DETERMINANTS OF PROPENSITY TO UNIONIZE IN THE PRIVATE SERVICE SECTOR

In Canada, according to the 1989 Labour Market Activity Survey, more t han 40 % of nonagricultural paid workers work in the private service s ector. Only 10.7 % of these workers are unionized compared with 37.9 % in the goods sector and 58.6 % in the public sector. A model of the d eterminants of individual propensity to unionize was designed includin g demographic, occupational, perceptual and attitudinal variables. The model was tested with a Gallup telephone survey of 495 nonunionized w orkers of the private service sector in Montreal and Toronto. The prop ensity of these workers to unionize was measured on a 0 to 100 point s cale. Close to 40 % of the respondents surveyed would like to be union ized. Regressing the propensity to unionize on this scale with ordinar y least squares gives a percentage change of propensity to unionize by unit change of the independent variables. Contrary to expectations, e ven controlling for all other factors, it was found that women are les s prone to unionize than men in this sector. Also contrary to expectat ions, workers in small establishments of the private service sector ar e more prone to unionize than those working in larger establishments. As expected, other demographic and occupational characteristics have n o effect on propensity to unionize. The Gallup survey confirmed the we ll known negative relation between job satisfaction and propensity Co unionize, and the equally well known negative relations between a big union image and a perception of union as antidemocratic bodies, and pr opensity to unionize. A positive relation between the perceived instru mentality of unions and propensity to unionize was also confirmed. Eve n if workers in the private service sector see unions as big organizat ions and antidemocratic bodies they, like other workers, still see uni ons as instrumental in providing better working conditions. One main c ontribution of this paper is the identification of avery strong positi ve relation between the cohesiveness of a worker's work group, the att itudes of the work group towards unions, and the individual propensity to unionize. The survey also confirmed an even larger effect of ''sig nificant others'' with whom one lives and the community in which she o r he lives and propensity to unionize. The socialization of attitudes towards unions and the influence of the work group's attitudes towards unions and its cohesiveness are the most important factors shaping on e's propensity to unionize. A feeling of solidarity with workers in ge neral is also instrumental in improving the propensity to unionize. On the contrary, a greater identification with the employer will decreas e the desire to be unionized. The paper also demonstrates the importan ce of the substitution effect of employment laws on the desire of priv ate service workers to be unionized. Finally, the Gallup survey could not establish any link between perceived employer resistance to unioni zation and the propensity to unionize. There are many strategic implic ations of those findings for the actors in the system of industrial re lations. Among them, employers may be more succesfull in opposing unio ns with human resource policies aimed at enhancing job satisfaction th an with direct opposition to union drives. Governments, if aware of th e substitution effect of employment laws on unions, will have to asses s more closely the role that union may have to play in democratization of the workplace in the private service sector. Unions will have to p ay more attention to women's needs in the private service sector. Work ers in smaller firms should also be targeted because they are more pro ne to unionize. The union movement will also have to try to organize i n communities where the socialization towards unions is more positive.