Can Organizing Work? An Inductive Analysis of Individual Attitudes toward Union Membership

Christina Cregan

ILR Review, 2005, vol. 58, issue 2, 282-304

Abstract: This inductive examination of responses to open-ended questions in a 1997 survey categorizes and assesses workers' attitudes toward unions. The author's content analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis, and textual analysis of the survey responses yield several results with implications for the prospects of a union organizing strategy. Although only a minority of workers in the sample were union members, most members were committed to the union, whereas most non-members held uncommitted attitudes about joining. Some union members appeared likely to be willing and able to help with union recruitment. Respondents were more likely to be union members the greater their awareness of workplace injustice, but most of them expected unions to “deliver,†and resented failed strike activity and leaders who were out of touch. The author identifies unexploited opportunities for union organizing, and believes that unions can weather their current difficulties.

Date: 2005
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001979390505800207 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:58:y:2005:i:2:p:282-304

DOI: 10.1177/001979390505800207

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in ILR Review from Cornell University, ILR School
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().