UNION MEMBERSHIP AND WAGE BARGAINING WHEN MEMBERSHIP IS NOT COMPULSORY

This paper provides a formal model of union wage and membership determination where the union is recognised for bargaining purposes, where membership of the union is not compulsory, and where the union faces a budget constraint in its organisation activities. This simultaneous equation model is then used as the basis for estimation of manual wages and union density for the private sector using the 1990 Workplace Industrial Relations Survey.