ATTITUDES TOWARDS UNIONS AS PREDICTORS OF ACTUAL STRIKE BEHAVIOR

A number of factors can be invoked to explain the flux in union participation, but the psychological literature has tended to focus on the role of work attitudes. What seems notably absent from this literature is empirical data linking attitudes towards unions and actual member behaviour such as strike action. The following report describes an opportunistic study comparing attitudes towards unions as held by strike-breakers versus other union members. Results showed significant differences between the a posteriori attitudes of strike-breakers and other union members such as commitment, loyalty and ideology. However the attitude scales were highly intercorrelated and an exploratory factor analysis cut across the traditional attitude taxonomies, suggesting that further theoretical and methodological research is warranted.