Inferential Statistics: explain study on union activity

I need more help please!

A study compared union activity of employees in 10 plants during two different decades. The researchers reported "a significant increase in union activity, t(9)= 3.28, p is less than .01 ." Explain this result to a person who has never had a course in statistics.

It has been 35 yrs since I had statistics and I am having a hard time with this. Thanks for your help, Bob

Re: Inferential Statistics

Based on the data, there is more union activity during one decade than during another, otherwise the differences wouldn't be as large as they are.

Re: Inferential Statistics

Thanks. Is the 3.28 the chi-sq statistic? If it is and the cut-off chi-sq for .01 level with a df of 9 is 21.66 - Do I accept or reject the null hypothesis? If I accept the null hypothesis - is it because it is likely that the union activity in 10 plants is NOT related to the 2 different decades?