Labor Relations Commons^™

Some Reflections On The Question Of ‘Finality’ In Irish Industrial Relations Disputes, Brian Sheehan

Irish Business Journal

Trade unions in the private sector and the commercial semi-states have rejected voluntarist Labour Court recommendations in the industrial relations arena in a significant number of high-profile cases in recent times. Conversely, in parts of the public sector, there has been a move towards the adoption of binding dispute resolution systems. Brian Sheehan suggests that respect for the state’s dispute resolution agencies and need for expertise and experience in dispute management is as great as ever.

Convergence In Industrial Relations Institutions: The Emerging Anglo-American Model?, Alexander Colvin, Owen Darbishire

Alexander Colvin

At the outset of the Thatcher/Reagan era, the employment and labor law systems across six Anglo- American countries could be divided into three pairings: the Wagner Act model of the United States and Canada; the Voluntarist system of collective bargaining and strong unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland; and the highly centralized, legalistic Award systems of Australia and New Zealand. The authors argue that there has been growing convergence in two major areas: First, of labor law toward a private ordering of employment relations in which terms and conditions of work and employment are primarily determined at the level …

The Emerging Anglo-American Model: Convergence In Industrial Relations Institutions?, Alexander Colvin, Owen R. Darbishire

Alexander Colvin

The Thatcher and Reagan administrations led a shift towards more market oriented regulation of economies in the Anglo-American countries, including efforts to reduce the power of organized labor. In this paper, we examine the development of employment and labor law in six Anglo-American countries (the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand) from the Thatcher/Reagan era to the present. At the outset of the Thatcher/Reagan era, the employment and labor law systems in these countries could be divided into three pairings: the Wagner Act model based industrial relations systems of the United States and Canada; the voluntarist system …

Unions, Markets, And Democracy In Latin America, Maria Lorena Cook

Maria Lorena Cook

[Excerpt] In the 1990s scholars of Latin America moved from a concern with democratization to a focus on the implementation of market economic reforms. With this shift, the appreciation of labor unions' value to society was lost. Whereas earlier analyses of democratic transitions recognized organized labor's important role in bringing an end to dictatorships, later studies of market reform viewed labor organizations as either obstacles to be overcome, "losers" to be compensated, or simply irrelevant.

Perhaps more important than scholarship's neglect of labor unions is the neglect that is reflected in policies toward labor in the region. Economic and labor …

The Conflict Over Conflict Management, David B. Lipsky, Ariel C. Avgar

David B Lipsky

[Excerpt] In this article we look at the traditional approach to workplace conflict, the evolution of conflict management, criticism of this process by progressive and traditional critics, and then consider whether they can be reconciled by taking what we call a strategic view of conflict management in the workplace. This view calls for an alignment between the goals of the conflict management system and the overarching nature of the organization in which that system is implemented. The management of conflict, according to this approach, should complement the organization’s strategic posture and existing structures. We maintain that the level of fit …

Strikers And Subsidies: The Influence Of Government Transfer Programs On Strike Activity, Robert M. Hutchens, David B. Lipsky, Robert N. Stern

David B Lipsky

The authors assess laws governing striker eligibility for government transfers, finding evidence linking UI payments to strike activity.

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 …

[Review Of The Book Values And Assumptions In American Labor Law], Nick Salvatore

Nick Salvatore

[Excerpt] Reading this book it is difficult not to think that the intent of the author was less to understand the origins and developments of the values and assumptions that gild the practice of labor law than it was to 'prove' that labor law in America is really capitalist law and thus it invalidates itself. This is not only circular reasoning, but it is unfortunate as well. For there is another book to be written that would analyze these questions through a serious and sustained reading in the history of industrial relations and then apply that knowledge to specific case …

Adoption And Use Of Dispute Resolution Procedures In The Nonunion Workplace, Alexander Colvin

Alexander Colvin

[Excerpt] This paper investigates the adoption, structure, and function of dispute resolution procedures in the nonunion workplace. Whereas grievance procedures in unionized workplaces have been an important area of study in the field of industrial relations, research on dispute resolution procedures in nonunion workplaces has lagged behind. As a result, our knowledge of the development of nonunion procedures remains relatively limited. Similarly, with a few noteworthy exceptions (e.g. Lewin, 1987, 1990), our knowledge of workplace grievance activity is almost entirely based on research conducted in unionized settings. Given the major differences in the institutional contexts of union and nonunion workplaces …

[Review Of The Book Unions And Workplace Change In Canada], Alexander Colvin

Alexander Colvin

[Excerpt] Some leading unions in Canada are notable for the diversity of their responses to workplace change. These unions' policies and strategies, which range from the Steelworkers' (USWA) bold experiment in employee ownership and co-determination at Algoma Steel to the Autoworkers' (CAW) activist response to the pressures of the Japanese production and management systems at the CAMI auto plant, have produced significant variation in change processes and outcomes. This range of activity by Canadian unions in response to workplace change provides a fertile area for study by industrial relations researchers, as well as important challenges for policy makers and practitioners …

Employee Voice, Human Resource Practices, And Quit Rates: Evidence From The Telecommunications Industry, Rosemary Batt, Alexander J.S. Colvin, Jeffrey Keefe

Alexander Colvin

The authors draw on strategic human resource and industrial relations theories to identify the sets of employee voice mechanisms and human resource practices that are likely to predict firm-level quit rates, then empirically evaluate the predictive power of these variables using data from a 1998 establishment level survey in the telecommunications industry. With respect to alternative voice mechanisms, they find that union representation predicts lower quit rates, even after they control for compensation and a wide range of other human resource practices that may be affected by collective bargaining. Also predicting lower quit rates is employee participation in offline problem-solving …

[Review Of The Book Advancing Theory In Labour Law And Industrial Relations In A Global Context], Lance A. Compa

Lance A Compa

[Excerpt] The ideas and insights in Advancing Theory are an important contribution to the on-the-ground social justice movement challenging corporate rule in the global economy. It can even help rescue labor law and industrial relations as intellectual disciplines and career trajectories for a new generation of students and practitioners excited about thinking globally and acting locally.

International Labor Rights And The Sovereignty Question: Nafta And Guatemala, Two Case Studies, Lance A. Compa

Lance A Compa

[Excerpt] Labor rights advocates in the United States and allied organizations abroad attempting to establish international fair labor standards run up against traditional notions of sovereignty in formulating national labor policies and development strategies. In the same way that entrenched sovereignty principles gradually yielded to international human rights claims after World War E, sovereignty is now being challenged by claims of international laborrights in the field of employment standards and industrial relations. This Article seeks to illuminate this challenge to sovereignty in two case studies of labor rights advocacy. Part I sets the stage with an overview of the growing …

Nation, Corporation Or Family? Tribal Casino Employment And The Transformation Of Tribes, Theodor Gordon

Occasional Papers

Since its modest beginnings in the early 1980s, tribal gaming rapidly developed into a $25 billion industry that generates over a quarter million jobs. However, the increasing employment of non-Indians in tribal casinos prompts new cultural and political challenges. This paper analyzes tribal and commercial casino trade publications in order to demonstrate how tribal casino employee relations play a significant role in transforming public policy and perceptions of tribal government in the United States.

Workplace Justice Without Unions, Hoyt N. Wheeler, Brian S. Klaas, Douglas M. Mahony

Upjohn Press

Wheeler, Klaas, and Mahony provide a thorough analysis of organizational justice systems by exploring nonunion systems of workplace justice and comparing them with the union system, American courts, and systems in 11 other countries.

Bargaining For Competitiveness: Law, Research, And Case Studies, Richard N. Block Editor

Upjohn Press

This book offers an analysis of the relationship among collective bargaining, firm competitiveness, and employment protections and creation in the United States. The contributors provide an overview of the legal framework and the economic and industrial relations research on collective bargaining, competitiveness, and employment, then follow with four case studies that provide insights into the process of collective bargaining and its current status in the evolving U.S. labor-management system.

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 …

Economic Restructuring And Emerging Patterns Of Industrial Relations, Stephen R. Sleigh Editor

Upjohn Press

This book's essays analyze innovative responses by unions, corporations and governments to job loss caused by economic restructuring, drawing on examples from Western Europe and the U.S.

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.

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.

The New Fordism In Canada: Capital's Offensive, Labour's Opportunity, Daniel Drache, Harry J. Glasbeek

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The breakdown in the links of mass production and mass consumption poses problems throughout the advanced industrial world. In each nation-state the ensuing struggles will take different forms. In postwar Canada, the link between mass consumption and mass production did not lead to the same kind of trade union participation in decision-making as it did in much of Europe. Workers were unable to establish embedded rights of worker participation. What was known as the fordist model in Europe did not have deep roots in Canada. Canadian workers are now being attacked by employers whose bargaining powers were never seriously blunted, …

Strikers And Subsidies: The Influence Of Government Transfer Programs On Strike Activity, Robert M. Hutchens, David B. Lipsky, Robert N. Stern

Upjohn Press

The authors assess laws governing striker eligibility for government transfers, finding evidence linking UI payments to strike activity.

Organized Labor At The Crossroads, Wei-Chiao Huang Editor

Upjohn Press

This group of essays offers a detailed look at the problems, choices and future of industrial relations.

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.