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International Labor Standards And Decent Work: Perspectives From The Developing World, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

[Excerpt] It is a very positive development that the world community has now reached agreement on four core labor standards, described further below. The moral force of this agreement will help slow and possibly even reverse the infamous "race to the bottom"—for example, child labor in the carpet industries of India undermining Nepal's efforts to keep its carpet industry free of child labor (Hensman, 2000). Ironically, some of the loudest and most strident voices against international labor standards come from the poorest parts of the world. My thesis in this chapter is that while some of the arguments being voiced …

Two-Tiered Faculty Systems And Organizational Outcomes, Pamela S. Tolbert

Pamela S Tolbert

[Excerpt] In this chapter, I present a case study of a department at a large research university in which the use of non-tenured faculty increased dramatically over three decades. I begin by examining the historical sources of the expansion. I describe the arrangements that were implemented to resolve these problems. These arrangements exemplify many of the “best management practices” for non-tenure-track faculty mentioned earlier. Based on discussions with non-tenure-track and tenure-track department members and university administrators, I assess the effectiveness of these employment arrangements in resolving problems and the general consequences for the department of having a large contingent of …

Men's And Women's Definitions Of "Good" Jobs: Similarities And Differences By Age And Across Time, Pamela S. Tolbert, Phyllis Moen

Pamela S Tolbert

Whether and to what extent men and women hold differing preferences for particular job attributes remains the subject of debate, with a sizable number of empirical studies producing conflicting results. These conflicts may have temporal sources—historical changes in men's and women's preferences for particular job attributes, as well as changes in preferences that commonly occur over individuals' life cycle. Most previous research has neglected the effects of time on gender differences. Using data from national surveys of workers over a 22-year period, this study focuses explicitly on changes by age over time in men's and women's preferences for five key …

Group Gender Composition And Work Group Relations: Theories, Evidence, And Issues, Pamela Tolbert, Mary Graham, Alice Andrews

Pamela S Tolbert

[Excerpt] Prior to the publication of Kanter's seminal Men and Women of the Corporation in 1977, the field of organizational studies exhibited a striking degree of oblivion to the effect of gender relations on work group dynamics. This neglect may have been due, in part, to the relatively small proportion of women in the labor force in the first half of the 20th century, as well as to high levels of occupational and job segregation, which helped conceal the influence of group gender composition on individual and group behavior. In the postwar years, however, women's rate of entry into the …

A Moral Contractual Approach To Labor Law Reform: A Template For Using Ethical Principles To Regulate Behavior Where Law Failed To Do So Effectively, Zev J. Eigen, David S. Sherwyn

Faculty Working Papers

If laws cease to work as they should or as intended, legislators and scholars propose new laws to replace or amend them. This paper posits an alternative—offering regulated parties the opportunity to contractually bind themselves to behave ethically. The perfect test-case for this proposal is labor law, because (1) labor law has not been amended for decades, (2) proposals to amend it have failed for political reasons, and are focused on union election win rates, and less on the election process itself, (3) it is an area of law already statutorily regulating parties' reciprocal contractual obligations, and (4) moral means …

A Welfare Economic Analysis Of Labor Market Policies In The Harris-Todaro Model, Gary S. Fields

Gary S Fields

This paper presents a welfare economic analysis of the benefits of various labor market policies in the Harris-Todaro labor market model. The policies considered are a policy of modern sector job creation, which I call modern sector enlargement (MSENL); a policy of rural development, which I call traditional sector enrichment (TSENR); and a policy of wage limitation in the urban economy, which I call modern sector wage restraint (MSWR). First, I analyze the inequality effects of these policies. I then perform two welfare economic analyses, the first based on summary measures of labor market conditions (total labor earnings, unemployment, inequality …

Standing At A Crossroads: The Building Trades In The Twenty-First Century, Mark Erlich, Jeffrey Grabelsky

Jeffrey Grabelsky

American building trades unions have historically played a critical and stabilizing role in the nation’s construction industry, establishing uniform standards and leveling the competitive playing field. Union members have enjoyed better than average wages and benefits, excellent training opportunities, and decent jobsite conditions. But in the last thirty years the industry has undergone a dramatic transformation. This article describes the decline in union density, the drop in construction wages, the growth of anti-union forces, the changes in labor force demographics, the shift toward construction management, and the emergence of an underground economy. It also analyzes how building trades unions have …

The Impact Of An Urban Wal-Mart Store On Area Businesses: An Evaluation Of One Chicago Neighborhood's Experience, Center For Urban Research And Learning, Julie Davis, David Merriman, Lucia Samayoa, Brian Flanagan, Ron Baiman, Joseph Persky

Center for Urban Research and Learning: Publications and Other Works

Having achieved nearly complete coverage of non-urban and suburban markets, mega-retailer Wal-Mart has turned its attention to urban expansion. Evaluations of Wal-Mart’s impact on urban retail businesses and local employment are necessary to inform policy makers, scholars, and community activists looking to improve economic opportunities for inner-city residents. This study focuses on the Wal-Mart store that opened on the West Side of Chicago in September 2006.

The Company They Keep: Founders' Models For Organizing New Firms, M. Diane Burton

M. Diane Burton

[Excerpt] This chapter examines the employment models founders use as they begin to construct new firms. The empirical setting is a sample of emerging technology firms in Silicon Valley. This chapter focuses on two questions: (1) Why are new firms founded under different conceptual models? and (2) What are the factors that lead a founding team to espouse a particular employment model?

Employment In Construction And Distribution Industries: The Impact Of The New Jobs Tax Credit, John H. Bishop

John H Bishop

Excerpt] The New Jobs Tax Credit (NJTC) offers a tax credit of fifty percent of the first $4200 of wages per employee for increases in employment of more than two percent over the previous year. Economic theory predicts that such a tax credit should stimulate employment, decrease hours worked per week, and reduce product prices of the subsidized industries. A time series analysis of the construction, retailing, and wholesaling industries finds strong support for these hypotheses. Our results suggest that the NJTC was responsible for 150,000-670,000 of the more than 1-million increase in employment that occurred between mid-1977 and mid-1978 …

Capital Mobility And Job Loss: Corporate Restructuring, Production Shifts, And Outsourcing, Stephanie Luce, Kate Bronfenbrenner

Kate Bronfenbrenner

[Excerpt] This chapter examines the impact of corporate restructuring and global outsourcing on employment in the Commonwealth and the shifts in production from workplaces in Massachusetts to other countries. In particular we focus on global outsourcing, the shifting of work from Massachusetts offshore to countries in Europe and Asia, and nearshore to Canada and countries in Latin America. Given the huge media attention that outsourcing and nearshoring have garnered, and the increasing trend they represent toward corporate restructuring and capital mobility with lasting repercussions for workers, families, unions, and communities in the Commonwealth, it is important to assess their relative …

Working Toward Recovery: Exploring The Development Of An Employment Services Program At The Mental Health Association Of The Southern Tier, John J. Pelowski

MPA Capstone Projects 2006 - 2015

The almost complete exclusion of individuals with severe mental illness from the workforce can be implicated in lost recovery opportunities and high societal healthcare costs. This study initially looks at how the motivational theories of Herzberg, Maslow, and McGregor offer a possible explanation for the problems that individuals with mental illness have in obtaining and maintaining employment. The analysis of result of a survey conducted in conjunction with the Mental Health Association of the Southern Tier led to the following findings: 1) the theories of Herzberg, Maslow, and McGregor explain the employment attitudes of these individuals without amendment; 2) employment …

Job Loss: Causes, Consequences, And Policy Responses, Kristin F. Butcher, Kevin F. Hallock

Kevin F Hallock

From 2001 to 2003, 5.3 million workers were displaced. Beyond quantifying the numbers of jobs lost lie important questions about gains and losses from these changes and what policies may affect them. These questions will be addressed at an upcoming Chicago Fed conference.

Assessing The Impact Of Job Loss On Workers And Firms, Kristin F. Butcher, Kevin F. Hallock

Kevin F Hallock

Many economists agree that the United States’ openness to competition and technological change raises our living standards, but sometimes results in job losses. This article summarizes “Job Loss: Causes Consequences, and Policy Responses,” a conference which was cosponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank Chicago and the Joyce Foundation.

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 …

Pushing The Integrated Employment Agenda: Case Study Research In Washington State, Jean Winsor, Allison Cohen Hall, John Butterworth, Dana Scott Gilmore

Case Studies Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

This is the second in a series of publications highlighting findings from case studies in three states—New Hampshire, Washington, and Colorado—that are recognized as high performers in integrated employment. These products are intended to be a practical resource for states as they work to help people with disabilities obtain and maintain gainful employment.

ICI identified “high-performing” states based on the following criteria: the percentage of citizens served by the state’s mental retardation/developmental disabilities agency that participate in integrated employment, and the rate of growth in integrated employment.

In 2003, a team of ICI researchers conducted face-to-ace interviews with state and …

Employers' Views On The Value Of Older Workers : Final Report, Edmund S. Muskie Institute Of Public Affairs

Maine Collection

Employers' Views on the Value of Older Workers : Final Report

Submitted to: The AARP Andrus Foundation

Prepared by: Human Services Development Institute, Edmund S. Muskie Institute of Public Affairs, University of Southern Maine, 96 Falmouth St., Portland, Maine 04103 (August 1991).

Contents: Acknowledgements / Executive Summary / Abstract / I. Introduction and Background / II. Project Methodology / III. Findings / IV. Conclusions and Recommendations / References