ABSTRACT
Trade unions are facing a crisis with respect to membership in North America (Goldfried, 1987). In the United States, the proportion of unionized workers has decreased from 35 percent in the 1950s to 11.2 percent in 1993 (Gordon, Barling and Tetrick, 1995). Union density in Canada has risen from 30 percent in 1961 to 38 percent in 1986 (Barling, Fullagar and Kelloway, 1992), but the fact remains that most workers are not unionized, and little if any growth is occurring. One probable reason for the decline of unions in the United States is the decreased union success in organizing employees through representation elections 1 (Deshpande and Fiorito, 1989; Goldfried, 1987). To understand this, a considerable body of research has examined individual voting behaviour in union representation elections and the decision to join a union (e.g. Brett, 1980; Premack and Hunter, 1988).
