Why has trade union density declined in so many countries since the early 1980s?

Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to look at the explanations behind the decline in trade union density in so many countries. For the purpose of this essay it will mainly focus on members the OECD countries. As well as looking at some countries outside of the OECD nations.
According to the OECD; “Trade Union density corresponds to the ratio of wage and salary earners that are trade union members, divided by the total number of wage and salary earners.” (OECD, 2014) Trade unionism density is also defined as “the proportion of workers who are union members.” (Machin, 2000) .
Why are we interested in the density of Trade Union membership? The density of trade union members – “both in absolute terms and as a proportion of their potential constituency among workers – is an issue of major interest to industrial relations practitioners and researchers.” (Carley, 2009) The collective bargaining of nurses and teachers are examples of where this representation is highly important.

Main body
“Declining trade union density is a feature of most, though not all, developed countries in the last quarter century.” (Ebbinghaus, 1999). The OECD average for the decline in trade union density since 1980 has fallen from 33% in 1980 to 17% in 2012. (OECD, 2014) Whilst some countries, particularly the Scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland) have maintained a relatively high density (70% in 1980, 68% in 2012), even that has shown some decline, with only Iceland bucking the trend and demonstrating an increase. This is in comparison to other countries notably New Zealand and Portugal, where according to the OECD statistics membership has declined by 48% and 36% respectively. The United Kingdom and the USA have ...

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