The embeddedness of unions in collective action fields: ‘organizational’ vs ‘social movement’ unionism

This paper relies on the concept of embeddedness to explore whether Western Europe has seen a shift over time from a style of action focused on unions as organizations, representative of specific trades (‘organizational unionism’), to a style in which unions act as partners in more heterogenous coalitions (‘social movement unionism’). Union members’ multiple involvement in various types of associations and in protest activities are taken as indicators of embeddedness. Data come from five waves of the European Value Surveys in three European countries (UK, Italy and Germany) defined by different levels of corporatism and different styles of labor interest representation. Findings both support and challenge the thesis that we have witnessed a consistent growth in social movement unionism: union members are more inclined to join other associations than in the past, but there is little sign of unions’ growing ability to recruit people from other sectors of civil society. Data also point at the recent rise of radical labor activism among people who are not members of any union or any other association. Trends do not seem to relate discernibly to differences between political systems.