Abstract
Whether termed participation, organizational or union citizenship, extra-role behaviors, or activism, union members’ voluntary efforts on behalf of the union have received renewed academic and practitioner interest in recent years. The reason for the renewed interest is the terms’ close association with the organizing model of unionism, which some refer to as the “soul” of union representation–at a time when unions are doing much soul-searching. What predicts union activism? We find that the effects of a variable indicating perceived behavioral control to be as or more important in predicting activism and activism intentions than more conventional predictors. We also find evidence supporting the conclusion of some prior research that attitudes, i.e., covenantal beliefs, are relatively more important for activism—or at least for future union activism intentions—than are union instrumentality beliefs.
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Notes
Such concepts may also overlap with pro-union attitudes or covenantal attitudes as distinct from instrumentality or exchange-oriented attitudes, depending on whether one emphasizes a collective orientation of the individual or social influences on the individual.
At a conceptual level, however, PUS is clearly distinct from members’ attitudes toward unions, and potentially an important antecedent, on its own merits, of union commitment and participation. Our criticism is merely intended to note that PUS variables used in published research are conceptually and empirically difficult to distinguish from more general union attitude measures.
Due to budget cuts, tuition increases, and other factors, the bargaining unit size fell from just over 1,700 in 2009 to just under 1,650 in 2012, and rose to almost 1,700 in 2013.
Roughly 40 % of bargaining unit faculty members were dues-paying union members during 2011–13. In “right-to-work states” such as this sample’s, union support may be considerable among “free riders.” In a representation election in 2003, 96 % of bargaining unit faculty voters voted for union representation. Union membership, however, never reached 50 %. Consistent with this distinction, the correlation between the Union Percent and Union Support measures was 0.54 (p < 0.01, N = 199) in 2011, 0.55 (p < . 01, N = 207) in 2012, and 0.58 (p < 0.01, N = 152) in 2013, suggesting that union density (Union Percent) could “explain” less than 35 % of variation in perceived Union Support.
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Fiorito, J., Padavic, I. & Russell, Z.A. Union Beliefs and Activism: A Research Note. J Labor Res 35, 346–357 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12122-014-9186-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12122-014-9186-4