The Attitudes of Union and Nonunion Male Workers toward Union Representation

Abstract

This study finds striking differences in attitudes toward union representation between union and nonunion workers in the U.S. labor force. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of 1980 show that if a certification election were held at the workplace of the men aged 28 to 38 who were sampled, 87 percent of those already covered by a union contract said they would vote for union representation, whereas only 27 percent of the nonunion workers said they would do so. Among the nonunion workers, however, attitudes differed sharply by race and industry, as pro-union attitudes were more widespread among blacks than whites and among workers in government and construction than those in other industries. The author tested the effect of several possible determinants of attitudes, such as degree of job satisfaction, occupation, pay rate, and region of residence. Many of these factors were significantly related to union attitudes, but including them in a multivariate analysis did little to change the differences in attitude across industries.

Union wage premiums by gender and race: Evidence from PSID 1980–1992

“…Nonwhite males' desire for membership is also higher (Hills, 1985;Farber, 1983) --the union-nonunion wage differential for minority men is the highest of any category of individuals (Abowd and Farber, 1982). Despite this evidence, nonwhites still face barriers to entry into unions (Ashenfelter, 1972;Gould, 1977).…”

Workplace hazards and workers’ desires for union representation

“…The QES sample, which is broadly representative of the universe of nonunion workers, produces the strongest association between hazard perceptions and pro-union sentiment. The association between hazard exposure and pro-union sentiment among young men is substantially stronger than that reported by Hills (1985). Among workers already covered by collective bargaining, hazard exerts a substantially larger influence on pro-union sentiment for young men than for young women, as indicated in the fourth and fifth columns of Table 3.…”

“…Kochan and Helfman (1981) and Farber (1983) employ the 1977 Quality of Employment Survey (QES), which does not ask workers currently covered by union representation how they would vote if a representation election were held again. Hills (1985) employs the 1978 wave of the Young Men's National Longitudinal Survey (NLS), which asks both union and nonunion workers for their preferences, but he deliberately limits his analysis of the nonunion sample. Leigh (1985) does employ the full NLS men's sample, but he does not examine the role of working conditions.…”

Modeling Demand For Unionization With Nontraditional Data Analysis Methods

“…Educated workers are somewhat less likely to be union members, but whether this indicates a slight anti-union tendency among more educated nonunion workers is less clear (Fiorito and Daufenbach, 1982;Voos, 1983). Except for nonwhites favoring unions more than others (e.g., Hills, 1985), most demographic variables have not been shown to have predictable, linear relationships with unionism.…”