Business Commons^™

Organizing Clerical Workers, Richard W. Hurd

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] There are two organizing models that are effective among clerical workers. One model is the media-oriented, high-tech type of organizing. AFSCME does this very well; some other unions have also used it effectively. It starts with polling and opinion research on the work force that might be organized. This is followed up by targeted direct mail, telephone banks, radio and TV ads, campaign-specific newspapers and so on. This type of campaign is most appropriate for large public-sector units, especially when the clericals work in multiple locations. It is an important and successful means of organizing, but it has limited …

Illegal Immigration And The Dilemma Of American Unions, Vernon Briggs

Vernon M Briggs Jr

[Excerpt] Over its long and often turbulent evolution, the American labor movement has confronted few issues as persistently and as difficult has those related to subject of immigration. By definition, immigration affects the size of the labor force at any given time as well as its geographical distribution and skill composition. These vital influences, in turn, affect national, regional and local labor market conditions. Most immigrants directly join the labor force upon entering the country, as do eventually most of their family members. Hence, organized labor never has ignored immigration trends. As Samuel Gompers, one of the founders of the …

Unionization Among College Faculty - 1996, Richard W. Hurd, Amy Foerster

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] Unionization among college and university faculty continued its slow but steady increase in 1995. Academic unions now represent 246,207 professors, a growth of 3,986 (1.65 percent) from that reported in last year’s NCSCBHEP's Directory of Faculty Contracts and Bargaining Agents in Institutions of Higher Education. We can now report 504 bargaining agents on 1,115 campuses throughout the United States. These increases can be attributed to three sources. First, unions won 4 out of 4 collective bargaining elections during 1995 to determine new bargaining agents. Second, some existing bargaining units grew in size as institutions hired additional faculty. Third, the …

Non-Faculty Unionization At Institutions Of Higher Education, Richard W. Hurd

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] The decade of the 1980's was a difficult one for the labor movement as membership and bargaining power declined for most unions in most industries. Higher education, however, provided a much more congenial environment. Faculty unionization expanded slowly but steadily at public sector institutions, although these gains were partially offset by private sector membership losses in the wake of the Yeshiva decision. In addition, there was a flurry of organizing activity among non-faculty employees, particularly clerical workers. The clerical worker organizing of the 1980's resulted in many highly visible successes for the labor movement. Particularly noteworthy were NLRB election …

Barriers To Union Organizing, Richard W. Hurd

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] The current environment presents dramatic challenges for the American labor movement. Structural change in the economy has meant job loss in traditionally unionized sectors such as heavy manufacturing, and job gains in the less unionized service industries. Deregulation and increased international trade have created competitive pressures on unionized industries, resulting in significant concessions and a reduction in bargaining power. Simultaneously, unions have contended for twelve years with unfriendly government regulators who have displayed little commitment to timely and vigorous enforcement of protective labor legislation. In particular, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) of the Reagan and Bush administrations has …

The Unionization Of Clerical Workers At Large U.S. Universities And Colleges, Richard W. Hurd, Gregory Woodhead

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] The unionization of clerical workers on college campuses is steadily increasing and becoming the subject of greater scrutiny. The National Center has long been interested in this facet of unionization and when we learned of the work of Professor Hurd in this area we expressed an interest in publishing his research. This article presents Hurd's and Woodhead's research on college and university clerical unionization.

The Unionization Of Clerical Workers In Colleges And Universities: A Status Report, Richard W. Hurd

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] The 1980s have presented a myriad of problems for the labor movement as membership and bargaining power have declined in manufacturing, construction and transportation. Attempting to come to grips with the new reality of an economy dominated by the service sector, unions have expanded their organizing efforts among white collar workers. In the process, they have discovered a particularly receptive clientele among the clerical employees of colleges and universities. This paper identifies factors which influence the outcome of clerical organizing drives on campus, estimates the extent of organization among these workers, and summarizes recent developments including strike activity. It …

A Preliminary Report On Non-Faculty Bargaining At Colleges And Universities - 1993, Richard Hurd, Elizabeth O'Leary

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] Although we will present more detailed data in subsequent sections, we would like to present a few key pieces of information here. Public sector campuses are substantially more likely to be unionized than private sector, with 55.7% of public and 16.8% of private reporting one or more non-faculty bargaining units. Geographically, non-faculty unionization is notably more prevalent in the Northeast, the Midwest and on the Pacific coast than elsewhere. Among non-faculty employees, there are notable variations in unionization rates. Approximately 43.8% of blue collar employees are unionized (substantially more than reported two years ago), compared to approximately 31.1% of …

The Unionization Of Clerical, Technical, And Professional Employees In Higher Education: Threat Or Opportunity, Richard W. Hurd

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] Union organizing among non-teaching white collar employees of colleges and universities persists. To the discomfort of many university administrators, high visibility union successes at Yale, Columbia, Harvard, the University of Cincinnati, and the University of Illinois were not isolated instances but part of a trend.

Professional, technical, and clerical employees' desire for a more effective voice, has combined with the economic insecurity associated with stubborn budgetary pressures, to encourage these workers to pursue union representation. Unions have responded to this opportunity with enthusiasm, experimenting with innovative organizing and bargaining strategies in the relatively open environment offered by institutions of …

Who Should Talk? What Counts As Employee Voice And Who Stands To Gain, Aditi Bagchi

All Faculty Scholarship

This symposium piece responds to an article by Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt titled "Promoting Employee Voice in the American Economy: A Call for Comprehensive Reform." Professor Schmidt argues in favor of increasing employee voice in corporate governance. In this reply, Professor Bagchi distinguishes between "hard voice," "soft voice" and information rights as three variants of employee voice. She casts doubt on the material benefits from Professor Dau-Schmidt's proposals, which focus on hard and soft voice, to either employees or corporate stakeholders more broadly. The present focus of corporate governance on the relationship between shareholders and managers, to the exclusion of employees, …

Information Workers In The Academy: The Case Of Librarians And Archivists At The University Of Western Ontario, Melanie Mills

Melanie Mills

For much of its history, the organizational culture for academic librarians and archivists at The University of Western Ontario was primarily a culture of the practitioner. While librarians and archivists supported teaching, research and service at Western, they did not directly engage in it. As a result of grassroots efforts undertaken by members of Western’s academic community in the mid-2000s however, the potential contributions of information workers to the teaching, research and service mandate of University began to garner recognition. Born out of this collective awakening, a successful union drive and shortly thereafter an inaugural Collective Agreement for The University …