Why Public Sector Workers Join Unions: An Attitude Survey of Workers in the Health Service and Local Government
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01425459210012699 |
Pages | 39-54 |
Published date | 01 February 1992 |
Date | 01 February 1992 |
Author | Allan Kerr |
Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Why Public
Sector Workers
Join Unions
39
Why Public Sector Workers Join
Unions: An Attitude Survey of
Workers in the Health Service
and Local Government
Allan Kerr
National Union of Public Employees, London, UK
The industrial relations climate of
the
1980s
in
Britain led trade unions to review
their recruitment practices and strategies. Throughout this decade trade unions,
both in private and public sector, experienced a steady and serious decline in
membership. To stem this loss, they need to know more about why workers
join trade unions, how they view trade unions and employers, and what benefits
they can expect from union membership. Equally they need to know non-
members' perceptions and motives. Trade union officials have strongly held
views on these issues, most of which are built on anecdotal
evidence.
In practice
this means that most trade unions have very little evidence on which to base
their recruitment policies. The aim of this article is to attempt to fill this gap
for
a
public sector trade union, the National Union of
Public
Employees (NUPE).
Why Do Workers Join Trade Unions?
Research on changes in union membership broadly divides into two categories:
studies to isolate the strategic determinants affecting union growth and studies
to investigate why individual workers join trade unions. Aggregate changes in
union membership over time are influenced
by
key factors such as government
policies, the structure of industry and the level of
unemployment[1].
The inter-
industry pattern of union membership is influenced by workforce factors such
as age, occupational status, part-time employment and sex[1,2].
These studies do not, however, explain why individuals decide to join trade
unions.
To
do
this,
social psychologists and sociologists employ
a
range of work-
related attitudes to predict the individual decision-making
process.
One recent
study identified four key factors which influence the decision to join a trade
union: wage level, extrinsic job satisfaction, satisfaction with administration and
union instrumentality[3]. Taken together they present a path model showing
the sequence of steps through which individuals go before deciding to join a
union. However, not all individuals go through the complete sequence of steps
before deciding to join a union.
(1)
Wage
level.
Some studies have shown a relationship between wage level
and intention to join
a
trade
union.
Most of
these
are American and
involve
The author would like to thank all the NUPE members who participated in the survey, Dr John
Kelly for his advice and encouragement, and Sanjiv Sachdev, the Editor and the referees of
Employee Relations for helpful comments on an earlier draft.
Employee Relations,
Vol.
14 No. 2,
1992.
pp. 39-54. © MCB University
Press 0142-5455
Employee
Relations
14,2
40
correlations between wage level and whether to vote for
a
union or not.
Allen and Keaveny[4] advocate this explanation, but it is in the margins
of
many
explanations of individual variation in propensity
to
join a trade
union[5-8].
Premack and
Hunter[3]
found that an individual's wage level
is easily the least important of all factors determining his/her decision
to join a trade union.
(2)
Extrinsic
job
satisfaction.
A substantial body of research shows that
dissatisfaction over traditional fundamental issues of wages, fringe benefits
and working conditions is strongly associated with the desire to join a
trade union[3,9,10,11]. Further support for a relationship between
dissatisfaction with economic factors and desire to belong to
a
union was
also found in a cross-sectional study of union and non-union workers
among
3,334
employees of three electrical plants in Britain[12].
(3)
Satisfaction with
administration.
Several studies show that dissatisfaction
with job content and status are important influences on the desire to
join a union[13,14]. Guest and Dewe[12] found that dissatisfaction with
aspects of involvement, including various types of participation in
management, personal opportunities for advancement and training and
job content, are more important than dissatisfaction with terms and
conditions of employment. Additionally, Premack and Hunter[3] found
that
a
worker
may
seek more satisfactory employment, but where there
are a few alternative job opportunities then the notion of union
instrumentality becomes relevant.
(4)
Union
instrumentality.
A substantial body of research has shown that
workers are more likely to join a trade union when they perceive that
the benefits of doing so outweigh any potential
costs.
LeLouarn[15] found
this factor to be the main determinant of
the
willingness
to join
a union,
accounting for just under half of the variance when voting on whether
to join or
not.
Similarly, Farber
and Saks[16]
conclude that if the expected
utility of a job as a union job is higher than the utility as a non-union
job,
men the worker
will vote
for
a
union.
Kochan[10] found that American
workers approach the decision to join a union by assessing what they
actually do for members.
Guest and Dewe[12] tested the rational choice theory on union and
non-union
workers.
Their research suggests union instrumentality
is
the
key factor
in
deciding whether or not
to
join.
The issues on which union
members were likely to believe that the union, rather than any other
organization or
individual,
was best able to pursue their interests were,
in rank order,
wages,
job security and working
conditions.
Premack and
Hunter[3] advocate this explanation as
lying
at the heart of
why
individuals
join unions. They conclude that if, however, an individual has had an
unfavourable experience with unions and believes there
may
be employer
victimization for joining
a
union,
and has colleagues
who
are not members
of a union, then the individual worker is unlikely to see the union as
able to look after his/her interests.
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