Who cares? child-care, trade unions and staff turnover

This article analyzes survey results from the female-dominated occupation of child-care. It examines job satisfaction and trade union membership in an industry that has high turnover rates. The article explores why child-care workers prefer the exit voice over the trade union voice despite a favotrrable attitude to trade unions generally. The article concludes that unless the political factors that dominate the industry are also addressed, the ability to reduce staff turnover, improve the industrial conditions of child-care and increase union membership will be extremely difficult, though not impossible, as the example of nurses in the 1980s demonstrates.