Organizing Marketized Services: Are Trade Unions Up to the Job?

Abstract

In most European countries trade union membership is declining. A contributory factor to this decline has been the failure of trade unions to recruit new members in marketized services at the same rate as members were being lost from areas of traditionally high unionization. This article examines the approaches adopted by trade unions to raise unionization rates in marketized services and identifies some elements of organizational change that might improve the current situation. Central to these reforms is the re-establishment of articulated trade union structures and activity, requiring greater organizational concentration and scope, on one hand, and decentralization of resources and activity on the other. Pivotal is also to develop agendas that accommodate heterogeneity and the needs of individual members and particular groups, at the same time highlighting the interdependence between individual self-realization and collective regulation.