Policies on Union Representation in US Multinationals in the UK: Between Micro-Politics and Macro-Institutions

This paper examines the policies towards unions and collective representation in US multinationals in the UK. It uses detailed case-study data to argue that the dominant ‘ideological norms’ of anti-unionism in the US business system shape, but do not determine, the behaviour of US multinational subsidiaries in the UK. Within the structural constraints determined by such factors as sector, subsidiary policy and behaviour towards unions are the outcome of the complex interaction of the contrasting ‘macro-institutional’ forces of home and host business systems, and how these are filtered through the perceptions and interests of actors at different levels of the multinational. The resulting ‘micro-politics’ generates a complex and evolving pattern of union relations and non-unionism in US subsidiaries.