In Germany, there is no trade union membership wage premium, while the membership fee amounts to 1% of the gross wage … evidence for a private gain from trade union membership which has hitherto not been documented: in West Germany, union members … average partial effect of union membership. -- dismissal ; free-riding ; trade union membership ; survey data …

trade union members are dismissed less often than non-members, we construct a model to predict how absence behaviour will … respond to the sick pay reform. We show that union members may have stronger incentives to be absent and to react to the cut … in sick pay. In the empirical investigation, we find a positive relationship between trade union membership and absence …