Antecedents of Union Member Retention in Right-to-Work Environments

2019. Personnel Review. Vol. 48 No. 5, 2019 pp. 1281-1298

Martin, J., Laulié, L. & Lelchook, A.

Abstract:

In states with Right-to-Work (RTW) laws, employees are no longer required to become union members or pay union dues even though the union is still legally required to represent them. Despite these challenges, union member retention in the context of RTW has not been extensively explored. We extend the literature on union member quitting and joining or propensity thereof by developing and testing a model of intent to remain a union member in a RTW context using union loyalty as a mediator. Our model is based on the degree to which different types of exchanges shape such intentions. As hypothesized, union loyalty mediated the relationships between social and ideological exchanges with the union and employees’ intent to remain a union member. Union loyalty similarly mediated the organization–employee exchanges. Finally, we found economic exchanges with the union were not a significant predictor in the full model.

Palabras claves: Unions, exchange theory, member quitting, right-to-work, union loyalty

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