Thomas Choi

Publication Date

1969

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Edelstein, J. David, 1918-||Granberg, Donald

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

LCSH

Labor unions

Abstract

The National Union of Teachers in Great Britain, a professional organization, has thus far successfully avoided affiliating with the Trade Union Congress, a congress for trade unions. Members of the National Union of Teachers regard themselves to be professional people in a professional union, not to be confused with blue-collared, militant, strike-oriented members of the trade unions. The Cardiff Association, a local chapter of the N.U.T., was studied because of its known reputation for militancy. This would provide a case study of militancy and any trade union behavior within a professional union. The subjects of the research were those who held office and those who had some active capacity in the Association, that is, the activists. The respondents were divided into two categories, the high and low union status members, and their similarities and differences were studied. The high and low union status differentiation has been derived according to the rank of office that the individual occupied. The independent variable was union status. The dependent variables were: variation in political stance, level of teacher training, and degree of teaching satisfaction. Devices employed to gather data were personal interviews and questionnaires. Data were then tabulated and analyzed. Interviews and the construction of questionnaires were conducted by J. David Edelstein in 1959 and 1960. The findings indicate that high union status members were more militant and more concerned with economic issues. The low union status members were more moderate and more concerned with educational issues. There were no differences between the two groups in teacher training and teaching satisfaction. Similarities between the two groups in the last two findings led to further analyses. It was maintained that those who responded to the questionnaire considered Cardiff to be their reference group. The low union status members were those who would eventually become high union status members. The study discovered that the Cardiff Association, despite its claim of professionalism, displayed tendencies of trade union characteristics. These conflicting tendencies existed not only between high and low union status members, but also among the high union status members themselves. This militancy within a professional union raises the question of the possibility of eventual affiliation with the Trades Union Congress, thus identifying with trade unions.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

viii, 65 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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