Working Class Stratification and the demand for
Unions in the United States By Hyunhee Kim
Reviewed by Arthur B. Shostak, Ph.D

Intent on aiding the revitalization of the American labor movement, the author uses 1984 survey data provided by the AFL-CIO from 1,202 non-unionists to answer three questions: "Why do workers want to join unions or what determines their dispositions to unionize? Second, do the determinants of worker desire to unionize vary among workers of different social statuses in terms of gender, race, and age. If so, how and why? Finally, what are the implications of American worker tendencies to unionize for a revival of the American labor movement in the future?"

Along the way the author briefly critiques Braverman's homogenization thesis, the segmentation theory, dual economic theory, the Marxist theory of unionization, the functionalist theory, the neo-classical theory, the institutionalist theory, order-pluralist theory, class consciousness theory, and other such intriguing matters. While cogency rules, incisive insights are common, albeit many will be very familiar to readers of this journal.

Building on earlier acknowledged attempts, the author uses a 5-stage theoretical model and hierarchical regression analysis to illuminate, for example, the impact of worker socioeconomic status on unionization possibilities. In this particular, he finds - unexpectedly - that unorganized workers seem to favor unionizing regardless of the danger this poses to them (p.45), as pro-union workers in these ranks see unions as useful to them (p.47).

In other twists of analysis, the author finds that the disposition of female workers to unionize is far more complicated than that of males (p.78). Black workers are thought more likely to unionize than are whites, as the former are more eager to insure fair treatment by supervisors (p.99). And the disposition of younger workers to unionize seems to pivot on perceptions of union legitimacy, while that of older workers hinges on perceptions of employer legitimacy (p.124). Here the author speculates that younger workers are likely to unionize "because they tend to perceive that employers are profit-seeking exploiters who have no humanistic concerns for their employees, while older workers are likely to unionize because they tend to believe that employees are profit-seeking exploiters who have no materialistic generosity on the redistribution of profit." (sic; p.128)

While all of this may have been true in 1984, it is hard to know how much is applicable in 1999. This limitation not withstanding, the author is owed credit for tackling a complex matter with an original theoretical model and some sound statistical techniques. His call for further empirical research into his subject is one that graduate students in search of a useful topic should take seriously.

Working Class Stratification and the demand for Unions in the United States.
By Hyunhee Kim. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1997. 151 pp. Cloth; Index.