Unions and involuntary job separations

In contrast to the extensive literature on the effects of unions on wages, productivity and voluntary job endings, the effect of unions on involuntary job endings has received relatively little attention. This article demonstrates how unions alter involuntary job separation (redundancies, temporary job endings and dismissals) rates at different tenure levels using the British Household Panel Survey data from 1991 to 2008. A novel finding is that being a union member reduces a person's redundancy probability at low-tenure levels, relative to an employee of a non-unionised firm, but has no significant effect at high tenure levels. Union membership and union recognition are not related to different rates of temporary job endings.