Diversity in Union Security Among Enterprise Unions: Cases of Korean Metal Firms from a Micro-Socioeconomic Perspective

By examining case studies of five enterprise unions in three industries in the Korean metal sector, this paper finds that union security (i.e. the actual ability of unions to engage in organisation and bargaining for employee representation) varies across unions. Distinct levels of security are characterised by considering structural and functional features of enterprise union organisation and bargaining. These diverse features turn out to be closely related to industry- or firm-specific growth patterns and their prospects, industrial structures, types of recent industrial and enterprise restructurings, histories of union-employer relations at industry and firm levels, and relevant choices in employers’ union policies. The findings of this study call for some refinements in the previous studies in British and Korean union activities due to their outdated research focus that ignores these significant developments at industry and firm levels.