The Role of Trust in Determining the Propensity to Join Unofficial Strikes

This paper offers a contribution to the literature on labour strikes by analysing the effect of trust in labour disputes. We maintain that the higher (or lower) the level of confidence that workers place in unions (or firms), the more likely it is that they will be willing to participate in an unofficial strike. A very simple model is presented to clarify this idea. Using the World Value Survey data, we also empirically show that the probability of having or being willing to participate in unofficial strikes increases (or decreases) as the level of confidence placed in labour unions (or firms) increases, with the effect of confidence in labour unions being larger than that of confidence in firms.