Precarious Work, Young Workers, and Union-Related Attitudes: Distrust of Employers, Workplace Collective Efficacy, and Union Efficacy

Abstract

This study examined the effects of precarious work characteristics on U.S. workers’ attitudes about three union-related issues using the 2009 Young Worker Survey. Union-related criteria included distrust in employers to treat employees fairly, collective efficacy (rather than individual) in solving workplace problems, and union efficacy in terms of whether union members are better off (or worse off) than nonunion workers. The results suggest that precarious work is much more a problem for younger workers (aged 18-34 years) than for older workers (aged 35 years and above). Consistent with prior studies, we find that young workers tend to hold more positive views of unions, although they are not uniformly more “pro-union” about all three union-related criteria. Further analysis indicates that what may be seen as youth effects on union attitudes are in part precarious work effects that can be confounded due to the strong relation between youth and precarious work.