What We Think We Know, Don’t Know, and Need to Know: Survey Research on Unions in Britain and the United States

Abstract

Unions represent millions of workers despite substantial declines in both Britain and the United States. Their influence, and trends therein, are major concerns to a broad range of social sciences and business-related disciplines, as well as to unions themselves. Data on unions are, however, woefully inadequate for the purpose of assessing the activities and influence of unions as well as their status and prospects. In this paper, we assess what we know and do not know, and offer suggestions for what we need to know and how to get from where we are presently to where we would like to be.