through Alternative Forms of Worker Organization

This article presents a conceptual model that seeks to explain why trade union incidence in North America encounters difficulties and how the union movement might approach renewal. Those who use the work of others for profit are considered not only employers, but also “deployers ” of labor; even self-employed workers are often in situations of dependency vis-à-vis their deployer. This gives rise to new possibilities and new forms of collective action, which the trade union movement should either embrace or with which it should collaborate. How can we explain the decline of union density and recommend an-tidotes to it? Some commentators suggest that workers simply do not want unions as they once did. But evidence is good that worker support for collective representation at work and for trade unions is higher than union density numbers would indicate (Freeman and Rogers 1999). Two strong strands of research show other reasons for union decline, in Canada as well as in the United States. One explanation is that “employ