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Abstract
Union opposition to free trade policies suggests that international trade damages the union
movement. Previous research has found little relationship between union wages and international trade.
However, greater trade may hinder unions by reducing the likelihood that workers enter the union
sector. A bivariate partial observability probit model is used to predict union choice with respect to risk
aversion, union strategic behavior, and product market effects of trade. The model estimates the
probability of workers entering the union sector queue and the probability of being hired from the union
queue. The results suggest that trade has had some adverse effects on union choice, but it is exports
rather than imports that have the greatest negative impact on unions. Sectorial results show that hightechnology
sector workers have a high likelihood of union choice, ceteris paribus, which acts to offset
the adverse impact of trade. Finally, the empirical evidence implies that most of the determination of
individual union status is due to firm behavior, not due to characteristics of the individual worker.