Unions and involuntary job separations

Summary

In contrast to the extensive literature on the effects of unions on
wages, productivity and voluntary job endings, the effect of unions on
involuntary job endings has received relatively little attention. This
article demonstrates how unions alter involuntary job separation
(redundancies, temporary job endings and dismissals) rates at different
tenure levels using the British Household Panel Survey data from 1991 to
2008. A novel finding is that being a union member reduces a person's
redundancy probability at low-tenure levels, relative to an employee of a
non-unionised firm, but has no significant effect at high tenure
levels. Union membership and union recognition are not related to
different rates of temporary job endings.