A RESEARCH ON YOUNG PEOPLE’SPERCEPTIONS AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS TRADE UNIONS

Young workers often work in low-wage, low-status and precarious jobs, and their positions in the labour market are increasingly subject to instability, which is expected to require greater union protection and support. However, in recent years as in the whole world, in Turkey, the young unionization rate is declining faster than the rate of adults. This study focuses on young people's attitudes and behaviours towards the trade union, which are among the reasons for the low union membership rates of the young employees. The young people who are in the 15-29 age group who are working fulltime/part-time, periodically or temporarily in the labour market constitute the research group. Data were collected by face-to-face survey method and frequency distribution and descriptive statistics were used in the analysis of the data. According to the findings of this study, the trade union attitudes and perceptions of the youth are not negative and contrary to the general opinion, they have sufficient knowledge about the trade union. On the other hand, the trade unions were found to be inadequate and dysfunctional in explaining and promoting themselves