This journalistic approach to ethnography provided me with new insights toward labor unions and the overall “work field,” and opened my eyes to the various factors that contribute to how one develops political and social views. I was a little hard for me at first to determine how to approach this assignment because my interviewee Caitlyn and I obviously had different views regarding unions. That being said, I felt that this would certainly be an informative experience. Caitlyn and I decided to meet at Starbuck’s to discuss this assignment. Before we got into some of the contextual material regarding the assignment, I wanted to make sure she and I had established at least a little bit of rapport, so that I could get a sense of her personality, and to get a feel for some of the questions that felt were appropriate to ask. Caitlyn considers herself a very moderate person both politically and socially. Although she said she doesn’t typically lean to the right or the left, I did notice that she had some very liberal social values. She supports gay marriage and is “pro choice.” This was something that she and I shared (even though I consider myself to have many conservative values as well), and it gave me a feeling that maybe she and I wouldn’t clash after all.

            Based on my meeting with Caitlyn, it was clear that her support of unions is attributed to her upbringing and the previous jobs that she has had. Caitlyn has worked as a nanny, a gymnastics coach, and currently works for the U of M dining services. She’s gained a lot of different experience in the work field through very different jobs, and she feels that unions simply treat employees with the most respect, and that unions greatly contribute to capitalism. Her mother is also a teacher, which directs high influence to many of her social values as well. As she described the premise behind teachers’ unions, I definitely realized that being able to RELATE to unions would shape my views on them a little more. It’s hard for me to relate to unions or to understand unions because my family owns a private business, so my upbringing and Caitlyn’s upbringing have not necessarily TAUGHT us different things about unions, but her eyes have been more open to unions than mine have. Although I typically attribute union support to “liberal” on the political spectrum, I found it very interesting that Caitlyn does not support Mark Dayton’s tax reform. She doesn’t agree that the higher income tax payers should be taxed more because those individuals are typically ones with college degrees, and invested a lot in a college education to get to where they are today. Caitlyn has very versatile social values, and ultimately, she believes in the “big picture,” or what will ultimately better our society.