The author looks at the process of compliance which local unions follow in response to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, analyzing local unions as organizations. Three models of compliance are presented: the voluntary model in which compliance is initiated and sustained through a voluntary and local process, the bureaucratic model in which compliance is initiated through the international union's program and sustained through the mechanisms of the bureaucracy of the international union, and the legal model in which the local union complies as a direct result of a change in the law. The results are that none of these models fit exactly. The greatest amount of compliant activity occurs when the process is quasi‐bureaucratic, that is, when it begins as a voluntary process, but relies on bureaucratic mechanisms for completion. The author finds two other factors which are associated in a strong and positive way with the amount of local union compliance: a great objective need for change and a great amount of controversy. The study is based on in‐depth interviews with forty‐seven local union leaders and on twenty interviews with international union leaders in eleven local u