UNION PRESENCE, UNION SERVICE AND MEMBERSHIP PARTICIPATION

Much of the literature on the determinants of union activism has focus ed on biographical and attitudinal precursors or correlates of several measures of union participation. Although interactionist theory empha sizes the importance of social context, little attention has been paid to union presence. The argument of this paper is that union presence, defined by certain structural arrangements, and the quality of union service, influences measures of workplace and non-workplace union part icipation through the mediating influence of union orientation. The pa per begins by reviewing the literature on union presence and participa tion, before presenting a model of the joint impact of union service a nd union presence on both on- and off-the job union participation. Dat a are drawn from a study of membership involvement within the Irish-ba sed Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU). Th e main findings are that there are significant relationships between p resence and service level variables and measures of union participatio n. In particular, service variables appear to affect workplace union p articipation largely through the mediating influence of union orientat ion. Presence variables, by contrast, have both direct and indirect in fluence on participation in union activities within and outside the wo rkplace.