Unions in small- and medium-sized enterprises: A family factor perspective

Abstract

Trade unions are commonly weak in small-and medium-sized enterprises, which constitute a majority of European firms and are often family-owned. We investigate the influence of family ownership on employee membership, perceptions and experience with unions in Danish and Italian firms in the textile and clothing sector. Family ownership reduces union membership; and within family firms, the number of family members employed is negatively associated with unionization rates and employee perceptions of unions.

Using the past to map out the future of occupational health and safety research: where do we go from here?

“…only 18 out of 564 articles in the 17 target journals). The handful of studies on OHS in SMEs (Cagno, Micheli, & Perotti, 2011;Champoux & Brun, 2003;Cheng, Leu, Lin, & Fan, 2010;Holten & Crouch, 2014;Ogunyomi & Bruning, 2016;Raffi, Giacomini, & Mattioli, 1995;Susomrith& Brown, 2013;Veng, Hasle, & Christensen, 2015) report that it is extremely difficult to manage employee health and safety due to factors such as: isolation, lack of knowledge and competencies of the firm's workplace risks and its OHS rights and legal obligations, low unionization rates and poor employment relations, and, of course, a lack of resources.…”

How does State-led decentralization affect workplace employment relations? The French case in a comparative perspective

“…It is not relevant for understanding how social dialogue works in the two other clusters. Moreover, employment relations in small enterprises cannot be interpreted solely in terms of what is lacking: small enterprises are not ‘small large enterprises’ (Holten and Crouch, 2014). As shown above, in such cases social dialogue takes an original form, which cannot be interpreted only as a deficit in relation to the ‘norm’ in larger companies.…”

Attitudes towards trade unions in Malta

“…Turner and D’Art’s (2012) research indicates that employees working in larger firms tend to have more positive attitudes towards unions than those working in smaller firms. Similarly, Holten and Crouch (2014: 285) report that ‘the larger the firm, the more employees report positive union actions, perceptions and experience, which suggests that reduced union membership [in SMEs] is indeed related to the attitude and experience of employees’. Family-firm owners have a more negative perception of unions than other owners, which might create a climate that discourages employees from union membership (Holten and Crouch, 2014).…”

“…Similarly, Holten and Crouch (2014: 285) report that ‘the larger the firm, the more employees report positive union actions, perceptions and experience, which suggests that reduced union membership [in SMEs] is indeed related to the attitude and experience of employees’. Family-firm owners have a more negative perception of unions than other owners, which might create a climate that discourages employees from union membership (Holten and Crouch, 2014). The same authors found that ‘non-family firm employees more often report being union members and that non-family member employees report a higher degree of union membership, positive perception and experience’ (Holten and Crouch, 2014: 283).…”

“…Family-firm owners have a more negative perception of unions than other owners, which might create a climate that discourages employees from union membership (Holten and Crouch, 2014). The same authors found that ‘non-family firm employees more often report being union members and that non-family member employees report a higher degree of union membership, positive perception and experience’ (Holten and Crouch, 2014: 283). Research also indicates that ‘respondents employed in the services sector are significantly likely to be less favourable to unions than those employed in industry and the public sector’ (Turner and D’Art, 2012: 44).…”