ABSTRACT
During the past 50 years, the US has been the leader in the decline of union density among major Western industrial countries. In the early 1950s, about one-third of American workers belonged to a union in the US, but by 2003, about 12 per cent of the workforce was a union member. In the private sector, the density figures show a decline to about 8 per cent in the US by 2004. A central element of this analysis is to examine whether this decline in unionization in the US is foreshadowing a similar further decline in UK union membership and political influence. The results show a modest positive relationship between the US decline and declines in the UK given the close economic link between the two nations.
