Why Bother? Union Membership and Apathy

This paper investigates nature of apathy in relation to unions, the causes of it and the influence it exerts on union membership. Union apathy was found to have quite different correlates to political apathy. Wheras political apathy is higher among blue collar workers, union apathy was lower amongst that group. Union apathy was also higher amongst female employees, young people and part-time employees. However, occupational and gender differences largely disapperared when work-related factors are controlled.