Union Activism, Workers' Satisfaction and Organisational Change

This paper investigates the reaction of active union members towards workplace organizational changes. We use micro-data from a large firm and estimate an empirical model which deals explicitly with the potential endogeneity of the union activist status. The data indicate that workers who become union activists are more likely to complain than members. Moreover, after proper allowance is made for the endogeneity of union activism, we find this effect to be reinforced. This result suggests that activists are not inherently against organizational changes, as compared to non-activists, though they report higher dissatisfaction in anticipation of the greater loss in union rents that is likely to be associated with the change.