Labor Relations Commons^™

Runaway: A History Of Postwar New York In Four Factories, Andy Battle

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

At midcentury, New York City was among the preeminent manufacturing centers in the United States. Within a generation, this manufacturing economy suffered an extraordinary collapse. Beginning in the 1950s, workers and their unions began to use the term “runaway” to describe factories that pulled up stakes in New York and set them back down in other climes. This dissertation explores the deindustrialization of New York City through case studies of “runaway” plants, or factories that left New York for the American South or abroad between the years 1945 and 1975.

In general, the manufacturers that remained in New York at …

Labor Unions And Occupational Safety: Event-Study Analysis Using Union Elections, Ling Li, Shawn Rohlin, Perry Singleton

Center for Policy Research

This study examines the dynamic relationship between union elections and occupational safety among manufacturing establishments. Data on union elections come from the National Labor Relations Board, and data on workplace inspections and accident case rates come from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The results indicate that union elections improved occupational safety. First, workplace inspections trended upwards before the election, then decreased immediately after the election, due almost entirely to employee complaints. Second, accident case rates were relatively stable before the election, then trended downwards after the election, due to accidents involving days away from work, job restrictions, and job …

Segmented Labour Markets In South Africa, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] The textbook labour market model aggregates all workers, all employers and all sectors of the economy into a single labour market. In this single labour market, workers supply labour, employers demand labour and the rate of pay (termed wage for shorthand) is determined by the intersection of supply and demand. Segmented labour market analysis proceeds from a different starting point. Workers, employers and sectors are not aggregated together. Rather, two or more labour market segments are identified, the groupings reflecting fundamental differences in how labour supply, labour demand and wage-determination mechanisms operate in different segments. For example, in the …

Experimentation And Decentralization In China’S Labor Relations, Eli D. Friedman, Sarosh Kuruvilla

Sarosh Kuruvilla

In this introduction to the special issue ‘Changing work, labour and employment relations in China’, we argue that China is taking an experimental and decentralized approach to the development of new labor relations frameworks. Particular political constraints in China prevent interest aggregation among workers, as the central state sees this as posing a risk to social stability. Firms and local governments have been given a degree of space to experiment with different arrangements, as long as the categorical ban on independent unions is not violated. The consequence has been an increasingly differentiated labor relations landscape, with significant variation by region …

Experimentation And Decentralization In China’S Labor Relations, Eli D. Friedman, Sarosh Kuruvilla

Eli D Friedman

In this introduction to the special issue ‘Changing work, labour and employment relations in China’, we argue that China is taking an experimental and decentralized approach to the development of new labor relations frameworks. Particular political constraints in China prevent interest aggregation among workers, as the central state sees this as posing a risk to social stability. Firms and local governments have been given a degree of space to experiment with different arrangements, as long as the categorical ban on independent unions is not violated. The consequence has been an increasingly differentiated labor relations landscape, with significant variation by region …

Insurgency And Institutionalization: The Polanyian Countermovement And Chinese Labor Politics, Eli D. Friedman

Eli D Friedman

Why is it that in the nearly 10 years since the Chinese central government began making symbolic and material moves towards class compromise that labor unrest has expanded greatly? In this article I reconfigure Karl Polanyi's theory of the countermovement to account for recent developments in Chinese labor politics. Specifically, I argue that countermovements must be broken down into two constituent but intertwined "moments": the insurgent moment that consists of spontaneous resistance to the market, and the institutional moment, when class compromise is established in the economic and political spheres. In China, the transition from insurgency to institutionalization has thus …

Do I Have To Cross The Picket Line?, Bureau Of Labor Education. University Of Maine

Bureau of Labor Education

Refusing to cross a lawfully established picket line is protected by the National Labor Relations Act. You have the legal right not to cross a picket line in solidarity with your own union, out of sympathy for workers from another union, or just to avoid confrontation. By refusing to cross a picket line while on duty you are essentially engaging in a strike in sympathy with the picketing workers. Refusing to cross a picket line is a legally protected act. When you approach a picket line you may be asked to honor the picket line. Politely asking someone not to …

Institutions And Activism: Crisis And Opportunity For A German Labor Movement In Decline, Lowell Turner

Lowell Turner

In recent decades, German unions have rested on their institutional laurels even as the ground has slipped away. This article analyzes two recent innovative campaigns based on grassroots mobilization that, the author argues, offer possibilities for renewed union strength. A breakthrough campaign against a militantly anti-union firm in the retail industry demonstrates the potential for a German brand of social movement unionism. The story line and institution-building strategy of this campaign fall entirely outside the framework of traditional German industrial relations. A second, very different campaign, from deep inside that traditional framework, has mobilized union members in Nordrhein-Westfalen (IG Metall’s …

The Effect Of Unions On Productivity In The Public Sector: The Case Of Municipal Libraries, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Joshua L. Schwarz

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] This paper represents our initial efforts at analyzing the effects of unions on productivity in the public sector. We first sketch an analytical framework that can be used to estimate these effects, focusing for expository purposes on municipal public libraries. We initially focus on libraries because considerable effort has been devoted to conceptualizing productivity measures for them and because of the availability of data to implement the framework. After discussing the analytical framework, we present preliminary estimtes of the effects of unions on productivity in public libraries based upon analyses of data from 71 municipal libraries in Massachusetts. We …

Unions And Productivity In The Public Sector: A Study Of Municipal Libraries, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Daniel R. Sherman, Joshua L. Schwarz

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

This paper develops and illustrates the use of two methodologies to analyze the effect of unions on productivity in the public sector. Although the methodologies are applicable to a wide variety of public sector functions, the focus of the paper is on municipal libraries because of the availability of relevant data. The empirical analysis, which uses 1977 cross-section data on 260 libraries, suggests that collective bargaining coverage has not significantly affected productivity in municipal libraries.

The Myth Of Equality In The Employment Relation, Aditi Bagchi

All Faculty Scholarship

Although it is widely understood that employers and employees are not equally situated, we fail adequately to account for this inequality in the law governing their relationship. We can best understand this inequality in terms of status, which encompasses one’s level of income, leisure and discretion. For a variety of misguided reasons, contract law has been historically highly resistant to the introduction of status-based principles. Courts have preferred to characterize the unfavorable circumstances that many employees face as the product of unequal bargaining power. But bargaining power disparity does not capture the moral problem raised by inequality in the employment …

Transnational Labor Mobilizing In Two Mexican Maquiladoras: The Struggle For Democratic Globalization, Victoria Carty

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

The struggle to improve workers' rights in Mexican maquiladoras and export processing zones elsewhere in the world is central to the politics of global economic integration. State-centered development is increasingly compromised by supranational institutions and trade agreements. Meanwhile, multinational corporations are relocating at an unprecedented rate to overseas locations. Export processing zones are notorious for poor working conditions and result in a "race to the bottom." The maquila sector in Mexico is a prime example of this phenomenon. This article uses two case studies to examine ways in which grassroots organizing has successfully resisted low wages and poor working conditions …

Teacher Pay And Teacher Quality, Dale Ballou, Michael John Podgursky

Upjohn Press

Ballou and Podgursky offer solid economic analysis on issues surrounding the debate over whether increasing salaries for teachers leads to a more qualified teaching workforce. The authors find little evidence to support the link between increased salaries and teacher quality, then address two questions: (1) What went wrong? and (2) Which reforms are likely to meet with increased success?

Labor Law, Industrial Relations And Employee Choice: The State Of The Workplace In The 1990s: Hearings Of The Commission On The Future Of Worker-Management Relations, 1993-94, Richard N. Block, John Beck, Daniel H. Kruger

Upjohn Press

Block, Beck and Kruger present detailed examples from the testimony given during the Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations (commonly called the Dunlop Commission) national and regional hearings. The Commission, by hearing from a wide range of stakeholders, sought to define the state of industrial relations and labor law in the U.S. during the 1990s. Because the Commission's final reports were concerned with policy matters, they only briefly summarized the testimony. This volume draws deeply from the testimony, citing many examples that clearly illustrate the wide variety of relationships between workers and management today. In addition, it shows how …

Pathways To Change: Case Studies Of Strategic Negotiations, Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Robert B. Mckersie, Richard E. Walton

Upjohn Press

The authors identify and analyze the strategies for change and techniques most often used in today's labor negotiations. Nearly gone, they say, is the traditional "arms length" approach used by negotiators in the past. Instead, modern collective bargaining is characterized mainly by divergent strategies the authors characterize as either "forcing" (highly contentious) or "fostering" (highly cooperative). A dozen detailed case studies from a variety of industries are presented that show when, why and how these strategies are used, by whom, and to what result. These cases clearly demonstrate the use of both forcing and fostering strategies, as well as their …

Labor Unions And The Economic Performance Of Firms, Barry T. Hirsch

Upjohn Press

Hirsch develops a model of union rent-seeking in which the unions capture a share of quasi-rents that make up the normal ROI in long-lived capital and R&D. He finds that in response, firms adjust their investments in vulnerable tangible and intangible capital. Hirsch also attempts to explain the connection between the contraction of the size of unions which occurred in the 1970s and firms' lower profitability, diminished market value, and lower investment levels.

Two-Tier Compensation Structures: Their Impact On Unions, Employers, And Employees, James Martin, Thomas D. Heetderks Collaborator

Upjohn Press

Martin conducted a study at a large company where its various wage tier systems allowed assessment of the long-term impact of tiers. Part of this study included the development of a survey designed to explore eight research questions related to tiers and to test five hypotheses of low-tier v. high-tier employees.

Labor-Management Cooperation: New Partnerships Or Going In Circles?, William N. Cooke

Upjohn Press

Cooke answers important questions about labor-management cooperative efforts and addresses the problems undermining these efforts. His analyses are based on a variety of secondary data sources plus primary data from three nationwide surveys of plant managers, union leaders, and industry executives. Also included are several prescriptions for the success of labor-management cooperative efforts.

Saving Plants And Jobs: Union-Management Negotiations In The Context Of Threatened Plant Closing, Paul F. Gerhart

Upjohn Press

Gerhart uses a case study approach to examine why plants become economically inviable as well as how to prevent this from happening prematurely.

Union Organizing And Public Policy: Failure To Secure First Contracts, William N. Cooke

Upjohn Press

Investigates factors that explain why 25-30 percent of the time unions fail to obtain collective bargaining agreements after winning the right to negotiate.

Worker Participation And American Unions: Threat Or Opportunity, Thomas A. Kochan, Harry Charles Katz, Nancy R. Mower

Upjohn Press

A comprehensive analysis of the effects of QWL and other forms of worker participation on the collective bargaining process.

Union-Management Cooperation: Structure, Process, Impact, Michael H. Schuster

Upjohn Press

Presents the findings of a five-year study of the structure, process and impact of six forms of union-management programs aimed at improving productivity.

Labor-Management Cooperation: The American Experience, Irving Herbert Siegel, Edgar Weinberg

Upjohn Press

Examines a variety of cooperative arrangements and the resulting problems and successes.