Hero or Villain? A Cohort and Generational Analysis of How Youth Attitudes Towards Unions Have Changed over Time

Abstract

Our study examines youth attitudes towards unions over a 40-year period to try and understand whether today's young workers might be the 'hero' or the 'villain' in the tale of declining union membership rates in the United States. Using nationally representative time-lag data from high-school seniors (N = 104,742) spanning 1976-2015, we conducted time trend, birth cohort and generational analyses to provide an 'apples to apples' comparison of how youth have felt about unions at different points in time. We found that contemporary youth (or Millennials) hold similar union attitudes to those who came before them, though what predicts those attitudes has changed over time. Strikingly, we also found that the proportion of young people who hold no opinion about unions has more than doubled over the period under study, steadily rising from 14 per cent in 1976 to 33 per cent in 2015. This sizeable proportion of 'agnostic' youth should be alarming to unions, yet it also provides them with opportunities to shape youth attitudes through targeted outreach efforts.

What explains the increase in trade union density and female share of union members in the United Kingdom in 2017–2020?

“…Given the short time periods considered, this is unsurprising. Of particular interest is the age variable in light of concerns about youth attitudes towards trade unions (Aleks et al, 2021). The mean of age increased slightly for both males and females in 2014-2017 and 2017-2020 and is currently close to the point at which the probability of union membership is maximised so the effect on union density was small.…”

Young Workers in Transition: Explaining the Density Gap by a Life-course Perspective

“…Even though the argument of an individualistic youth as a central component in explaining the declining membership density is by no means new cf. the aforementioned study, other studies have been critical of the argument (Aleks et al 2021;Haynes et al 2005). The argument is still being advanced, as it resonates well with other theoretical strands especially within management literature (Aleks et al 2021).…”

“…the aforementioned study, other studies have been critical of the argument (Aleks et al 2021;Haynes et al 2005). The argument is still being advanced, as it resonates well with other theoretical strands especially within management literature (Aleks et al 2021). Although in society there is a general focus on the individual as well as the individual's free self-expression, it must necessarily be discussed whether a macro-oriented generational explanation causes uniform results in young people's individual orientation towards trade unions and unionization?…”

“…Recent international research on young people and unionization points out that young people's declining trade union density does not necessarily have to be explained as a rejection of collectivity, solidarity and trade unions (for a good review see Keune 2015). Rather, the lower degree of unionization is due to lack of knowledge as well as the absence of direct experience with trade unions in their working lives (Aleks et al 2021;Hodder & Kretsos 2015;Simms et al 2018;Vandaele 2012).…”

“…Moreover, these results are, on the outset, in line with the individualization-hypothesis, that is, young workers are becoming less and less prone to enlist in the trade unions. Even though, the individualization-hypothesis as a viable explanation for the decline in trade union density among young workers is still being debated (Aleks et al 2021). Several studies (Keune 2015;Vandaele 2016), including Aleks et al ( 2021) have pointed out if would be a mistake to assume that declining union density is the result of the increasing anti-union persuasion among the youth of today.…”