Union Voice 

Finally there are two important institutional considerations that have been raised

by our discussion. First, there is the apparent sea change in the effect of British unions on

economic outcomes (including macro outcomes). If the U.S. union voice literature was

christened in optimism, the opposite is true of the corresponding British research. Over

time, however, the disadvantages of British unionism have dissipated – some would say

have even disappeared. It is conventional to attribute this favorable development in large

part to legislative changes that attacked union immunities or legal privileges. These

changes were accompanied by increased competition, both domestic and international.

The suggestion is that institutional change/adversity and competition may be the

handmaiden of innovations in union effects. Second, there is some evidence from

Germany that it may be possible partly to decouple production from distribution issues at

the workplace given an appropriate structure of collective bargaining, here the dual

system of industrial relations. At issue of course is the portability of institutions if not

economic forces