Class Differences in Trade Union Membership

Abstract

The step from social to industrial citizenship implies a shift in the level of analysis from the state level to the level of intermediary organizations. There is a wide variety of intermediary organizations such as political parties, religious associations or voluntary welfare societies. However, in this study we focus exclusively on the one organization most closely associated with the labour market, namely trade unions. In this respect, the definition given by Beatrice and Sydney Webb in 1894 provides a useful starting point: ‘[A] trade union is a continuous association of wage-earners for the purpose of improving the conditions of their employment’ (quoted by Ebbinghaus and Visser, 2000: 11). In Western Europe, trade unions generally perform three different functions: self-help, collective bargaining and national lobbying. On the micro level of the individual, unions act as self-help associations and cater to individual demands, supplying services such as legal advice, administrative help or mediation in the case of problems at work (grievance handling). Historically, the most important individual service has consisted in the provision of insurance benefits as many unions functioned at their beginning as friendly societies, covering contingencies such as death, sickness or unemployment (Hyman, 1992: 160). Today, unions still take charge of the management of unemployment insurance in three Scandinavian countries and Belgium.