Patterns of Union Participation by Activists in their Unions Including African - Americans, Hispanics, and Women
Statistically union membership is important to minorities and women because it has closed the wage gap between minorities and whites. Moreover, minorities have been active in labor unions ever since the first national labor union The Knights of Labor received prominence in the later part of the 19th century. This study will explore how minorities, specifically African Americans, Hispanics, and women feel about their current participation in labor unions. In addition, this study hopes to provide understanding to questions such as what are todays labor unions providing for minorities and women that they were not years ago? And how can minorities and women become more effective through participation in labor unions in order to eradicate discrimination on the job? Furthermore, this study surveyed members of the United Steelworkers of America, District 7. Further issues such as pattern of participation, discrimination, and feelings toward current employment will be discussed and evaluated from surveys given to a sample of the members of the United Steelworkers of America, District 7 that came to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for leadership school. Preliminary results suggest that African Americans, Hispanics and women experience more discrimination problems than white men; they support unions because they want to learn about promotional opportunities in the workplace, they face problems that unions might solve, they face more problems with their employers than unions, and they enjoy the benefits they receive from their participation in the union. Overall, they feel that without the union their job would be worse.
School:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Department:
Speech Communication
Research Advisor:
Ronald Peters
Department of Research Advisor:
Labor and Industrial Relations
Year of Publication:
2002