Membership rates and membership are not the only elements to assess the influence and legitimacy of trade union and employer organizations. Indeed, these rates are closely linked to the tariff system itself and often reflect long-term historical patterns. However, they remain good substitutes for measuring the ability of unions and employers to represent a large base of workers and businesses, or, conversely, a small part of them. ← 2. In Australia, the company/classification branch refers to the use of Modern Awards, which are industry rules that offer a fair and relevant minimum security network. There is no adequate sectoral negotiation in Australia. Note: The international comparability of strike data is influenced by different definitions and measures. Many countries exclude small work stoppages from their official registers and use different thresholds for the number of workers involved and/or the number of days lost. In some countries, strike statistics may also exclude work stoppages in certain sectors such as the public sector (such as Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Latvia, Portugal and Turkey) or a particular type. B strikes, such as Chile, Costa Rica, Estonia, Hungary, Israel, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Conversely, in some countries, workers who are indirectly involved (i.e. those who cannot work because others are on strike in the workplace), such as in Costa Rica, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States may include work stoppages due to the lack of equipment provided by striking companies. In general, forms of trade union action that do not involve full stoppages, such as go-slows, silence and other workplace protests, are not included. For more information, see the online appendix at www.oecd.org/employment/collective-bargaining.htm. The density of trade unions also varies considerably depending on the labour force (Chart 2.2). On average in OECD countries, government employees are most often unionized (panel A), but account for only 13% of all union members (Panel B). Workers in the good production sector (mining, manufacturing, construction and electricity) and social and personal services (including education and health) account for 25% and 35% of all union members, respectively. However, the composition varies considerably from country to country: Germany and the Netherlands still represent a much higher proportion of trade union members than in Portugal or the United Kingdom – see OECD Annex 4.A1 (2017[7]). The dominant level of negotiation as a centralization assistant has focused on the attention of early studies on collective bargaining and macroeconomic performance. According to the corporatist opinion prevailed in the 1980s, performance would increase with centralization, as centralized regimes would be able to internalize the potentially negative effects of wage increases on unemployment and competitiveness (Cameron 1984).