Josef Ringqvist, Karlstad University
Do trade unions, as some would argue, increase class division and conflict in society? Or, conversely, do they – as e.g., pluralists long have argued – institutionalise conflicts and thus contribute to bind society together? Claims about the nature of the role of unions span from those stressing their divisive character to those emphasising social integration and consensus (Brandl & Traxler, 2010; Brym, 1986; Douglas A. Hibbs, 1976; Jansson, 2012; Kelly, 1998; Wright, 1985). Trade union movements were a significant societal force of the 20th century. Although the trend toward deunionisation is more or less general across the western economies (Schnabel, 2013; Waddington, 2015), there is substantial cross-national variation. Despite decreasing degrees of organisation, trade unions remain important societal actors. Studying the implications of trade unionism pertaining to class conflict is therefore well justified. While class conflicts may take several forms, such as objective differences between classes in terms of political preferences or attitudes (Edlund & Lindh, 2015), this paper is concerned with the notion of explicitly perceived conflicts between social classes. The present paper analyses the effect of individual-level trade union membership and country-level trade union density on individuals’ perceptions of work-related class conflicts (between workers and managers). Hierarchical linear probability models (individuals nested in countries) are applied to data from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) module on Social Inequality (2009). Three competing hypotheses are put to empirical testing. According to the first hypothesis, trade union members are more likely than non-members to perceive class conflicts, and trade union density, by increasing class division and workers’ critical attitudes, will further increase individuals’ perceptions of class conflicts. The second hypothesis also posits a positive association between individual-level union membership and perceived class conflicts but suggests that country-level trade union density (by contributing to the institutionalisation of class conflicts and decreasing income inequality) generally will have a negative effect on perceived class conflicts. Lastly, the third hypothesis suggests that there is no association between unionism and perceptions of class conflicts. The results in large support H2: whereas union members are more likely than non-members to perceive class conflicts, individuals in countries with higher trade union density tend to be less likely to perceive class conflicts. The effect of union density, however, is not attributable to the mediating effect of income inequality as objective levels of income inequality have no effect on perceived class conflicts. Furthermore, aside from class conflicts being less widely perceived, the paper also finds social cohesion to be higher in countries with higher trade union density. These results can be read as refuting claims about the divisive societal role of trade unions and, while here only applying to cross-country differences, thus also raise some concerns about the potential consequences of further union decline.
Keywords: class conflicts, perceptions, trade unions, social cohesion