Labor Relations Commons^™

Women In The Workforce: An In-Depth Analysis Of Gender Roles And Compensation Inequity In The Modern Workplace, Rebecca L. Ziman

Honors Theses and Capstones

This paper explores the increase in participation and education of American women in the workforce with a special focus on women in business and accounting roles. The paper then goes on to discuss the wage gap between genders, how to remedy inequality in the workplace, and highlights several reasons why pursing a solution to gender inequality is beneficial for both the employee and the company.

Building Labor’S Power In California: Raising Standards And Expanding Capacity Among Central Labor Councils, The State Labor Federation, And Union Affiliates, Jeffrey Grabelsky

Jeffrey Grabelsky

[Excerpt] For several years, the California Labor Federation has been engaged in a strategic planning process that began with a critical evaluation of a political setback in 2004 – losing an important statewide ballot initiative – and soon evolved into a systematic effort to elevate the performance of all the labor movement’s constituent parts. Spearheaded by a statewide Strategic Planning Committee, union leaders throughout the state have struggled to overcome organizational weaknesses, to develop a common and coherent program, to articulate standards and benchmarks to guide and track progress, to establish systems of accountability uncommon in the contemporary labor movement, …

The Great Regression’S Impact On Construction Training Programs: Multi-Level Analyses Of Recruiting & Retention Concepts, John S. Gaal Edd

Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development

The intent of this practitioner-based research study is to determine if there is a difference in the attitudes of construction industry professionals—at local and international levels—towards various training-related recruiting and retention concepts. In light of the global economic malaise, training programs are being held to higher standards and, thusly, different metrics than in the past. In today’s environment, outcomes-based designs (versus outputs-based) have gained attention from both private and public funders of such training programs. Thusly, programs must adapt to the needs of the industry rather than rely on outdated materials and methods. To this end, a survey was designed …

2013-09-09 Meeting Minutes, Morehead State University. Staff Congress.

Staff Congress Records

Staff Congress meeting minutes for September 9, 2013.

2013-09-09 Newsletter, Morehead State University. Staff Congress.

Staff Congress Records

Staff Congress newsletter for September 9, 2013.

Public Sector Unions: Will They Thrive Or Struggle To Survive?, Richard W. Hurd, Sharon Pinnock

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] There is emerging consensus among public sector union leaders at the national level1 that the threats they face today are eerily similar to those ignored by private sector unions 20 years ago. Privatization, reinventing government, a changing public sector work force, anti-government forces on Capitol Hill and in statehouses, union myopia, and member apathy all are taken with the utmost seriousness. The situation calls for a sophisticated strategic response. Because they are operating from a position of relative strength, public sector unions must be at the forefront of any effort to re-establish union influence in our society. With this …

Beyond Labor's Brawl: Strategic Conundrums Await, Richard W. Hurd

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] The stark reality of the continuing decline of U.S. unions has precipitated an intense feud among labor's leaders, with thoughtful progressives lined up on opposite sides of the schism. It seems increasingly likely that the movement as we know it will disintegrate. What remains uncertain is whether this period of crisis and confusion can provide space for the type of radical innovation that is necessary to propel issues of voice, justice, and equality to the forefront of the nation's consciousness. Readers of Social Policy know well the contentious issues — top-down restructuring versus bottom-up mobilization for change, a coordinated …

Government Oversight, Union Democracy, And Labor Racketeering: Lessons From The Teamsters Experience, Michael H. Belzer, Richard W. Hurd

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] In this paper we examine the federal courts' effort to clean up the Teamsters using legislation originally enacted to fight organized crime. Specifically, we look at the role of electoral democracy in this initiative and trace the experience through the 1991, 1996, and 1998 elections for Teamsters president. Once the story is told, we analyze the experience in the context of union democracy and also consider the relationship between democracy and labor movement transformation.

Reviving The American Labor Movement: Institutions And Mobilization, Richard W. Hurd, Ruth Milkman, Lowell Turner

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] The reawakening of the American labor movement under new leadership with new strategic orientations is a remarkable chapter in late 20thcentury American economic and political history. Given up for dead by so many at home and abroad, under relentless attack from American employers and with government supports disappearing, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFLCIO) and a core of key member unions have re-emerged since the mid-1990s as prominent workplace, community and political actors. With both strategic reorientation and new local mobilization, these unions have fought to reverse decline and re-energize the movement. While the …

U.S. Labor 2006: Strategic Developments Across The Divide, Richard Hurd

Richard W Hurd

The AFL-CIO and Change to Win have learned to co-exist without debilitating acrimony. The AFL-CIO has established Industry Coordinating Committees to facilitate cooperative bargaining and organizing ventures. On the political front, the AFL-CIO took the lead in labor’s 2006 electoral operations and conducted an extensive, efficient, and unified campaign. Change to Win unions worked together to build strategies for a growth agenda. The success of UNITE-HERE’s Hotel Workers Rising Campaign indicates the potential of this approach. Difficult challenges remain, but the strategic developments show signs of life and offer hope that labor may find a path to the future.

Professional Employees And Union Democracy: From Control To Chaos, Richard W. Hurd

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] Much of the research on union democracy and almost all of the press coverage focuses on abuses of power at the top of the organization. I look at a case at the opposite end of the democracy spectrum. After an insurgent challenge to an established executive director toppled him from power, the chaos of democracy was unleashed in this small union of professional workers. The turmoil experienced by this organization for most of the past decade demonstrates that the democracy dilemma in unions cannot be successfully resolved by effective use of the democratic process alone and raises tentative questions …

The Dialectics Of Staff Unionism And University Management; Critical Discourse For Effective Educational Service Delivery, Olukunle Saheed Oludeyi, Adebayo Olatunde Akinsanya

Olukunle Saheed, OLUDEYI

This paper was poised by the lingering lamentations about the acute fall in standard of education and rapid knowledge declination among Nigerians today. The problem has become so intense that Nigerian ivory towers are now accused of producing ill-prepared and unemployable graduates who seriously lack the skills and competencies needed to positively assist the nation in its quest for growth and development. Unfortunately apart from poor university management, suspicious and insincere, if not selfish relationship between leadership of staff unions and leadership of university management is another factor impeding adequate and effective educational service delivery in Nigeria today. With pluralist …

The Impact Of Unionization On University Performance: A Cross-Sectional Time Series Analysis, Mark K. Cassell

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

In 1968 the union movement in higher education was launched on the CUNY campuses in New York when CUNY held the first academic labor union election on an “integrated, heterogeneous, multi-campus system” (Ladd and Lipset 1973). In the nearly five decades since that historic election, unionization has grown to cover more than a third of all public four-year institutions and 40 percent of faculty at those public institutions (see Figure 1). While unionization is more common at larger institutions, Figure 1 illustrates that even among the smallest public institutions, unionization has increased over time.

A Km-Based Strategic, Global Current Awareness Service, Stuart Basefsky

Stuart Basefsky

This presentation focuses on a global current awareness service designed to meet the knowledge needs of the institution from which it originates. In so doing, it also meets the needs of journalists, researchers, faculty, students, professional practitioners, and policymakers concerned with the same issues globally. It provides the institutional links between partnering institutions that sustain the relationships for the future. This serves as a model for how libraries can become supporting pillars of their organizations by tapping into and meeting KM needs.

Labor Force Migration, Unemployment And Job Turnover, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] In this paper, we show how labor turnover considerations can be integrated into the human investment theory of migration and demonstrate that such a model provides a much better explanation for migration rates into major metropolitan areas than the conventionally-used unemployment rate. The method used here may be of interest as well to researchers working on other human investment problems that also have a multi-period dimension.

2013-08-05 Meeting Minutes, Morehead State University. Staff Congress.

Staff Congress Records

Staff Congress meeting minutes for August 5, 2013.

2013-08-05 Newsletter, Morehead State University. Staff Congress.

Staff Congress Records

Staff Congress meeting minutes for August 5, 2013.

Do Mlb Hitters Boost Performance In Their Contract Year?, Heather M. O'Neill

Business and Economics Faculty Publications

This study focuses on 256 MLB free agent hitters playing under the 2006-2011 CBA to determine whether they boost their offensive performance in their contract year. Prior studies’ results are mixed, depending on the econometric technique used and the choice of the offensive performance measure.

Having multiple year observations per player, one can incorporate the unobserved traits of the players (ability, risk aversion, work ethic, etc.) by using Fixed Effects (FE) estimation. Since these unmeasured player traits are likely to be correlated with observed predictors of performance (games played, playoff contention, age, etc.), traditionally used Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and …

Do Major League Baseball Hitters Engage In Opportunistic Behavior?, Heather M. O'Neill

Business and Economics Faculty Publications

This study focuses on 256 Major League Baseball free agent hitters playing under the 2006–2011 collective bargaining agreement to determine whether players engage in opportunistic behavior in their contract year, i.e., the last year of their current guaranteed contracts. Past studies of professional baseball yield conflicting results depending on the econometric technique applied and choice of performance measure. When testing whether players’ offensive performances increase during their contract year, the omitted variable bias associated with OLS and pooled OLS estimation leads to contrary results compared to fixed effects modeling. Fixed effects regression results suggest players increase their offensive performance subject …

Voice Without Say: Why Capital-Managed Firms Aren’T (Genuinely) Participatory, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

Why are most capitalist enterprises of any size organized as authoritarian bureaucracies rather than incorporating genuine employee participation that would give the workers real authority? Even firms with employee participation programs leave virtually all decision-making power in the hands of management. The standard answer is that hierarchy is more economically efficient than any sort of genuine participation, so that participatory firms would be less productive and lose out to more traditional competitors. This answer is indefensible. After surveying the history, legal status, and varieties of employee participation, I examine and reject as question-begging the argument that the rarity of genuine …

Three Essays In Labor Economics, Benjamin Jack Van Kammen

Theses and Dissertations

There are three chapters in this dissertation, each of which consists of a journal-length article. They are on the following subjects.

The first chapter uses ordinances in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. to measure the effects of mandated paid sick leave on employment and wages. Using the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, an employment increase is observed in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. relative to places without an ordinance. This evidence suggests that sick leave mandates correct a market failure of under-provision of benefits.

The second chapter uses a novel measure of distance based on the O*Net Content Model …

After Bangladesh, Labor Unions Can Save Lives, Lance A. Compa

Lance A Compa

[Excerpt] The factory collapse in Bangladesh that killed more than 1,100 workers should be a pivot point for the global apparel industry, moving consumers to demand more accountability from brand-name companies that subcontract production to supply-chain factories around the world. Sadly, the history of workplace tragedies in so many of these factories suggests that after consumers in rich countries express horror and call for reforms, the demands for better worker protections die down and the marketplace for cheap apparel abides. But this cycle can finally be broken if demands for change start to focus on workers’ right to form trade …

Conclusion: Looking To The Future, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] A number of important themes emerge from the chapters in Governing Academia. First, decentralization gives individual units—be they university campuses within a state system, colleges within a university, or departments within a college—an incentive to act in their own best interests, but less of an incentive to work toward the common good. As Heller points out, at the level of a state system, decentralization of control may lead to wasteful overlap between campuses. As Wilson shows, decentralized budgeting in the form of responsibility center management models may cause units not to maximize the quality of the education they are …

Evaluation Research And National Social Policy: An Academic Practitioner's Perspective, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] Society has limited resources and many competing uses for them. I therefore take it as being an almost obvious proposition that at any point in time policy makers should strive to maximize the social benefits produced by the available funds they have to spend. This proposition implies that evaluation research should be undertaken either by or for government agencies. Policy makers need to know what benefits are being produced by each social program and the resource costs involved. They need to know which aspects of which programs are working and which programs need to be replaced.

Dead-End Jobs And Youth Unemployment: Comment, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] Charles Brown has very ambitiously attempted to analyze whether the existence of "dead-end jobs" contributes to the youth unemployment problem. He assumes that the average rate of wage growth of individuals initially employed in an occupation and the proportion of these individuals who remain employed in the same industry for five years are both inversely related to the probability that individuals initially employed in the occupation find themselves in dead end-jobs. His basic methodological approach involves using data from the 1/100 sample of the 1970 Census of Population to calculate both of these variables for each three-digit occupation, merging …

Who Pays For Pensions In The State And Local Sector: Workers Or Employers?, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Robert S. Smith

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] In 1974 Congress passed the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). This complex piece of legislation, which applies only to private-sector pension plans, contains several provisions which tend to increase employers' costs of providing pensions. These include liberalized vesting rules, stringent funding requirements, and increased fiduciary responsibility and accountability. The analysis in this paper will focus on the likely effect of these provisions if they are applied to state and local government employee retirement systems. Although a public-sector variant of ERISA has yet to be passed, public employee retirement systems have recently become subject to scrutiny by various governmental …

Work Injuries And Wage Losses For Partially Disabled California Workers: Discussion, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] Wayne Vroman's paper is a modest preliminary report, which is derived from an ongoing research project concerned with permanent partial disabilities and workers' compensation. The larger project will develop and implement methods for projecting postinjury earnings losses, compare actual compensation measures to these projected losses, and draw conclusions as to the adequacy and equity of workers' compensation benefits. One cannot question the usefulness of the larger project and the profession should be indebted to Vroman and his collaborators for undertaking it. One should stress, however, that the key to the success of the project will lie in their ability …

Introduction To The Book Governing Academia, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] During recent decades tuition for undergraduate students has risen at rates substantially higher than the rate of inflation at both public and private colleges and universities in the United States. These high rates of tuition increases led Congress to establish the National Commission on the Costs of Higher Education in 1997 to conduct a comprehensive review of college costs and prices and to make recommendations on how to hold tuition increases down. Parents of college students, taxpayers, and government officials all wanted to know why academic institutions can't behave more like businesses—cut their costs, increase their efficiency, and thus …

Labor Market Data Needs Relating To Antidiscrimination Activity: Comment, Ronald Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] Barbara Bergmann's background paper divides data needs in the antidiscrimination area into data that would be useful in the formulation of national policy and data that would be useful as an aid in enforcing the laws and executive orders against discrimination. Although the former are likely to be of greatest concern to the commission, she has performed a valuable service by discussing these interrelated needs in one place. I find much to agree with, and very little to disagree with or question, in her paper. The presentation is, in the main, an objective one and she tempers her desire …

Collective Bargaining In American Higher Education, Ronald G. Ehrenberg, Daniel B. Klaff, Adam T. Kezbom, Matthew P. Nagowski

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] No discussion of governance in higher education would be complete without a consideration of the role of collective bargaining. Historically, most researchers interested in the subject have directed their attention to the unionization of faculty members. Given several recent decisions by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that leave open the possibility that unionization of faculty in private colleges and universities may increase in the future, we discuss collective bargaining for faculty in the first section (Leatherman 2000, A16). Recently, however, attention has been also directed at the unionization of two other groups in the higher education workforce. Activists …