The Impact of Unions on Workplace Financial Performance: An Empirical Study in the French Context

Abstract

Using data from a nationally representative survey (1998 REPONSE survey), we examine the relationship between unions and workplace financial performance in the French context. In accordance with the literature based on previous surveys in the United Kingdom (WIRS) or Australia (AWIRS), the paper uses a subjective measure of workplace performance provided by the French managerial respondents. Union presence was found to have no impact on workplace performance. Furthermore no significant union rent was evident even when the workplace faced few or no competitors in their main product market. The earlier U.S. and UK literature found unions had a negative impact on workplace financial performance. Our results are quite different and reflect the particular French industrial relations context. This may be symptomatic of the general decline in union strength since the early 1970s and the weakness of collective bargaining at the workplace level in France.