclusion of the self-employed, or retired workers, etc. or The data in these tables are the official national the unemployed, or the exclusion of certain statistics taken mainly from national groups. The rates shown are those calculated publications, but in a few cases other sources by the countries themselves, where available; have been used. This is indicated in the tables for some countries, the ILO Bureau of Statistics and in the notes that follow. The figures have has calculated the rates using as denominator not been adjusted in any way, but are as shown the total number of paid employees as in the publications. published in the ILO Yearbook of Labour Statistics (Table 2E). For a number of reasons, the data may not be directly comparable between countries. The country notes provide information, where available, about the sources of the data For some countries, the data are drawn from (including coverage and definitions), the types the official reports of trade unions submitted in of classifications used (for example, by industry, accordance with laws or regulations to the occupation, sex, region), the publications in competent authority, such as a certification which the data appear (the code in parentheses officer or registrar. In these cases, the trade after each publication is the ILO Library call unions actually providing reports may vary from number) and contact information about the year to year. Non-affiliated and non-registered organization responsible for the statistics. trade unions may not report at all. In other countries, data are collected through household labour force surveys or surveys of establishments (employers). The coverage of The following is an extract from the the data derived from the different sources World Labour Report 1997-98: Industrial varies: the data may cover different sizes of relations, democracy and social stability establishments (establishment surveys often (ILO, Geneva, 1997) exclude small establishments), different groups of workers (all persons in employment, paid Industrial relations indicatorsi1 employees only, etc.), different sectors or economic activities, and so on. Some trade Compiling trade union membership union figures may include not just employed statistics persons, but also retired workers, persons who are not economically active and unemployed There are two main methods of compiling union persons. membership statistics. The first is to carry out a household, enterprise or labour force survey. Union membership data are subject to reporting The method has clear advantages for errors, whatever the source. In household calculating detailed union density rates by sex, surveys, both sampling and non-sampling errors employment status, industrial branch, enterprise may occur, such as inaccurate proxy answers. size, educational attainment, level of earning or Many unions have difficulty in keeping accurate other characteristics. The survey method gives and up-to-date records of their membership, better results when it is clear to respondents and therefore reports by unions are subject to what is meant by a union and membership, and inaccuracies. Members who have left the union if problems of statistical sampling are solved. ... or who have died may not be deleted from the records for some time, and those joining The second method is a compilation of another union may be counted in each for a membership statistics from questionnaires certain period. completed by individual unions or trade union federations. In many countries this task is The rates of trade union membership (“union undertaken by an official registrar, a density”) are a measure of those who belong to government office, a central statistical bureau, unions as a percentage of those eligible to join. In some countries, these rates are calculated as 1 the ratio of union members to the total number These technical notes are drawn from J. of paid employees. However, as noted above, Visser: Global trends in unionization (ILO, Geneva, 1997). 4. or one or more trade union federations. In Union density and labour force statistics: some cases such data are compiled by three denominators independent researchers, either on the basis of unpublished registers, government surveys or As a measurement of relative rather than even their own surveys. This kind of data offers absolute size, union density rates are better advantages for a study of membership suited to making comparisons, especially developments in relation to union type, across countries, than absolute membership membership concentration, inter-union figures. Union density expresses union competition, union politics and union ideology. membership as a proportion of the eligible workforce. Ideally, groups who are not legally One of the main difficulties with the second permitted to join a union should be excluded method is statistical coverage or the from the calculation of union density statistics. identification of unions (i.e. not so much In many countries, senior civil servants, the whether an organization should be considered armed forces, police officers, security staff, as a "trade or labour union", but simply locating teachers or domestic servants are not permitted and identifying the existence of small new to join a Union. However, as Chang and unions). This constitutes a problem in the case Sorrentino (1991)2 rightly observe, the eligibility of unaffiliated unions as well as in countries to join a union shifts over time and across where there is no obligation for a union to countries, and the strict application of such a register. Official registration is not always criterion for calculating union density rates useful either because it is sometimes used, with would make comparison across countries denial of recognition, as a means to hinder the extremely difficult if not impossible. formation of newly emerging unions ... or because unions fail to return their membership Therefore, a common denominator is applied to or financial files to the registrar ... permit comparison. Given the definition of a trade union, and the self-declared purpose and Under-reporting of non-affiliated and non- domain of most unions, this common registered trade unions constitutes a problem in denominator is defined as all people who earn many countries but in the absence of surveys, their living on wages and salaries, including elections, and independent press reports it is those who are employed in the public sector or difficult to estimate its size. It relates less to work in government service. Normally, union making comparisons within countries over time density rates are standardized by calculation than to those drawn between countries. In union membership as a proportion of the wage general, statistical coverage has increased - and salary earners in the same year (preferably especially in western countries. on the basis of some annual average, or en-of- year data). Such data is directly comparable ... with household or labour force survey data. ... Although many unions, at least in Europe, retain Self-reporting of membership reflects different membership of unemployed workers and those administrative and political practices and may that have retired from the labour force (i.e. yield incomparable and unreliable results. through reduced contribution rates or by offering Unions may have reasons to overstate or special benefits), the calculation of standardized understate their membership figures in reports density rates requires their number to be to the press, public agencies, political parties, subtracted from the "active membership". This employers or competitors. They may apply is possible, mostly with the help of surveys, different norms regarding who is to be financial data or on the basis of estimates ... considered as a "member in good standing" and may be slow to remove those who have left or The major difficulty inherent in calculating union no longer pay their contributions. Unions may density rates on the basis of wage and salary include people who no longer consider earners in employment arises from the fact that, themselves as members. Comparison with in many developing countries, the necessary survey data suggests that some overstatement in reported membership is general but, in most 2 cases, small. C. Chang and C. Sorrentino: "Union membership statistics in 12 countries", in Monthly Labor Review (Washington, D.C., Department of Labor), Dec. 1991, pp. 46-53. 5. employment data are missing. In many of these The main advantage of using the non- countries the line between employment, agricultural labour force as the denominator for underemployment and unemployment, or calculating union density rates is that data is between self-employment