Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Business Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Selected Works

Unions

Articles 61 - 77 of 77

Full-Text Articles in Business

Patterned Responses To Organizing: Case Studies Of The Union-Busting Convention, Richard W. Hurd, Joseph B. Uehlein Sep 2010

Patterned Responses To Organizing: Case Studies Of The Union-Busting Convention, Richard W. Hurd, Joseph B. Uehlein

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] In June 1993, the Industrial Union Department (IUD) of the AFL-CIO initiated a project to gather cases from affiliated unions that would highlight aspects of the National Labor Relations Board process deserving attention from those shaping labor law reform proposals. Based on the cases submitted, we conclude that in its current form the National Labor Relations Act serves to impede union organizing. Particularly problematic are NLRB policies that allow employers to wage no-holds-barred antiunion campaigns. Even where there are legal restrictions on specific actions, the penalties for violations are so meager that they serve no deterrent effect. The cases …


Introduction: The Context For The Reform Of Labor Law, Sheldon Friedman, Richard W. Hurd, Rudolph A. Oswald, Ronald L. Seeber Sep 2010

Introduction: The Context For The Reform Of Labor Law, Sheldon Friedman, Richard W. Hurd, Rudolph A. Oswald, Ronald L. Seeber

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] It has become increasingly clear that the U.S. system of collective bargaining is no longer a realistic option for a large and growing proportion of American workers, and the situation will continue to worsen absent a major redirection of public policy. The decline in union density rates in this country is alarming to those who value and promote unionization. The extent to which this decline is due to management resistance and the failure of the law to promote collective bargaining is an important question that requires continued study and debate. Opinion polls reveal that for millions of nonunion American …


Political Will, Local Union Transformation, And The Organizing Imperative, Bill Fletcher, Richard Hurd Aug 2010

Political Will, Local Union Transformation, And The Organizing Imperative, Bill Fletcher, Richard Hurd

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] As part of its ongoing commitment, SEIU has devoted increasing attention to the challenge of getting local unions to embrace organizing and to allocate sufficient resources to the task. In this context, the unions 1992 national convention adopted two key resolutions: one to affirm the centrality of organizing, the second to assist leadership development with targeted educational programs. In the months following the convention, a discussion unfolded among national staff regarding appropriate steps required to assist local union leaders committed to change. Although internal organizing and initiatives to develop leadership skills among women and people of color were encouraged, …


Revival Of The American Labor Movement: Issues, Problems, Prospects, Lowell Turner, Harry C. Katz, Richard W. Hurd Aug 2010

Revival Of The American Labor Movement: Issues, Problems, Prospects, Lowell Turner, Harry C. Katz, Richard W. Hurd

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] The purpose of this book is to examine union revitalization efforts: to identify central developments, to analyze strengths and weaknesses in the new initiatives, and to assessprogress made and prospects for the future. We ask questions such as: Can union decline be reversed? Are there serious indications of revitalization beyond new leadership and publicity? What accounts for successes and failures so far, and what strategies have shown the most promise for future success? Can innovations in areas such as vocational training consortia contribute to labor movement revitalization? Are there ways to reconcile the contradictions between an "organizing model" of …


Building Social Movement Unionism: The Transformation Of The American Labor Movement, Lowell Turner, Richard W. Hurd Aug 2010

Building Social Movement Unionism: The Transformation Of The American Labor Movement, Lowell Turner, Richard W. Hurd

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] In the United States, the renewed energy displayed by the labor movement is particularly promising. From organizing drives to strike victories to legislative campaigns, labor's renewed influence in the American political economy is clearly seen. A labor movement that was left for dead by many in the Reagan era has developed new leadership and innovative strategies for rank-and-file mobilization and political clout. In a global economy dominated to a large extent by American-based multinational corporations, the world needs a strong American labor movement. The goal of the new activists, young and old, who drive today's labor campaigns, is the …


Unionization Of Professional And Technical Workers: The Labor Market And Institutional Transformation, Richard W. Hurd, John Bunge May 2010

Unionization Of Professional And Technical Workers: The Labor Market And Institutional Transformation, Richard W. Hurd, John Bunge

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] Established institutions that serve the interests of white-collar workers find themselves at a critical juncture. On the one hand they can foresee the potential to augment membership and influence. On the other hand, they confront the reality of reconfigured labor markets. Growth (and indeed survival) is contingent upon being able to adapt to the changing needs and interests of professional and technical workers. The combination of technological advances and alterations in the functioning of white-collar markets suggests strategic reconceptualization and institutional transformation. This chapter explores the attitudes of professional and technical workers toward their jobs and labor market organizations …


Organizing To Win: Introduction, Kate Bronfenbrenner, Sheldon Friedman, Richard W. Hurd, Rudolph A. Oswald, Ronald L. Seeber May 2010

Organizing To Win: Introduction, Kate Bronfenbrenner, Sheldon Friedman, Richard W. Hurd, Rudolph A. Oswald, Ronald L. Seeber

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] The American labor movement is at a watershed. For the first time since the early years of industrial unionism sixty years ago, there is near-universal agreement among union leaders that the future of the movement depends on massive new organizing. In October 1995, John Sweeney, Richard Trumka, and Linda Chavez-Thompson were swept into the top offices of the AFL-CIO, following a campaign that promised organizing "at an unprecedented pace and scale." Since taking office, the new AFL-CIO leadership team has created a separate organizing department and has committed $20 million to support coordinated large-scale industry-based organizing drives. In addition, …


Methodological Challenges In Union Commitment Studies, Mahmut Bayazit, Tove Hammer, David L. Wazeter Mar 2010

Methodological Challenges In Union Commitment Studies, Mahmut Bayazit, Tove Hammer, David L. Wazeter

Tove H Hammer

Excerpt] Methodological problems in studies of union commitment were identified and illustrated with data from 4,641 members and 479 stewards in 297 local teachers’ unions. Using a 20-item union commitment scale, results confirmed the existence of 3 substantive factors and 1 method factor at the individual level of analysis: loyalty to the union, responsibility to the union, willingness to work for the union, and a factor of negatively worded items. Tests of measurement invariance showed that the scale captured commitment for rank-and-file members but not for union stewards. The authors also found partial measurement invariance between long-time and newer members …


What Is Labor’S True Purpose? The Implications Of Seiu’S Unite To Win Proposals For Organizing, Kate Bronfenbrenner Oct 2009

What Is Labor’S True Purpose? The Implications Of Seiu’S Unite To Win Proposals For Organizing, Kate Bronfenbrenner

Kate Bronfenbrenner

[Excerpt] That labor is in a crisis cannot be questioned. While there may be some labor leaders who are content to keep ministering to an ever less powerful, shrinking base, there were few in the room that day that would disagree with the words expressed by SEIU International Executive Vice President Gerry Hudson on the opening panel, that the U.S. "labor movement is becoming dangerously close to being too small to matter." For the first time in decades, both organizing activity and union membership numbers have dropped precipitously. Where in past years unions had to organize 500,000 new workers just …


Significant Victories: An Analysis Of Union First Contracts, Tom Juravich, Kate Bronfenbrenner, Robert Hickey Oct 2009

Significant Victories: An Analysis Of Union First Contracts, Tom Juravich, Kate Bronfenbrenner, Robert Hickey

Kate Bronfenbrenner

[Excerpt] After two decades of massive employment losses in heavily unionized sectors of the economy and exponential growth of the largely unorganized service sector, the U.S. labor movement is struggling to remain relevant. Despite new organizing initiatives and practices, union organizing today remains a tremendously arduous endeavor, particularly in the private sector, as workers and their unions are routinely confronted with an arsenal of aggressive legal and illegal antiunion employer tactics. This vigorous opposition to unions in the private sector does not stop once an election is won, but continues throughout bargaining for an initial union agreement, all too often …


Silver Screen Tarnishes Unions, Ken Margolies Jun 2009

Silver Screen Tarnishes Unions, Ken Margolies

Ken Margolies

[Excerpt] Organizing a film festival of pro-labor Hollywood films would be rather difficult. When unions do appear, they are often part of the subplot or the background for the main story line.


Union Impact On The Effective Adoption Of High Performance Work Practices, Carol Gill Feb 2009

Union Impact On The Effective Adoption Of High Performance Work Practices, Carol Gill

Carol Gill

This paper examines the literature and research on unions relevant to the effective adoption of High Performance Work Practices and demonstrates that unions that have a cooperative relationship with management can play an important role in overcoming barriers to the effective adoption of practices that have been linked to organizational competitiveness through the development and application of human capital. In particular, unions have the unique advantage of delivering independent voice that can not be substituted by management. Not only can unions make a contribution to organization competitiveness but they can also ensure that employees benefit from High Performance Work Practice …


How Unions Impact On The State Of The Psychological Contract To Facilitate The Adoption Of New Work Practices, Carol Gill Dec 2008

How Unions Impact On The State Of The Psychological Contract To Facilitate The Adoption Of New Work Practices, Carol Gill

Carol Gill

This article draws together empirical research in the psychological contract, trust, unions and NWP literatures to draw conclusions on the way in which unions impact on NWP. It finds that strong unions that have a co-operative relationship with management prevent and heal breaches in the psychological contract and facilitate a virtuous trust cycle that is important to the implementation of NWP. This has significant implications for theory and practice, particularly in anti-union institutional contexts that are focused on union avoidance, suppression and substitution.


It Takes More Than House Calls: Organizing To Win With A Comprehensive Union-Building Strategy, Kate Bronfenbrenner, Tom Juravich Dec 2008

It Takes More Than House Calls: Organizing To Win With A Comprehensive Union-Building Strategy, Kate Bronfenbrenner, Tom Juravich

Kate Bronfenbrenner

[Excerpt] Until recently, some national and local union leaders still argued that labor should circle the wagons and take care of existing members rather than spend scarce resources on organizing nonunion workers. Today those voices have largely been silenced by the hard numbers of labor's dramatic decline. As expressed in the platform of the new AFL-CIO leadership slate, the American labor movement must "organize at an unprecedented pace and scale." The question unions face today is no longer whether to make organizing a priority but how that can best be achieved.


Ilr Impact Brief - Transcending Free Market Unionism: A New Alliance For New York State Unions, Jeff Grabelsky Jan 2008

Ilr Impact Brief - Transcending Free Market Unionism: A New Alliance For New York State Unions, Jeff Grabelsky

Jeffrey Grabelsky

[Excerpt] In the few years since the AFL-CIO consolidated 25 of the 31 central labor councils in New York State into five area labor federations (ALFs), local union affiliates have begun to transcend the narrow interests that long divided one union from another. ALFs have begun to embrace new and more diverse leaders, strengthen their functional capabilities, forge coalitions with community groups, and help elect politicians who are more responsive to the concerns of working families. Whether the restructured labor movement has a greater ability to affect organizing drives and contract negotiations is still unclear.


The Relationship Between New Work Practices, Trust And Unions, Carol Gill Dec 2007

The Relationship Between New Work Practices, Trust And Unions, Carol Gill

Carol Gill

This paper examines extant theory and empirical research on new work methods, employee voice, employee trust and unions to draw conclusions on the relationship between these constructs and make recommendations for future empirical research. It found that trust is an important antecedent of new work methods and that union collective voice when coupled with collaborative industrial relations enhances employee trust which facilitates the successful adoption of new work methods and delivers sustainable competitive advantage. This refutes the proposition that unions are a threat to productivity which leads management respond with union avoidance and suppression. This paper has implications for management …


How Unions Impact On The State Of The Psychological Contract To Facilitate The Adoption Of New Work Practices, Carol Gill Dec 2007

How Unions Impact On The State Of The Psychological Contract To Facilitate The Adoption Of New Work Practices, Carol Gill

Carol Gill

This article draws together extant knowledge from the psychological contract, trust, union and new work practices (NWP) literature to develop a model on how union presence impacts on the effective adoption of NWP. It proposes that the strength of unions, coupled with the quality of industrial relations, determines whether unions will have a positive or negative impact on NWP. Unions can have a positive impact on the adoption of NWP by reducing the gap between management rhetoric and reality through employee voice and workforce stability. This builds trust between management and employees creating a virtuous cycle that can mitigate contract …