Public sector unions operate in politically challenging environments. Recent limitations on collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin and attempts to curtail collective bargaining in Ohio are illustrative of union vulnerability to shifts in the political climate. In Wisconsin, only months after...

This chapter reviews recent developments in research on public sector labor markets. Public sector labor markets have two important characteristics which account for the interest in their operation. First, public sector labor markets are large — in most developed countries the public sector...

The paper uses a bilateral trade gravity model to evaluate the effects of freedom of association and collective bargaining (FACB) rights and democracy on exports, evaluating exports by labour intensity (using several classifications of industries by labour-intensity) for the 1993 to 1999 period....

Do workers’ unions promote gender equality? The scholarship in the past thirty years has increasingly questioned the ability of unions to give voice to the needs of all workers, including foreign workers, workers with disabilities, elderly workers, gay and lesbian workers, and women. This...

Under the auspices of the International Transport Workers' Federation's (ITF) Flag of Convenience campaign, maritime unions have developed transnational global structures exploiting interdependencies in transportation production chains. The ITF, a London-based association of transport unions,...

International trade unionism faces a major challenge. Historically, Global Union Federations have been small and relatively remote international union secretariats with limited capacity to mobilize and speak on behalf of local members. However, with the changing architecture of international...

A large number of potential determinants of union membership, which often can be interpreted in terms of costs and benefits, have been incorporated into economists' traditional supply and demand framework or into new models of an individual's decision to unionise (such as social custom theory)....