Feeling the heat? Union identity under labour market reforms

Union identity is widely seen as important to how trade unions function, yet it remains unclear how strongly it is embraced by members. We address this gap with a focus on German unions. In his seminal work on the ‘eternal triangle’ of union identity, Hyman situates German unions between the ‘market’ and ‘society’ dimensions. We examine whether members embraced their union's identity at a time when German unions faced intense political and economic challenges. Specifically, from the early 2000s, Germany implemented controversial labour market and welfare reforms, followed by the 2007–2008 global financial crisis. Drawing on a large, unpublished dataset of German employees (n = 2281) surveyed in 2008, we use regression analysis to compare the attitudes of union members and non-members towards labour market regulation and the evolving welfare state. We find that these union members do subscribe to German union identity, and that this identity is most strongly embraced by members of unions affiliated with the DGB confederation, the mainstay of German unionism.