Business Commons^™

Enforcing European Corporate Commitments To Freedom Of Association By Legal And Industrial Action In The United States: Enforcement By Industrial Action, Lance A. Compa, Fred Feinstein

Lance A Compa

[Excerpt] We believe it is important to discuss industrial action as one way to enforce commitments to abide by international labor standards in part because of the challenges of "hard" law enforcement, not only in an international context but also in the enforcement of domestic labor policies. Because of the challenges presented by "hard" enforcement of labor policy in both the domestic and international context, it is important to examine the dynamics that initially motivate the adoption of IFAs and other commitments to abide by international labor standards as an important aspect of their enforcement. What unions and other advocates …

Three Plants, Three Futures, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

To spread teamwork and cooperation, managers need to reform themselves—especially their attitudes about workers. At NUMMI, management has provided a system of work and rewards that has earned the loyalty of most employees and local union leaders.

Nummi – Japanische Produktionskonzepte In Den Usa, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] NUMMI, die Produktionsstätte des Joint-Venture von General Motors und Toyota, hat Modellcharakter für die gesamte US-Automobilindustrie erlangt und gilt mittlerweile als Paradebeispiel fur eine erfolgreiche Reorganisation der Arbeit. Das »Geheimnis« von NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing Inc.) liegt - kurz gefaβt - in der Übertragung von japanischen Produktionskonzepten mit entsprechend sozialpartnerschaftlichen Beziehungen zwischen Arbeitnehmern und Management, Teamarbeit, hoher Arbeitsintensität und groβerer Verantwortung der Beschäftigten für ihren Arbeitsbereich in eine gewerkschaftlich organisierte amerikanische Automontagestätte - mit dramatischen Ergebnissen hinsichtlich Produktivität und Produktqualität. Kein Wunder, daβ amerikanische Automobil-Manager - nicht nur bei GM, sondern auch bei Ford und Chrysler - darauf …

Revitalizing Labor In Today's World Markets, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] Competitiveness for firms is possible via the high road or low road, or some combination of the two. For a nation, however, if competitiveness means the ability of a country's firms to sell on world markets while contributing to rising average incomes and living standards at home, then only the high road will do, especially for advanced industrial societies such as Germany and the United States. The tragedy of today's touted "American model" is that it is based too much on the low road, and as a result includes growing income polarization and a deep "representation gap." American workers, …

Rank-And-File Participation In Organizing At Home And Abroad, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] We know that we need labor law reform. But it is also clear that this is not all we need; nor can we expect to achieve legal reform simply by electing Democrats. That strategy did not work in 1978-79 or in 1993-94, and it will not work in the future. In the face of inevitably powerful and well-organized business opposition, even the most well-financed and articulate lobbying campaign for labor law reform can fail. What was missing in 1978-79 and in 1993-94 and is urgently needed now is the pressure of a massive social movement, mobilized to transform and …

Labor And Global Justice: Emerging Reform Coalitions In The World's Only Superpower, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

This paper examines rejuvenated labor, environmental and campus movements in the U.S., in case studies of living wage, anti-sweatshop, sustainable development and Justice for Janitors campaigns. The cases offer surprising evidence for the resurgence of progressive activism in America, at a critical historical juncture in which contrasting perspectives contend for prominence - Washington consensus versus Seattle coalition, employer-driven deunionization versus union-led mobilization, corporate power and corruption versus labor-inclusive social movement upsurge, and in the global arena, unilateral domination versus multilateral negotiation. Predominantly local, the coalitions examined in this research, taken together across the United States, amount to a substantial movement …

Introduction: An Urban Resurgence Of Social Unionism, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] The essays presented here examine the emergence, successes, and failures of contemporary urban-based labor movements, especially in the United States, where such developments are most significant, but also in the United Kingdom and Germany in comparative perspective. Our central question is why such labor movements have emerged prominently and achieved significant successes in some cities but not in others. A comparative analysis points to the central role of two factors: agency, specifically the choices and strategies pursued by union leaders and their organizations; and opportunity structure, located in the presence or absence of particular barriers in the institutional, political, …

Perils Of The High And Low Roads: Employment Relations In The United States And Germany, Lowell Turner, Kirsten S. Wever, Michael Fichter

Lowell Turner

[Excerpt] The U.S. crisis is characterized by growing income inequality, a shrinking safety net, and the decline of worker representation. Like the German crisis, it is caused in part by intensified global competition. Unlike in Germany, problems in the United States have also been exacerbated by deregulation, short-term horizons (e.g., quarterly reports to shareholders), and the decline of the labor movement.

Both Germany and the United States, however, have substantial political, economic, and social resources to use in solving their problems. The contemporary crises do not appear for either of these countries to foreshadow a major collapse like that of …

The American University: Dilemmas And Directions, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] American research universities clearly are national treasures. Over the past decade, however, these institutions have increasingly come under attack for a wide variety of alleged sins. Further, their economic bases are increasingly being eroded because of budget problems at federal and state levels, coupled with increased demand for resources to meet competing social needs, such as health care. Thus, although American universities are national treasures, many fear they are entering a period of decline and may well prove to be an endangered species. Why are research universities being attacked, and why are their supporters in both the private and …

The Family And Medical Leave Act’S Impact On The Hospitality Industry: Implementing Policies To Ensure Continued Productivity, Katie O'Brien Coon

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Family and Medical Leave Act, (FMLA), allows women and men to take up to 12 weeks leave to care for a newborn child (maternity leave) and/or care for sick family members. The Department of Labor states that:

FMLA entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons with continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave (Family and Medical Leave Act - Wage and Hour Division (WHD) - U.S. Department of Labor, 2012).

When an employee decides to take …

The Pros And Cons Of Outsourcing, Angela Smith

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Outsourcing has become increasingly popular to the public since the mid-20th century and has become more controversial in the last decade. The United States economy has been under the microscope for the last 4 years due to an economic recession. Outsourcing has been a subject of interest that has been brought up numerous times by economists. Offshore outsourcing is the main type of outsourcing that is of concern in relation to the United States economy. This topic is highly debated because of the unemployment rate in America.

Gerechtigkeit Ohne Gewerkschaft Und Betriebsrat? Konfliktschlichtung In Gewerkschaftsfreien Betrieben In Den Usa, Alexander Colvin

Alexander Colvin

Zu den Faktoren, die in jüngster Zeit in mehreren Ländern – insbesondere in den USA – zu einem Rückgang der Mitgliederzahlen der Gewerkschaften geführt haben, zählen Strategien des Human Resource Managements wie „nonunion arbitration“ (gewerkschaftsfreies Schiedsverfahren“. Arbeitgeber in nicht tarif- und gewerkschaftsgebundenen Betrieben führen solche „neuen Verfahren der Konfliktschlichtung“ (NVK) mit dem Ziel ein, einen Teilersatz für die gewerkschaftliche Interessenvertretung zu gewähren. Sie stellen eine besondere Herausforderung für die Gewerkschaften dar und machen die Anpassung ihrer Interessenvertretungsstrategien erforderlich. Zwei alternative Handlungsmöglichkeiten bieten sich an. Eine Möglichkeit besteht darin , solche NVK einfach mit dem Argument abzulehnen, dass es sich um …

Das Amerikanische Arbeitsrecht Aus Der Perspektive Historischer Und Zukünftiger Entwicklungen, Alexander Colvin, Katherine V. W. Stone

Alexander Colvin

In den vergangenen 15 Jahren ließen sich im amerikanischen Kollektiv- und Individualarbeitsrecht sowohl eine Fortsetzung der früheren Trends als auch die Entstehung neuer Themenfelder beobachten.Das System des kollektiven Arbeitsrechts, das die gewerkschaftliche Interessenvertretung und die Beziehungen zwischen den Beschäftigten und dem Management regelt, hat sich in seiner grundlegenden, auf die Zeit der Great Depression und die Jahre unmittelbar nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg zurückgehenden Rechtsstruktur kaum verändert. Das amerikanische Individualarbeitsrecht hat dagegen mit der Einführung zusätzlicher individueller Arbeitnehmerrechte eine beträchtliche Dynamik entwickelt. Die Veränderungen in der Arbeitsorganisation und die Entwicklung neuer Formen von Arbeitsverträgen bedeuten eine zusätzliche Herausforderung für die traditionelle …

Telecommunications 2004: Business Strategy, Hr Practices, And Performance, Rosemary Batt, Alexander J.S. Colvin, Harry C. Katz, Jeffrey Keefe

Alexander Colvin

This national benchmarking report of the U.S. telecommunications services industry traces the tumultuous changes in management and workforce practices and performance in the sector over the last 5 years. This is a follow-up report to our 1998 study. At that time, when the industry was booming, we conducted a national survey of establishments in the industry. In 2003, we returned to do a second national survey of the industry, this time in a sector that was recovering from one of the worst recessions in its history.

[Review Of The Book Interwar Unemployment In International Perspective], George R. Boyer

George R. Boyer

[Excerpt] The book redresses two imbalances in the recent literature on interwar unemployment: its almost exclusive focus on the United States and Britain, and its predominantly macroeconomic nature. To achieve these goals, the editors encouraged the authors of the country studies to address a set of microeconomic issues, including the extent to which the incidence and duration of unemployment varied across economic and demographic groups, and the effect of unemployment on labor force participation and poverty. Two macroeconomic issues also are addressed in several of the papers: the effects of real wages and of unemployment insurance on unemployment. These two …