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Full-Text Articles in History

Negotiating For The Environment: Lbj’S Contributions To The Environmental Movement, Nancy M. Germano Oct 2019

Negotiating For The Environment: Lbj’S Contributions To The Environmental Movement, Nancy M. Germano

Nancy M. Germano

No abstract provided.


Automobile Workers Strikes, Ian Greer Sep 2015

Automobile Workers Strikes, Ian Greer

Ian Greer

Automobile workers' strikes occurred in essentially four eras: the lost strikes by the industry's craft unions in the early twentieth century, the dramatic sit-down victories of the 1930s, the mixture of wildcat and authorized strikes during the postwar economic boom from the 1940s through the 1970s, and the decline of strikes that accompanied the policy of "jointness' between company and union after J9S0. Autoworkers' strike strategies reflected, in part, the particular structure of the industry, which took shape in the 1920s. Auto production is a complex process of interdependent operations to produce parts and assemble vehicles, each containing tens of …


Regional Integration And Transnational Politics: Popular Sector Strategies In The Nafta Era, Maria Lorena Cook Sep 2015

Regional Integration And Transnational Politics: Popular Sector Strategies In The Nafta Era, Maria Lorena Cook

Maria Lorena Cook

[Excerpt] This chapter argues that although economic integration between the United States and Mexico had been taking place for some time, it was the formal recognition of this process as represented by the discussions surrounding the North American Free Trade Agreement that facilitated transnational political action by non-state actors. Whereas the globalization of the economy and the prevalence of neoliberal economic policies may be considered by some to undermine popular sector organization and actions, formal recognition of regional economic integration in North America has produced a ‘transnational political’ arena that has expanded the resources available to non-governmental groups, increased their …


War, Labor, And Dissent: Motivations Of American Labor Unions During The First World War, J. Alexander Killion Dec 2014

War, Labor, And Dissent: Motivations Of American Labor Unions During The First World War, J. Alexander Killion

J. Alexander Killion

On April 6, 1917, the United States formally entered the First World War, despite calls for a general strike among socialists and labor leaders to prevent this. There have been many attempts to understand why a coordinated effort by the working class failed to materialize, and this paper explores that topic by examining the relationship between American unions and the government, as well as their reaction to the outbreak of the war. By studying contemporary writings from labor leaders and government officials, as well as legislation such as the Espionage Act of 1917, I can show that several factors went …


“We Will Hold Our Land:” The Cherokee People In Postrevolutionary North America, 1781-1792, Kevin T. Barksdale Aug 2012

“We Will Hold Our Land:” The Cherokee People In Postrevolutionary North America, 1781-1792, Kevin T. Barksdale

Kevin T. Barksdale

In June of 1783, Spain’s newly-appointed Governor of Louisiana Estevan Miro convened a conference of southeastern Indians in Pensacola with representatives from the dominant regional Amerindian groups, including the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creeks in attendance. Among the attendees at the West Florida congress was a small contingent of Chickamauga Cherokee, led by their principal chief Dragging Canoe. During the parlay, Governor Miro implored the Indians to “not be afraid of the Americans,” promised to provide guns and ammunition in their ongoing efforts to prevent the further loss of their lands, and urged them to “continue to fight against American” westerners.


Appalachia’S Borderland Brokers: The Intersection Of Kinship, Diplomacy, And Trade On The Trans-Montane Backcountry, 1600-1800, Kevin T. Barksdale Aug 2012

Appalachia’S Borderland Brokers: The Intersection Of Kinship, Diplomacy, And Trade On The Trans-Montane Backcountry, 1600-1800, Kevin T. Barksdale

Kevin T. Barksdale

This paper and accompanying historical argument builds upon the presentation I made at last year’s Ohio Valley History Conference held at Western Kentucky University. In that presentation, I argued that preindustrial Appalachia was a complex and dynamic borderland region in which disparate Amerindian groups and Euroamericans engaged in a wide-range of cultural, political, economic, and familial interactions. I challenged the Turnerian frontier model that characterized the North American backcountry as a steadily retreating “fall line” separating the savagery of Amerindian existence and the epidemic civility of Anglo-America. On the Turnerian frontier, Anglo-American culture washed over the Appalachian and Native American …


“Facing East” From Iberian America: Postrevolutionary Spanish Policies In The Southwestern Backcountry, 1783-1792, Kevin T. Barksdale Aug 2012

“Facing East” From Iberian America: Postrevolutionary Spanish Policies In The Southwestern Backcountry, 1783-1792, Kevin T. Barksdale

Kevin T. Barksdale

Following the American Revolution, the new United States government and its citizenry greedily cast their eyes westward across the expansive trans-Appalachian frontier. The contest between the region’s native peoples, Anglo-American westerners, and Spanish colonists for the trans-Appalachian West began long before the first shots of the Revolution were fired at Lexington & Concord. From the near perpetual regional Indian warfare to the diplomatic maneuverings of Euroamerican backcountry leaders, the struggle to control the land the Indians called the “western waters” defined borderland relations for most of the 18th century. Historians have devoted a great deal of scholarly energy to chronicling …


Gerechtigkeit Ohne Gewerkschaft Und Betriebsrat? Konfliktschlichtung In Gewerkschaftsfreien Betrieben In Den Usa, Alexander Colvin Jun 2012

Gerechtigkeit Ohne Gewerkschaft Und Betriebsrat? Konfliktschlichtung In Gewerkschaftsfreien Betrieben In Den Usa, Alexander Colvin

Alexander Colvin

Zu den Faktoren, die in jüngster Zeit in mehreren Ländern – insbesondere in den USA – zu einem Rückgang der Mitgliederzahlen der Gewerkschaften geführt haben, zählen Strategien des Human Resource Managements wie „nonunion arbitration“ (gewerkschaftsfreies Schiedsverfahren“. Arbeitgeber in nicht tarif- und gewerkschaftsgebundenen Betrieben führen solche „neuen Verfahren der Konfliktschlichtung“ (NVK) mit dem Ziel ein, einen Teilersatz für die gewerkschaftliche Interessenvertretung zu gewähren. Sie stellen eine besondere Herausforderung für die Gewerkschaften dar und machen die Anpassung ihrer Interessenvertretungsstrategien erforderlich. Zwei alternative Handlungsmöglichkeiten bieten sich an. Eine Möglichkeit besteht darin , solche NVK einfach mit dem Argument abzulehnen, dass es sich um …


Das Amerikanische Arbeitsrecht Aus Der Perspektive Historischer Und Zukünftiger Entwicklungen, Alexander Colvin, Katherine V. W. Stone Jun 2012

Das Amerikanische Arbeitsrecht Aus Der Perspektive Historischer Und Zukünftiger Entwicklungen, Alexander Colvin, Katherine V. W. Stone

Alexander Colvin

In den vergangenen 15 Jahren ließen sich im amerikanischen Kollektiv- und Individualarbeitsrecht sowohl eine Fortsetzung der früheren Trends als auch die Entstehung neuer Themenfelder beobachten.Das System des kollektiven Arbeitsrechts, das die gewerkschaftliche Interessenvertretung und die Beziehungen zwischen den Beschäftigten und dem Management regelt, hat sich in seiner grundlegenden, auf die Zeit der Great Depression und die Jahre unmittelbar nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg zurückgehenden Rechtsstruktur kaum verändert. Das amerikanische Individualarbeitsrecht hat dagegen mit der Einführung zusätzlicher individueller Arbeitnehmerrechte eine beträchtliche Dynamik entwickelt. Die Veränderungen in der Arbeitsorganisation und die Entwicklung neuer Formen von Arbeitsverträgen bedeuten eine zusätzliche Herausforderung für die traditionelle …


[Review Of The Book Interwar Unemployment In International Perspective], George R. Boyer Jan 2012

[Review Of The Book Interwar Unemployment In International Perspective], George R. Boyer

George R. Boyer

[Excerpt] The book redresses two imbalances in the recent literature on interwar unemployment: its almost exclusive focus on the United States and Britain, and its predominantly macroeconomic nature. To achieve these goals, the editors encouraged the authors of the country studies to address a set of microeconomic issues, including the extent to which the incidence and duration of unemployment varied across economic and demographic groups, and the effect of unemployment on labor force participation and poverty. Two macroeconomic issues also are addressed in several of the papers: the effects of real wages and of unemployment insurance on unemployment. These two …


Beyond The Organizing Model: The Transformation Process In Local Unions, Bill Fletcher, Richard W. Hurd Sep 2010

Beyond The Organizing Model: The Transformation Process In Local Unions, Bill Fletcher, Richard W. Hurd

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] The ideological foundations of traditional U.S. trade unionism have been called into question by world and domestic events. The post-World War II labor movement, founded on a social truce with capital and the apparent inevitability of a rising living standard, has hit a bulkhead-piercing iceberg of dramatic proportions. The global economy, economic restructuring, deregulation, and privatization have wrought destruction on U.S. unions. In the wake of this devastation, it has become common, even for union leaders, to define unionism in objectively negative terms (e.g., without a union, you have no protection from arbitrary management). As a movement, we have …


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 …


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, …


Bottom-Up Organizing In The Trades: An Interview With Mike Lucas, Ibew Director Of Organizing, Jeff Grabelsky Jan 2008

Bottom-Up Organizing In The Trades: An Interview With Mike Lucas, Ibew Director Of Organizing, Jeff Grabelsky

Jeffrey Grabelsky

[Excerpt] Like the bottom-up organizers who built the IBEW 100 years ago by traveling from city to city, working at their trade and preaching the union creed, Lucas has been around the block. From Florida to Oklahoma, Indiana to Tennessee, he worked from 1954 to 1959 as a member of the Laborers and Teamsters unions. He began his organizing career in the utility construction industry, and first volunteered his talents to the IBEW in 1960 by organizing the manufacturing workers at a new Studebaker plant in Bloomington, Indiana, which he had recently helped build as a union electrician. He served …