Collective agreement coverage

Collective agreement coverage or union representation refers to the proportion of people in a country population whose terms and conditions at work are made by collective bargaining, between an employer and a trade union, rather than by individual contracts. This is invariably higher than the union membership rate, because collective agreements almost always protect non-members in a unionised workplace. This means that, rather than individuals who have weaker bargaining power representing themselves in negotiations, people organise to represent each other together when negotiating for better pay and conditions in their workplace. The number of people who are covered by collective agreements is higher than the number of union members (or the "union density" rate), and in many cases substantially higher, because when trade unions make collective agreements they aim to cover everyone at work, even those who have not necessarily joined for membership.

Causes

The causes of higher or lower collective bargaining coverage are widely debated. Common causes are often identified as including the following:

  • whether a jurisdiction encourages sectoral collective bargaining (higher coverage) or enterprise bargaining (lower coverage)
  • whether collective agreements to create a closed shop or allow automatic enrollment in union membership are lawful
  • whether laws on collective bargaining and strikes are more or less favourable
  • whether the government, for instance through a Ministry or Department of Labour, actively promotes collective agreement coverage with a power to impose terms if employers refuse to bargain with the workforce
  • whether a country enables collective agreements to be extended by government regulations to all workers when the coverage rate reaches a majority in a sector, or similar level

By country
See also: International comparisons of trade unions § Union density
Collective bargaining coverage in OECD countries[1]
CountryCoverage (%)Year
 Australia61.22018
 Austria98.02019
 Belgium96.02019
 Canada31.32020
 Chile20.42018
 Colombia15.72016
 Czech Republic34.72019
 Denmark82.02018
 Estonia6.12018
 Finland88.82017
 France98.02018
 Germany54.02018
 Greece14.22017
 Hungary21.82019
 Iceland90.02019
 Ireland34.02017
 Israel26.12012
 Italy100.02019
 Japan16.82019
 South Korea14.82018
 Lithuania7.92019
 Latvia27.12018
 Luxembourg56.92018
 Mexico10.42019
 Netherlands75.62019
 New Zealand18.62020
 Norway69.02017
 Poland13.42019
 Portugal73.62018
 Slovak Republic25.02016
 Slovenia78.62017
 Spain80.12018
 Sweden88.02018
  Switzerland45.02018
 Turkey8.52019
 United Kingdom26.92019
 United States12.12020
OECD average[lower-alpha 1]32.12019
 Costa Rica[lower-alpha 2]10.32019
  1. estimated value
  2. non-OECD

Sweden

Collective agreement coverage in Sweden was in 2017 90% of all employees (in the private sector 83%, in the public sector 100%).[2][3] In 2017 union density was 69% (64% in the private sector, 79% in the public sector).

United States

In the United States in 2015 there were 14.8m union members, and 16.4m people covered by collective bargaining or union representation. Union membership was 7.4% in private sector, but 39% in the public sector. In the five largest states, California has 15.9% union membership, Texas 4.5%, Florida 6.8%, New York 24.7% (the highest in the country), and Illinois had 15.2%.[4]

See also

Notes
  1. "Collective bargaining coverage". OECD.Stat. 9 June 2021. Archived from the original on 2017-11-03. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  2. Anders Kjellberg (2019) Kollektivavtalens täckningsgrad samt organisationsgraden hos arbetsgivarförbund och fackförbund, Department of Sociology, Lund University. Studies in Social Policy, Industrial Relations, Working Life and Mobility. Research Reports 2019:1, Appendix 3 (in English) Table F
  3. Anders Kjellberg (2019) "Sweden: collective bargaining under the industry norm" Archived 2019-07-25 at the Wayback Machine, in Torsten Müller & Kurt Vandaele & Jeremy Waddington (eds.) Collective bargaining in Europe: towards an endgame, European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) Brussels 2019. Vol. III (pp. 583-604)
  4. See Bureau of Labor Statistics, ‘Union Members – 2015’ (28 January 2016)

References
  • Hamburger, 'The Extension of Collective Agreements to Cover Entire Trade and Industries' (1939) 40 International Labor Review 153
  • Methods of Collaboration between Public Authorities, Workers' Organizations, and Employers' Organizations (International Labour Conference, 1940) p. 112
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