CO-OPS and UNIONS: allies or rivals? A comparative analysis of union density and co-op employment density.

Abstract

While cooperatives and unions are two different approaches to the same problems, and while they are ideological siblings, the relationship between the two organisations is complicated. The benefit of each organisation is well established in the literature and much of the contemporary literature on co-ops is based in advocacy work either by co-op federations or a handful of niche scholars. These studies usually examine how co-ops compare to conventional firms or monitor the sector as a whole. Despite being portrayed as superior in many key aspects, co-ops have not replaced conventional firms and remains a very minor sector of the world economy. The reasons for this are broadly speculated upon, but so far only a couple of authors have made the case that unions might be playing a part in the low density of co-ops. Building on Rothstein’s (2020) article, which compares the US and Sweden, I tested the theory that union density has a negative effect on cooperatives, measured as co-op employment density, and expanded the number of cases to 10, using 85 observations. To analyse the causal relationship, I used a multivariate panel regression and controlled for different variables and models. The result indicates an overall negative effect on co-op employment density as union density increases. The results were mostly significant. I offer a descriptive contribution to the cooperative research field on the nature of the relationship between co-ops and unions.