Graduate Student Employees and Their Propensity to Unionize: Part I, A Heuristic Approach

Joel Chanvisanuruk
Barry M. Rubin
Ann Kearns
Richard S. Rubin
Kelley McCoy

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DOI: 10.2190/CN.31.2.e

Abstract

At universities across America the number of successful union drives among graduate student employees has increased dramatically over the past 10 years. However, the failed organizing elections at Cornell and Yale have challenged the assumption that graduate students likely would support an organizing drive. The purpose of this research was to identify those perceptions that determine a graduate student employee's propensity to join a union. These perceptions were measured through the application of a model that separates the psychological determinants to unionize into three categories: work environment, influence, and beliefs about unions. The results of the statistical analysis indicate that beliefs about unions are the strongest determinant of graduate student employees' propensity to unionize.

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