Predicting unionization activity

Relationships between unionization activity and employee attitudes, demographic variables, and environmental characteristics were investigated in this study. Archival data from 177 stores belonging to a large retailing organization were used for hypothesis testing. Although the results indicated that employee descriptions of organizational process characteristics were significantly related to union activity, employee satisfaction with job content and job context factors were unrelated to union activity. Demographic variables related to union activity were store size, percent of part-time employees, and percent of white employees. Environmental variables related to union activity were percent of union members in the state, unemployment rate, and change in per capita income.