UNION DE-RECOGNITION AND DECLINING UNION DENSITY IN BRITAIN

In Britain, where there are no representation elections and management 's recognition of unions is entirely voluntary, a substantial decline in union density since 1979 has been in part attributed to increased i nstances of union de-recognition by management. This study examines th e relationship between union density and union de-recognition at the i ndividual establishment level through an analysis of the panel data se t contained in the 1990 national Workplace Industrial Relations Survey . The results indicate that between 1984 and 1990, union recognition w as lost in less than 10% of establishments in the sample; changes in u nion status were closely related to changes in union density; and chan ges in union density, in turn, resulted from extrinsic and organizatio nal changes, such as increased competition and changes in company size .