Elementary school teachers' reasons for not affliating themselves to teacher unions

As with all Professional groups, teachers have also established professional organisations serving variety of purposes. These organisations have been working to respond to the expectations of their members under the term of ?union activites?. This study aims to investigate reasons for teachers not affiliating themselves to any of the teacher unions. The elemantary school teachers working in the centre of Uşak city during the academic year 2007?2008 were visited and their reasons for not affiliating themselves to any of the teacher unions were investigated. During the research, the teachers?age, gender, years of seniority and branches were taken into consideration. Teachers?resons for not affiliating themselves to any of the teacher unions were examined under various headings in the prepared research instrument. These headings were organised as problems arising from the unions, problems arising from teachersand social problems. The research instrument, questionnaire, for the study consists of four parts. While preparing the items of the questionnaire, specialist(expert) opinions and opinions of the teachers who are not affiliated to any of the teacher unions were made use of. With the prepeared qustionnaire, almost 250 teachers working in the central elementary schools were reached. As a result of the study, social problems apperead to be the main reason as to why teachers were not affiliated to any of the teacher unions. Additionaly, it was also revealed that nonaffiliated teachers generally had negative attitudes against the unions. Although they have negative attitudes, non-affiliated teachers believed that the unions were essential organisations. As a concluding remark, a solution such as unions becoming more of professional organisations trough a serious case of restructuring and abstaining themselves from politics can pe put forward.Key Words:Organisations, Professional Organisation, Teacher Unions.