International Migration, Deindustrialization and Union

This article, using unbalanced panel data on 16 affluent OECD countries, tests the effects of diverse aspects of globalization and deindustrialization on unionization trends. In contrast to the recent studies focusing on the conditional role of labor market institutions, this study underlines the role of two structural factors in transforming occupational structures and ethnic composition of labor force: deindustrialization and international labor mobility across borders. The results lend substantial credence to my argument that, while deindustrialization has driven dramatic declines in union density by shrinking employment in traditionally highly unionized manufacturing sector, international migration negatively affects unionization by increasing competitions and heterogeneity between low-skilled native and immigrant workers. The empirical findings raise the question of how trade unions can build solidarity between native and immigrant workers. Since the 1960s, dramatic increases in the transaction of goods and services, capital mobility in the financial sector, and labor mobility across borders have had divergent impacts on several domestic institutions in advanced industrial democracies. While the degree and depth of these changes are stil) under debate, the state's leverage over public policy such as fiscal/monetary policies, social welfare policies and the wage bargaining institutions between employers and unions have been most affected. While there is a great deal of research on th