New Trends and Comparative Analysis on Unionization among Professionals: The Case of Turkey

There has been an increasing interest in unionization and decrease in union membership both for blue and white collar workers during the recent years in all over the world. For quite some time, public employment remains the largest group of union membership. However, this seems to be changing due to recent developments in professional workers‟ demand for unionization mostly via professional associations, although ”not surprisingly, professionals and managerial personnel have been less likely to approve of labor unions and exhibit less confidence in organized labor and labor leaders than blue-collar workers (Brint, 1985)”. This paper attempts to shed light on what we know and don‟t know about new trends in unionization and unionization among professionals. Paper mainly includes 4 sections. It starts with the introduction and in that part unionization is broadly defined. In the first section, unions‟ historical development will also be investigated. More importantly, paper will try to answer what it means to be a career person and professional employee in the 21 st century business world. These trends will be analyzed in three regions which are Europe, Asia and U.S.A. In section 2, theoretical roots in other words literature review on the subject will be presented. Causes of general decline will be explained and unionization among professionals such as teachers, professors, engineers, librarians, accountants and lawyers et cetera will be discussed in detail. In section 3, after explaining the historical development, unionization among professionals in Turkey will be brought up for discussion and comparison with these 3 regions. Section 4 will include unionization industry foresight for 2025, further research, discussion and conclusion. Besides giving insight about unionization in Turkey for comparison purposes between different regions of the world, the purpose of this paper is to provide information for the potential researchers about basic aspects of new trends in unionization and professionals‟ attitudes and behaviors toward unions. © 2016 Elixir All rights reserved. Elixir Hum. Res. Mgmt. 91 (2016) 37973-37986 Human Resource Management Available online at www.elixirpublishers. com (Elixir International Journal) Őzgür Őnday/ Elixir Hum. Res. Mgmt. 91 (2016) 37973-37986 37974 independent judgement. These judgements are, of course, made in the light of accepted professional standards. Professional employees have a responsibility to third parties. Professional work is that the practitioner must take into account not only the direct effects of his activities hut also any effects on other interested people or groups in the organization (Stanford, 1975). Moreover, while unions concentrate on compensation, working conditions, salaries, benefits and job security; professionals are taken role in associations because of information, professional development and networking. Associations offer knowledge and expertise while unions provide bargaining power. Unions should act similarly to professional associations. Associations take place for their members‟ interests in the industry, serve as a resource for collaboration and provide opportunities for individual career development and advancement. 3 Unions need to base on international regulatory instruments, professional development, information exchange, and alliances with civil society organizations more. Upcoming years will be challenging for the trade unionism. Unionization also differs at regional level that Asian trade unions are often decentralized and work on a company level. Cultural factors can easily explain why trade unions are generally weak in Asia (compared to e.g. Europe). Trade unions have been strong in Europe for many years. And, they have influenced European societies in many different areas. Trade union density is especially strong in the Northern parts of Europe, in countries like Denmark, Sweden and Finland. In southern parts of Europe the density seems generally to be quite lower as can been seen in France, Spain and Portugal. 4 Trade unionism in US always been characterized as market based trade-unionism. It means that trade unions are mostly oriented toward securing the little group of interest more than developing a broad welfare state attitude toward demands. (Jensen, 2006) For Turkey situation is not so different. Current union structure is at %5 level totally and does not meet the requirements of the workers. Furthermore, it makes formidable for them to adapt to existent conditions. It is a reality that Turkish union structure has been under the effect of the local factors instead of global ones. Both Turkey and other countries, how they will respond to the challenges and opportunities will be main critique determinant for their level of influence at work and beyond in the workplace in the 21 st century. 21 st century professional employees will join to unions only if unions become agile and fast adequate to worker‟s changing demands and concerns. 5 Literature Review The role of trade unions has changed crucially over the past 30 years. Global competition, a growing trend in outsourcing, legal constraints, and employer sponsored forms of employee caused a decline in union membership and the coverage of collective bargaining. The coming decade seems to be equally challenging for the trade union movement. How they respond to the challenges and opportunities over the next few years will be the most important thing in identifying their level of influence at work and beyond in the future. 6 From a sociological perspective, Ebbinghaus et al. (2011) define union membership in terms of Max Weber‟s 4 general 3 (Vernuccio, 2014) 4 (Jensen, 2006) 5 (Hurd and Lakhani, 2008) 6 (Achur, 2011) categories of social action: the decision to unionize can be related to instrumental-rational motives or on ideological convictions, individuals may feel emotionally collaborative with the community of other union members, or traditional motives may play a crucial role such as unionization at the workplace or in the family. 7 The most recent figures for U.S.A indicate that membership levels remain high in industries such as education (52 per cent), public administration and defense (52 per cent), electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (44 per cent), transport and storage (42 per cent), and human health and social work (41 per cent), information and communication (13 per cent), wholesale, retail trade and motor repair (12 per cent), professional and administrative services (10 per cent), accommodation and food services (4 per cent) (Achur, 2011). Union-based voice mechanisms for non-union ones indicates a belief among employers that union-only voice does not „add value‟ to their business or organizational objectives. However, various studies have shown that unions continue to be the most effective mechanisms for representing worker interests, and also that non-union mechanisms create limited benefits for management in terms of productivity (Butler, 2009; Heery, 2010). Recent studies point out the positive role played by unions in helping to resolve workplace disputes. Research by Richard Saundry and colleagues found that autonomy from management and greater dispute resolution skills and expertise allowed union representatives to play a more helpful role than non-union representatives. Managers in union-recognized workplaces generally felt that union representatives helped to ensure that disciplinary hearings operated in a more procedurally fair and efficient manner. Such outcomes were most likely occur in workplaces where there were high levels of trust exist between union representatives and managers (Saundry et al., 2011, 203-208). Current union movement is in trouble and workers could be better served. Unions are starting to move in small ways to meet the new demands of the 21 st century worker, but there is much more that they need to do. The most fundamental change will be moving away from relying on compulsion and monopolistic privileges to winning member support by providing valuable services. 8 Union growth is pro-cyclical. In particular, price and/or wage inflation increase union membership growth at least in the short term. In contrast, an increase in unemployment tends to decrease union growth and density. 9 The probability of unionization is usually expected to rise with establishment size because union costs getting lower in larger units, and union services may be valued most highly in large, bureaucratic organizations where workers are likely to be treated impersonally and feel a greater need or higher peer pressure for representation (see, e.g., Riley 1997, Schnabel 2003). This argument also supports Max Weber and the empirical evidence clearly supports such a positive relationship. On the contrary, once one controls for age and size, union status appears to have surprisingly little effect on firm failure rates, although unionization is associated with slower employment growth (Freeman and Kleiner, 1994; Dunne and Macpherson, 1994). Parallel to sectoral changes in the economy, the structure of the workforce has changed in all advanced countries in the 7 (Schnabel, 2012) 8 (Vernuccio, 2014) 9 (Schnabel, 2012) Őzgür Őnday/ Elixir Hum. Res. Mgmt. 91 (2016) 37973-37986 37975 last decades. Mostly the employment shares of women, foreign-born workers, atypically employed people, whitecollar workers and highly-skilled individuals have increased over time, and this is expected to inhibit unionization. (Visser 2006, Schnabel and Wagner 2007a, Ebbinghaus et al. 2011). The structural composition of the workforce in all developed countries is also increasingly affected by demographic change. A rising average age of the workforce and cohort replacement effects may affect union density level. Descriptive evidence for European countries presented by Ebbinghaus (2006) presents that union density tends to be relatively low among young workers (Visser 2006), incre