Follow the Money: The State and the Architecture of Union Funding

Trade unions need money to sustain the staff, infrastructure and activities on which all forms of union power depend, yet the financial dimensions of unions and their power have been largely overlooked in the comparative study of industrial relations. This article addresses the gap by using unions’ financial means as a revealing lens for understanding the role of the state in shaping union power. The comparison distinguished two ideal‐typical logics of state action behind union funding. Under indirect action, the state enables unions to convert membership into income, producing a tight coupling between union funds and organisational power. Under direct action, the state channels funds to unions on the basis of their recognised societal roles, decoupling income from membership. Systematised during the early decades of the twentieth century, these two action paths present fundamental transformations through liberalisation, leading to the financialisation and politicisation of union funding. By analysing the structures and changes in unions’ financial sustainability, this framework reveals the state's constitutive role in shaping and transforming union power.