Factors influencing teachers’ choice of labour unions in public secondary schools in Nyambene branch Meru county, Kenya.

Abstract

The objectives of the study sought to determine the extent to which choice of labour unions is influenced by subscription fee charged by the teachers‘ unions‘, the economic conditions, group pressure among teachers and the leadership of respective unions The target population consisted of 116 public secondary schools that are 95 mixed schools, 9 boys‘ schools and 12 girls‘ schools. The total population included 5392 teachers from both Kenya National Union of Teachers and Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers and also teachers who are not unionized and are yet to join either of the unions. The researcher used to stratified sampling procedure. The data was gathered using questionnaires administered to 539 teachers (who made up sample size) in public secondary schools in Nyambene branch, Meru county. Out of these, 435 questionnaires were filled and returned, representing 80.7 percent return rate. Both descriptive and content analyses were used in the data analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data quantitatively by use of frequencies and percentages. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used to tabulate the data in terms of working means, standard deviations and percentages to answer the research questions thereby addressing the objectives of the study. The study revealed that the 67 percent who are yet to join teachers union are considering joining KNUT because of the strong union leadership, whereas peer pressure from colleagues was a reason why majority 6 percent of the unionized teachers are considering joining KNUT. The study found that teachers‘ economic conditions and union leadership influence teachers‘ choice of labour unions. The study concluded that leadership of unions, peer pressure from colleagues and the high union subscription fee and economic condition of teachers influences teachers‘ choice of labour union. Based on membership fee and choice of teachers union the study recommended that teachers unions‘ membership fee should be made affordable so as teachers who are yet to join can register as members. This will have an effect on trade union density and members‘ commitment to the unions‘ objectives and strategies. This study recommends that another study could be carried out in other branches to establish whether similar results will be obtained. Further the study recommends that it is important to analyze the leadership style employed by the union leaders as they (leadership styles) have the potential of influencing the unionized teachers to join a particular union or not.