A Note on the Trade Union Membership Patterns of Young Adults

Spilsbury, Mark; Hoskins, M.; Ashton, David; Maguire, Malcolm

doi:10.1111/j.1467-8543.1987.tb00712.x

Cited by 24 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…She concludes that for young people, union membership goes with the job' (p. 125), because job characteristics and the work environment are stronger predictors of both membership and activism than are young workers' attitudes towards unions. This corroborates evidence (Spilsbury et al 1987) that lower union membership among 18±24 year olds reflects their employment in industries and occupations that have low rates of unionization Ð what Elsheikh and Bain (1979: 140) label the`exposure effect'.…”

Section: Unionism Among Young Workerssupporting

confidence: 81%

“…We corroborate previous research showing the role of job dissatisfaction in support for unions (Barling et al 1992). However, we did not discover a direct industry exposure effect on latent unionism similar to what has been suggested for actual union membership (Payne 1989;Spilsbury et al 1987). Rather, if there is an exposure effect, it is through prior union membership Ð which tends to predispose young people to future membership if they move into a non-union job.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 43%

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Organizing the Next Generation: Influences on Young Workers’ Willingness to Join Unions in Canada

Lowe¹,

Rastin²

2000

Brit J Industrial Rel

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This paper argues that union attitudes and behaviour are important but neglected features of the school±work transition process. Using longitudinal panel data from a study of high school and university graduates in three Canadian cities, we examine how young people's previous union membership, attitudes and educational, labour market and workplace experiences shape their willingness to join unions. This paper establishes that views about unions are emergent during youth, solidifying with age and experience. The implications of these findings for industrial relations, school±work transitions research and labour movement organizing are discussed.

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Section: Unionism Among Young Workerssupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 43%

Organizing the Next Generation: Influences on Young Workers’ Willingness to Join Unions in Canada

Lowe¹,

Rastin²

2000

Brit J Industrial Rel

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“…A similar pattern is evident in New Zealand and other countries (Haynes, Vowles, and Boxall 2005). Consequently, a number of studies specifically examine younger workers' attitudes towards unions (e.g., Blanden and Machin 2003;Freeman and Diamond 2003;Gallagher 1999;Gomez, Gunderson, and Meltz 2002;Lowe and Rastin 2000;Spilsbury et al 1987).…”

mentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Many industrial relations scholars model whether workers are unionized as a function of opportunity and propensity (Bain and Elsheikh 1976;Spilsbury et al 1987;Blanden and Machin 2003). Though this model was initially used as a theoretical foundation for studying aggregate unionization trends (Bain and Elsheikh 1976) and has more recently been applied to union-joining decisions in an open shop environment (Blanden and Machin 2003), the logic of this model can be extended to the issue of union coverage in the U.S. context.…”

Section: A Life-cycle Theory Of Individual Unionizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

First-Timers and Late-Bloomers: Youth—Adult Unionization Differences in a Cohort of the U.S. Labor Force

Booth

Budd²,

Munday

2010

ILR Review

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The authors analyze youth-adult unionization differences by using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) to follow a single group of individuals from age 15/16 to 40/41. They find that the differences between youth and adults are greatest at ages 15 to 17 and largely disappear by age 23. Though currently unionized workers are most likely to be in their forties or fifties, the authors find that younger workers have a greater opportunity or are more inclined to be unionized than adults and that many individuals report having had a unionized job by the age of 25. The authors also find that whereas the stock of unionized workers is largest at middle age, the flow of workers into unionized jobs is greatest between the ages of 16 and 25. Unionization patterns for adult workers are believed to differ significantly from those for younger workers. Bryson et al. (2005), for example, motivate their study of youth-adult differences in unionization by showing that unionization rates for workers aged 25-65 are three times higher than for those aged 15-24 in the United States and Canada, and two times higher in Britain. A similar pattern is evident in New Zealand and other countries (Haynes, Vowles, and Boxali 2005). Consequently, a number of studies specifically examine younger workers' attitudes towards unions (e.g.,

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“…The strongest contention to this effect has undoubtedly come from Undy et al, [6] although the details of their argument appear to contain a number of notable conceptual [7] and empirical weaknesses [8]. Nevertheless some recent empirical research in Britain has, for example, shown that both the presence and recognition of an appropriate union were significantly related to the union membership status of managers [9], while the lack of a union presence was found to be important in explaining the non-union status of a sizeable proportion of younger workers [10]. To these two sets of findings can be added the results of the present study, which emphasise that the current recruitment attempts and successes of individual unions tend to be disproportionately concentrated in familiar areas and locations where historical membership concentrations have facilitated a significant organisational presence and an all-important network of interpersonal relationships.…”

Section: The Larger Settingmentioning

confidence: 97%