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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Articles 1 - 11 of 11
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
What’S Wrong With Police Unions?, Benjamin Levin
What’S Wrong With Police Unions?, Benjamin Levin
Scholarship@WashULaw
In an era of declining labor power, police unions stand as a rare success story for worker organizing—they exert political clout and negotiate favorable terms for their members. Yet, despite broad support for unionization on the political left, police unions have become public enemy number one for academics and activists concerned about race and police violence. Much criticism of police unions focuses on their obstructionist nature and how they prioritize the interests of their members over the interests of the communities they police. These critiques are compelling—police unions shield officers and block oversight. But, taken seriously, they often sound like …
Labor Unions, Solidarity, And Money, Marion G. Crain, Ken Matheny
Labor Unions, Solidarity, And Money, Marion G. Crain, Ken Matheny
Scholarship@WashULaw
For labor, 2018 was a year of highs and lows. A wave of teachers’ strikes in states traditionally hostile to public sector labor unionism and collective bargaining garnered widespread popular support. The passions animated by the strikes were credited with inspiring a range of progressive political shifts, including the rollback of right to work laws in Missouri and new challengers running on education platforms aimed at increasing investment in public education. Less than three months later, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31 invalidating agency fees that public sector unions relied on to cover costs …
Criminal Labor Law, Benjamin Levin
Criminal Labor Law, Benjamin Levin
Scholarship@WashULaw
This Article examines a recent rise in suits brought against unions under criminal statutes. By looking at the long history of criminal regulation of labor, the Article argues that these suits represent an attack on the theoretical underpinnings of post-New Deal U.S. labor law and an attempt to revive a nineteenth century conception of unions as extortionate criminal conspiracies. The Article further argues that this criminal turn is reflective of a broader contemporary preference for finding criminal solutions to social and economic problems. In a moment of political gridlock, parties seeking regulation increasingly do so via criminal statute. In this …
Regulating Sex Work: Assimilationism, Erotic Exceptionalism And The Challenge Of Intimate Labor, Adrienne D. Davis
Regulating Sex Work: Assimilationism, Erotic Exceptionalism And The Challenge Of Intimate Labor, Adrienne D. Davis
Scholarship@WashULaw
Most commentators on sex markets focus on the debate between abolitionists and those who defend and support professional sex work. This paper, instead, looks at debates within the pro-sex work camp, uncovering some unattended tensions and contradictions. It shows that, within this camp, some stress the labor aspect, urging that sex markets perpetuate a “vulnerable population” of workers, similar to others who perform highly risky and/or exploited labor, and should be regulated accordingly. In this view, sex work would be assimilated into other labor. Others, though, take a more anti-regulatory stance. They exceptionalize this form of labor, arguing that because …
Blue-Collar Crime: Conspiracy, Organized Labor, And The Anti-Union Civil Rico Claim, Benjamin Levin
Blue-Collar Crime: Conspiracy, Organized Labor, And The Anti-Union Civil Rico Claim, Benjamin Levin
Scholarship@WashULaw
This Article provides an historically-rooted analysis of a recent spate of civil RICO complaints arising from labor union organizing campaigns. The Article historicizes contemporary civil RICO suits against labor unions by analogizing to nineteenth century conspiracy prosecutions of unions. In tracing this history of organized labor’s social standing, the Article addresses the cultural framing of the union and its place in political and cultural discourse over the past century. The civil RICO complaints have received limited scholarly attention mainly focusing on issues of federal preemption; this Article argues for a broad reading of the cases as a way to understand …
Labor Unions: A Corporatist Institution In A Competitive World, Michael L. Wachter
Labor Unions: A Corporatist Institution In A Competitive World, Michael L. Wachter
All Faculty Scholarship
Union membership, as a percentage of the private sector workforce, has been in decline for 50 years. I argue that the cause of this unrelenting decline is a single, fundamental factor – the change in the United States economy from a corporatist-regulated economy to one based on free competition. Most labor commentators have explained the decline by a confluence of unrelated economic and legal forces. Labor economists typically stress economic explanations, which vary from compositional shifts in the job structure to increased competition both domestically and internationally. On the other hand, labor law commentators naturally focus on labor law explanations, …
Cultural Communities In A Global Labor Market: Immigration Restrictions As Residential Segregation, Howard F. Chang
Cultural Communities In A Global Labor Market: Immigration Restrictions As Residential Segregation, Howard F. Chang
All Faculty Scholarship
Economists recognize that nations can gain from trade through not only the free movement of goods across national boundaries but also the free movement of services, capital, and labor across national boundaries. Despite the presumption that economic theory raises in favor of international labor mobility, the nations of the world maintain restrictions on immigration and show little inclination to liberalize these barriers significantly. Michael Walzer defends immigration restrictions as policies necessary to maintain distinct cultural communities and rejects the alternative of voluntary residential segregation at the local level. I argue that we should instead prefer voluntary segregation at the local …
Immigration And The Workplace: Immigration Restrictions As Employment Discrimination, Howard F. Chang
Immigration And The Workplace: Immigration Restrictions As Employment Discrimination, Howard F. Chang
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Structure Of Labor Relations, Howard Lesnick
Structure Of Labor Relations, Howard Lesnick
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Establishment Of Bargaining Rights Without An Nlrb Election, Howard Lesnick
Establishment Of Bargaining Rights Without An Nlrb Election, Howard Lesnick
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
State-Court Injunctions And The Federal Common Law Of Labor Contracts: Beyond Norris-Laguardia, Howard Lesnick
State-Court Injunctions And The Federal Common Law Of Labor Contracts: Beyond Norris-Laguardia, Howard Lesnick
All Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.