Digital Commons Network^™

Beyond Ease Of Doing Business: The Impact Of Digital Integration On Economic Growth In The Arab World, Amale El Maiss

BAU Journal - Creative Sustainable Development

The Digital Quality of Business Index is an innovative tool for assessing the impact of digital transformation on economic growth in the Arab world, it has been introduced as part of this research. The DQOB index combines other critical elements to the ease of doing business, such as the Human Development Index (HDI), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and E-Government initiatives, unlike traditional metrics that focus solely on ease of doing business. The study reveals exceptional findings, based on analysis of panel data from 2004 to 2022 in a selection of countries across the Middle East using both fixed and unpredictable …

Unions’ Impact On Firms’ Financial Decision Making: A Look At Right-To-Work Laws And Their Impact On Firms’ Leverage Decisions, Rachana Muvvala

CMC Senior Theses

I study the impact of unions on firms’ financial decision making by exploring their capital structure, specifically leverage. I test two opposing hypotheses to understand the relationship between unions and firms’ leverage: (1) the bargaining hypothesis which suggests that firms use higher leverage as a bargaining device with unions, and (2) the crowding-out hypothesis which suggests that firms have lower leverage because unions crowd out their debt capacity due to their perceived riskiness. Focusing on the 2007 to 2022 period, I examine right-to-work (RTW) laws, since they are exogenous shocks that decrease union power in five different states. Then, I …

Unions - Bowling Green, Kentucky (Sc 3673), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3673. By-Laws and Trade Rules of Union Local No. 2156, Bowling Green, Kentucky, of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America.

Social Impacts Of Robotics On The Labor And Employment Market, Kelvin Espinal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Robotics have been introduced into the workplace to perform tasks that human beings have traditionally fulfilled. Complementing or substituting human labor with robotics eliminates human involvement in functions attributable to hazardous environments, heavy lifting, toxic substances, and repetitive low-level tasks. On the other hand, they are meant to be more efficient and cost-effective, saving money, time, and labor. However, since the introduction of robotics in the workforce, societal opposition has been towards this branch of technology in fear of losing employment, wages, and purpose.

Previous studies have reported an overarching societal fear that adopting robotics in the workplace and industry …

Strengthening The Southern Nevada Workforce Pipeline, Katie M. Gilbertson

Policy Briefs and Reports

This report analyzes the Southern Nevada employment ecosystem by utilizing occupational clusters recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor. The first section examines occupations in the tourism industry using three occupational clusters: hospitality and leisure; arts, audio/video technology and communications; and the transportation, distribution, and logistics. Next, this report utilizes the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance’s 2022 Workforce Blueprint to identify the top 15 in-demand occupations for Southern Nevada and occupational clusters. A case study of the MGM College Opportunity Program (COP) is presented to demonstrate an existing workforce training program that promotes upward mobility of leisure and hospitality employees …

What Is Quiet Quitting?, Manuel Reyes-Loya

Hibbs Brief

In this issue of the Hibbs Brief, we discuss a relatively new trend experienced by the U.S. labor market during the past 18 months or so, called the Quiet Quitting.

Death On The Job: Mountain West States, 2022, Miguel A. Soriano Ralston, Joshua Padilla, Saha Salahi, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet examines select data from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) 2022 report, “Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect,” which reports on worker safety, health, and workplace fatalities. The original report provides a comprehensive national and state-by-state profile of workplace conditions in the United States. These data were originally reported to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This fact sheet highlights workforce fatalities and injuries in the Mountain West region (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah).

President Biden's Executive Order On Competition: An Antitrust Analysis, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

In July, 2021, President Biden signed a far ranging Executive Order directed to promoting competition in the American economy. This paper analyzes issues covered by the Order that are most likely to affect the scope and enforcement of antitrust law. The only passage that the Executive Order quoted from a Supreme Court antitrust decision captures its antitrust ideology well – that the Sherman Act:

rests on the premise that the unrestrained interaction of competitive forces will yield the best allocation of our economic resources, the lowest prices, the highest quality and the greatest material progress, while at the same time …

Unlovable Labour: Rejecting The "Do What You Love" Ideology, Trey Dykeman

Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics

Miya Tokumitsu’s article ‘In the Name of Love’ is polemic against what she refers to as the DWYL (Do What You Love) movement that has been most recognisably popularised and transformed by Steve Jobs. She denounces this movement as an insidious ideology cleverly disguised as an uplifting lifestyle which has as its tenets labour, profit, and individualism; through her analysis of these tenets, she unveils them as alienation, erasure, and precarity, respectively. Her insights aid her in her aim to demonstrate that these ideological pillars do not support the wellbeing of the proletariat but rather reinforce the rugged structure of …

Janus V. Afscme, Revisited, Benjamin Derek Morse

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the days after the Supreme Court handed down its ruling in Janus v. AFSCME (2018)—a 5-4 conservative majority decision deeming the imposition of public union agency fees unconstitutional under the First Amendment—observers declared the end of public-sector unions. The Times called the ruling a “Sharp Blow ''[1] to organized labor. A Washington Post headline deemed the decision a “major blow”[1] [2] In the former piece, the Time’s Supreme Court correspondent wrote that “most of the labor movement’s strength these days is in the public sector. The [Janus] ruling contained a final blow for public …

A Labor Of Love: Extensive Exploitation Of Contract Music Workers, Malia Odekirk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Workers across the United States are reckoning with unfair labor conditions by unionizing and speaking out. Systemic undervaluing of many workers has created a climate of fear, hidden agendas, and pervasive labor misconduct. The pageantry/marching arts are no exception. As a cultural insider, I conducted interviews, had many informal conversations, and ran a large survey that uncovered how the marching arts exploit instructors extensively despite their experience, education, and efforts. A systematic proclivity toward late payments, abused contracts, egregiously low compensation, and free labor begs the question: how can programs continually mistreat instructors this way? I explore this question through …

“The New Pinkertons”: Anti-Union Consultants And Surveillance Tech Thwart Organizing, Jo Constantz

Capstones

In 2020, just 6.3% of U.S. private-sector workers were union members, despite the fact that 68% of Americans approve of labor unions, the highest since 1965, and nearly half of non-union workers say they would join.

After World War II, wage growth kept pace with GDP growth, but then began to diverge in the 1970s, according to a study by the RAND Corporation. After 1975, incomes of the bottom 90% rose more slowly than the economy as a whole, while incomes of the top 10% grew faster. The declining wage growth coincided with and is closely related to a drop-off …

Applying Artificial Intelligence In The Hotel Industry: Exploring Perspectives Of Employees, Logan O'Hara

Human Nutrition and Hospitality Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

Robots, Artificial Intelligence, and Service Automation, or RAISA, has become increasingly accessible and affordable for a wider demographic of businesses, including hospitality operations, to implement over the last couple of decades. Especially over the past five years, we’ve seen a significant surge of interest in automating within the service industry and a coupled sense of uneasiness that this technological development would in turn displace the human workers, due to factors such as cost of labor and perceived removal of human error; however, this thesis will posit that automation is most effectively used by augmenting the capabilities of the present workforce. …

Ums_Hr_Covid-19 Memorandum Of Understandings, University Of Maine System

Office of Human Resources

Copies of individual Memorandum of Understandings between the University of Maine System and the Associated C.O.L.T. Staff of the University of Maine (ACSUM) regarding COVID, Associated Faculties of the Universities of Maine (AFUM), Police, Maine Part-Time Faculty Association (PATFA), Teamsters Union Local #340, Service & Maintenance Unit (Teamsters), and Universities of Maine Professional Staff Association (UMPSA).

Database Formation Of Labor Profiles In Upskilling And Reskilling Programs To Prepare The Philippine Labor Force For The 4ir, Breanna Michaela S. Alaras, Malakai Rei F. Feliciano, Salian Idhanth, Abijah Kathryn B. Sta Ana

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

The policy focuses on data management of opportunities for upskilling/reskilling and the profile management of individual laborers’ professional information to effectively integrate the influence of technology on day-to-day life (Schwab, 2016). Laborers that register onto the platform will be matched with programs that can help them meet demands that emerged due to the evolution of their job description. The registration is done to make workers capable of integrating new technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) into their workflow. Reskilling and upskilling can evolve operators of the past into “smart operators” that can work with augmented reality, virtual reality, and …

The Gig Academy: Naming The Problem And Identifying Solutions, Daniel T. Scott, Adrianna J. Kezar

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

Over the past few decades, workers (staff, faculty, postdocs, graduate students) in higher education face working conditions and employer relationships that are increasingly similar and exploitative. Higher education has seen the implementation, spread, and refinement of technologies of labor exploitation that have proliferated in the broader economy often termed the gig economy. In this article, we posit and articulate the features of the Gig Academy – a unique iteration of the gig economy. We first describe the shifts in employment structures that make up the Gig Academy. We then describe how this transformation of the academy has eroded community, shared …

The Frontier Of The Labor Movement: Latinas And The Longest Strike In Twentieth-Century Las Vegas, Maribel Estrada Calderón

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

After the mid-twentieth century, the American labor movement began to decline. Across the U.S., Union memberships and the rate of work stoppages decreased. In the hospitality-industry-driven city of Las Vegas, Nevada, however, the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 more than doubled its membership. In 1989, the Elardi family purchased the Frontier Hotel and Casino and began to eliminate workers’ benefits. Led by the Culinary Union, workers went on strike on September 21, 1991, beginning one of the longest strikes in twentieth-century Las Vegas. Latina workers played critical roles in organizing and maintaining this successful, six-year-long battle against the Elardis. Positioning …

Made In Bangladesh: The Unethical Treatment Of Sweatshop Workers, Samira Hossain

Emerging Writers

This article examines the treatment of sweatshops workers in Bangladesh, including causes of poor labor practices, and suggests solutions to improve practices.

Caremark And Esg, Perfect Together: A Practical Approach To Implementing An Integrated, Efficient, And Effective Caremark And Eesg Strategy, Leo E. Strine Jr., Kirby M. Smith, Reilly S. Steel

All Faculty Scholarship

With increased calls from investors, legislators, and academics for corporations to consider employee, environmental, social, and governance factors (“EESG”) when making decisions, boards and managers are struggling to situate EESG within their existing reporting and organizational structures. Building on an emerging literature connecting EESG with corporate compliance, this Essay argues that EESG is best understood as an extension of the board’s duty to implement and monitor a compliance program under Caremark. If a company decides to do more than the legal minimum, it will simultaneously satisfy legitimate demands for strong EESG programs and promote compliance with the law. Building …

Will Unions Get Out The Vote For Mayor In 2021?, Caroline Leddy

Capstones

Labor unions have played an important role in New York City politics for decades--with the 2021 mayoral election approaching, will they be able to motivate their membership to vote for the candidate they endorse, or will their members vote for whomever they want without taking into account who their union recommends? Link here: https://caroline-leddy.medium.com/will-unions-get-out-the-vote-for-mayor-in-2021-a85388813d2d

Fed Up, Desperate And Daring Enough To Unionize, Suzannah C. Cavanaugh

Capstones

This is a long-form story that outlines the hazards of restaurant work that predated the pandemic, among them wage theft, racism and sexual harassment. The story focuses on three restaurant workers pushed to unionize after Covid-19 worsened working conditions by cutting take-home pay and creating new safety hazards for employees. Legislation and employer resistance are stacked against them, but for many workers organization is the only solution.

Link to Capstone: http://fedup.tilda.ws/

Sustainable Development Of The Service Sector: Theoretical-Methodological Approach, Bekhzod Hamidovich Kuziboev

Central Asian Problems of Modern Science and Education

The services sector is one of the leading sectors of the economy. Today the share of this sector in the gross domestic product and employment is more than 70% in world economy. The service sector began to be studied in the 20th century as a separate discipline and field. Therefore, the theoretical and methodological foundations of this area are not yet perfect. In particular, most of the research in the field of services to date has focused on the socio-economic aspects of it. The purpose of this study is to improve the theoretical and methodological foundations of not only socio-economic …

Sustainable Development Of The Service Sector: Theoretical-Methodological Approach, B.H. Kuziboev

Central Asian Problems of Modern Science and Education

The services sector is one of the leading sectors of the economy. Today the share of this sector in the gross domestic product and employment is more than 70% in world economy. The service sector began to be studied in the 20th century as a separate discipline and field. Therefore, the theoretical and methodological foundations of this area are not yet perfect. In particular, most of the research in the field of services to date has focused on the socio-economic aspects of it. The purpose of this study is to improve the theoretical and methodological foundations of not only socio-economic …

From Suspicion To Sustainability In Global Supply Chains, Robert C. Bird, Vivek Soundararajan

Texas A&M Law Review

Global supply chains power 80% of world trade, but also host widespread environmental, labor, and human rights abuses in developing countries. Most scholarship focuses on some form of sanction to motivate supply chain members, but we propose that the fundamental problem is not insufficient punishment, but a lack of trust. Fickle tastes, incessant demands for lower prices, and spot market indifference force suppliers into a constant struggle for economic survival. No trust can grow in such an environment, and few sustainability practices can take meaningful root. Responding to multiple calls for scholarship in the supply chain literature, we propose a …

Labor Use And Labor Challenges Faced By Small Fruit And Vegetable Farms: The Case Of Tennessee, Justin L. Cross

Haslam Scholars Projects

United States (U.S.) fruit and vegetable farms depend heavily on labor for the production of the crops they grow and sell. In recent years, it has become increasingly difficult for farms to obtain the labor they need to produce their crops. Therefore, labor management strategies have become critical in determining the profitability and long-term sustainability of farms specializing in the production of fruits and vegetables. These strategies are even more significant for smaller farms that face resource constraints that inhibit their use of alternative labor sources (e.g., migrant workers) or their ability to reduce their reliance on labor through mechanization. …

Food And Beverage Staffing Changes In Nevada Resorts After The Great Recession, Toni Repetti, Liheng Zhang

Journal of Hospitality Financial Management

With profit margins averagins 5-7% and labor costs of 30-55% of revenue, restaurant managers need to carefully monitor expenses to maintain these already low profit margins. This study evaluates food and beverage departments within Nevada casinos from 2000 to 2018 to see if managers exhibited expense preference behavior prior to the Great Recession. Three models were tested: number of employees, salaries and wages, and total payroll. Results show that in all three models, there is a significant decrease postrecession versus prerecession, with a decrease of 12.8% in employees, 4.5% in salaries and wages, and 9.1% in total payroll. Only the …

Google Has A Labor Problem, And It’S Not Just Coming From Its Employees, Daniel Whateley

Capstones

For decades, technology companies have used temporary and contract workers to lower costs, creating a shadow workforce of thousands of indirect employees. That business model is now under threat.

In September 2019, 80 contract workers at Google’s Pittsburgh office voted to unionize with the United Steelworkers, the first time that white-collar tech workers in the U.S. have successfully organized with a union. These contractors are employees of HCL Technologies, an Indian multinational IT and consulting company that partners with Google around the world.

Tech and office workers face a different set of workplace issues from blue-collar and factory employees, which …

Jewish Time Jump: New York, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

Jewish Time Jump: New York (Gottlieb & Ash, 2013) is a place-based mobile augmented reality game and simulation that takes the form of a situated documentary. Players take on the role of time traveling reporters tracking down a story “lost to time” to bring back to their editor at the Jewish Time Jump Gazette. The game is played in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, New York City. Players’ iPhones become their time traveling device and companion. Based on the player’s GPS location, players receive digital images from their location from over a hundred years in the past as well …

Special Issue Introduction: Labor In Academic Libraries, Emily Drabinski, Aliqae Geraci, Roxanne Shirazi

Publications and Research

Labor in academic libraries has reemerged as an area of critical interest in both academic library and archives communities. Librarians and archivists have long worked to counter the diminishment of their labor within an academy that centers the concerns of disciplinary faculty who may, in turn, see knowledge workers as a footnote to the scholarly enterprise. Recent years have seen a renewed attention to the social and economic conditions of our work, as researchers turned to topics such as affective labor in libraries and archives, attitudes toward labor unions, and information work under capitalism (Sloniowski 2016; Mills and McCullough 2018; …

Toward Fair And Sustainable Capitalism: A Comprehensive Proposal To Help American Workers, Restore Fair Gainsharing Between Employees And Shareholders, And Increase American Competitiveness By Reorienting Our Corporate Governance System Toward Sustainable Long-Term Growth And Encouraging Investments In America’S Future, Leo E. Strine Jr.

All Faculty Scholarship

To promote fair and sustainable capitalism and help business and labor work together to build an American economy that works for all, this paper presents a comprehensive proposal to reform the American corporate governance system by aligning the incentives of those who control large U.S. corporations with the interests of working Americans who must put their hard-earned savings in mutual funds in their 401(k) and 529 plans. The proposal would achieve this through a series of measured, coherent changes to current laws and regulations, including: requiring not just operating companies, but institutional investors, to give appropriate consideration to and make …