Union Involvement

Abstract

Many theories exist about who joins a union and why. However, there are not many empirical studies in which this question has been examined in relation to the Indian industrial worker. The author presents the findings of his study on the subject among 262 automobile workers in Bombay. The workers showed a relatively high degree of interest in unions and they considered them "important" as well as "necessary \ But this- relatively high interest in unions was not converted into active participation in union activities. The search for reasons for high or low level of union participation revealed the following four correlates : occupational status, wages, seniority, and marital status. Thus, compared with back ground factors, personal attributes or satisfaction variables, the in-plant factors turned out to be far more important in determining the level of union participation. By using multi variate analysis, the author has tried to "specify" the extent to which and the specific conditions under which the four correlates influence union participation