i have another question, actually, 2 questions...
first, i understand that almost as many u.s. wage-earners are members of and are represented by employee associations as are members of and are represented by unions, taken together, u.s. union and employee association representation is about 25%...
employee associations seem to have have 2 origins: one was early 20th century introduction by corporations as 'substitutes' for unions, other was professional- types forming organizations that were not unions because, well, because *they* were professionals...
over time, company-created orgs gained various degrees of independence, even morphing into unions, similar process apparently happened among professional associations...
so, what constitutes an employee association, is collective bargaining a common feature, are such orgs prohibited from going on strike (there appears to be this legal difference between unions and associations in canada), if so, does this mean (legally speaking, not just because they have association in their name as with nea/ afscme) that u.s. public employee unions, are by and large, associations and not unions given that most do not have the right to strike...
consider american association of university professors (aaup), clearly not a union, never intended to be one, yet, about 70 aaup chapters bargain collectively on their campuses...
second, union density in france is 10%, but 95% of workers are covered by collective bargaining agreements, in the u.s., there is only a slight difference between union density and collective agreement coverage, what differences exist in labor laws/ regulations in these countries... mh