In this paper we analyse the contribution of union activity to reducing earnings inequality. Given the specific nature of the system of industrial relations, Italian unions may contribute to inequality reduction through either national bargaining (i.e. reducing between-sector differentials)...

Thanks to direct access to union databanks, this paper can answer two new questions in Industrial Relations: how long union membership lasts and what are the determinants of its duration. This also allows to conceptualize union membership as a much more dynamic phenomenon than in previous...