PREEMPLOYMENT PREDICTORS OF UNION ATTITUDES - THE ROLE OF FAMILY SOCIALIZATION AND WORK BELIEFS

A process model of the preemployment predictors of union attitudes was developed and tested. Fifty-nine high school and 143 university students completed questionnaires on family socialization, work beliefs, union attitudes, and willingness to join a union. Linear structural equation modeling showed that union attitudes predicted willingness to join a union and were predicted by humanist and Marxist work beliefs and by subjects' perceptions of their parents' union attitudes. Subjects' perceptions of their parents' union attitudes were predicted by perceptions of parents' involvement in union activities. The results extend findings that union attitudes are of critical importance to unionization in a sample of individuals not yet employed. In addition, several predictors of union attitudes prior to entry into the workplace were identified.