ABSTRACT
In what ways would the Organizing Model help revive the trade union movement? Organizing is often thought of primarily in terms of union membership and it is true that in the liberal market economies of the UK and the US, membership is probably the most frequently used yardstick in judging the health of the union movement. In the UK, levels of union density and collective bargaining coverage are very similar and over a long time period the two series have risen and fallen together. However, in many other parts of Europe these two indicators of union health are only loosely associated. Bargaining coverage throughout most of northern and western Europe as of 2000 was approximately 80 per cent, but union density the same year varied enormously from a low of 8 per cent in France to a high of around 80 per cent in Sweden. Moreover some of the union movements with relatively low levels of density, as in France and Spain, were able to exercise a significant degree of political power, even when right-wing governments held office. These points suggest that in a comparative context at least, the extent of union revitalization needs to be captured by a number of dimensions. One recent framework suggests we can analyse union revitalization along four dimensions: union membership, economic (bargaining) power, political power and institutional flexibility (Behrens et al. 2004). In principle organizing seems most likely to have an impact on two of these dimensions, membership and bargaining power. As British union membership is closely correlated with bargaining coverage, new recognition agreements should bring more workers under the coverage of collective agreements, other things being equal.
