Thesis title and description:
“The Declining Social and Political Salience of Industrial Labor Unions in Western PA from 1967-2017”
My senior thesis will seek to understand the variance in support for Democratic candidates in union households across fifty years in several counties in Western Pennsylvania. I will seek to comprehensively analyze the changing social and political role of the industrial labor union from 1967 to 2017 using a mixed methods research design. I will seek to answer three core research questions. The first question is descriptive: what were the social and political roles of the industrial labor union to member-households in Western PA historically, and what are its current social and political roles? Second, how have the social and political meanings of the industrial labor union to members and their families evolved over time? Finally, what factors or phenomena account for the evolution in the in-group understanding of the role of the union, and why?