Patterns of Union Recognition in Scottish Electronics1
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1987.tb00722.x |
| Author | John Maclnnes,Alan Sproull |
| Date | 01 November 1987 |
| Published date | 01 November 1987 |
Patterns
of
Union Recognition in
Scott
is
h
Electronics’
Alan
Sproull*
and John Maclnnest
INTRODUCTION
A
recent survey of trade union recognition in Scottish electronics plants by
the authors showed that contrary to common assumptions about the
prevalence
of
non unionism in the industry, over
70
per cent
of
the
employees in the survey worked in establishments where unions were
recognised. (MacInnes and Sproull, 1986)
The establishment based survey obtained eighty-three usable returns,
covering about two-thirds of Scottish electronics employment. Re-
sponse was lower from foreign owned companies,
so
that while the
Industry Department
for
Scotland estimated that such companies
accounted for 49
per
cent
of
employment in 1984, they accounted for
only
32
per cent
of
survey respondents’ employment. Response was also
higher from larger establishments,
as
one might expect: the average
employment size
of
our respondents was
357
employees, while the IDS
figure is 218 (IDS 1986). These factors suggest that in the industry as a
whole the extent of union coverage will be somewhat lower than the
70
per cent reported in the survey. Generally the fit between the character-
istics
of
the survey respondents and the published data on the industry
was close. Table
1
summarises the survey’s coverage.
Characieristic
TABLE
1
Union Recognition (Survey Respondents)
no
of
Associated
establishments employmen1
Recognition for
manual and staff employees 27 18,679
Recognition for manual
employees only
8
1,198
Recognition for staff
employees only
3
270
No
union recognition 41 8,070
No
information
on
recognition 4 1,436
Source:
MacInnes and Sproull(l986).
*Department of Economics, Glasgow College of Technology.
?Department
of
Social and Economic Research, University of Glasgow.
%
of
employees
66
4
1
29
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