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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Graduate Student Employee Unionization In The Second Gilded Age, William A. Herbert, Joseph Van Der Naald
Graduate Student Employee Unionization In The Second Gilded Age, William A. Herbert, Joseph Van Der Naald
Publications and Research
In debates on the future of work, a common theme has been how work became
less secure through the denial of employee status. Though much of the attention
has focused on other industries, precarity has also affected those working in
higher education, including graduate student employees, contributing to what is
now called the “gig academy.” While universities have reassigned teaching and
research to graduate assistants, they have also refused to recognize them as
employees. Nevertheless, unionization has grown considerably since 2012, most
significantly at private institutions. Utilizing a unique dataset, this chapter
demonstrates that between 2012 and 2019, graduate student …
A Different Set Of Rules? Nlrb Proposed Rule Making And Student Worker Unionization Rights, William A. Herbert, Joseph Van Der Naald
A Different Set Of Rules? Nlrb Proposed Rule Making And Student Worker Unionization Rights, William A. Herbert, Joseph Van Der Naald
Publications and Research
This article presents data, precedent, and empirical evidence relevant to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) proposal to issue a new rule to exclude graduate assistants and other student employees from coverage under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The analysis in three parts. First, the authors show through an analysis of information from other federal agencies that the adoption of the proposed NLRB rule would exclude over 81,000 graduate assistants on private campuses from the right to unionize and engage in collective bargaining. Second, the article presents a legal history from the past half-century about unionization of student employees …
Building Momentum For Collectivity In The Digital Games Community, Johanna Weststar, Marie-Josee Legault
Building Momentum For Collectivity In The Digital Games Community, Johanna Weststar, Marie-Josee Legault
Management and Organizational Studies Publications
Studies of digital game labor have tended to document problems in the working lives of developers while devoting relatively limited attention to solutions, or to collective representation as a step toward solutions. An increasing number of game developers are dissatisfied with their working conditions, and dissatisfaction is a necessary condition for workers to engage in collective action to gain the representational power needed to achieve change in the workplace. Noting that the landscape of collective mobilization in the game industry has not yet been systematically mapped, this article documents collective actions over the past five decades, and asks, “Are the …
Labor Unions And Occupational Safety: Event-Study Analysis Using Union Elections, Ling Li, Shawn Rohlin, Perry Singleton
Labor Unions And Occupational Safety: Event-Study Analysis Using Union Elections, Ling Li, Shawn Rohlin, Perry Singleton
Center for Policy Research
This study examines the dynamic relationship between union elections and occupational safety among manufacturing establishments. Data on union elections come from the National Labor Relations Board, and data on workplace inspections and accident case rates come from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The results indicate that union elections improved occupational safety. First, workplace inspections trended upwards before the election, then decreased immediately after the election, due almost entirely to employee complaints. Second, accident case rates were relatively stable before the election, then trended downwards after the election, due to accidents involving days away from work, job restrictions, and job …
Negotiating In Silence: Experiences With Parental Leave In Academia, Johanna Weststar
Negotiating In Silence: Experiences With Parental Leave In Academia, Johanna Weststar
Management and Organizational Studies Publications
This paper presents a case study of pregnancy/parental leave arrangements among faculty members at a mid-sized Canadian University from 2000-2010. The data show that leave arrangements were very inconsistent across faculties, across and within departments, and even for individual faculty members who had taken more than one leave. The majority of problematic cases were instances where a faculty member began or ended a leave in the middle of an academic term. Without specific language in their collective agreement, these faculty members often negotiated circumstances that carried individual penalties for duties that were unassigned in light of the leave. This research …
Work, Caregiving, And Masculinities, Ann C. Mcginley
Work, Caregiving, And Masculinities, Ann C. Mcginley
Scholarly Works
In her book Reshaping the Work-Family Debate, Joan Williams demonstrates the vulnerability of parent workers in working class America. In Chapter 2, "One Sick Child Away from Being Fired," she examines the records of ninety-nine union arbitrations to analyze the problems of working class parents who struggle to juggle their working and parenting responsibilities. Because this chapter is a tour de force in an overall excellent book, and because it suggests an area that Professor McGinley's research has focused on over the past number of years, in this Essay, Professor McGinley limits her discussion almost exclusively to this chapter. …
Is The Very Notion Of "Representation" Relevant For The Regulation Game Of Video Game Developers?, Marie-Josee Legault, Johanna Weststar
Is The Very Notion Of "Representation" Relevant For The Regulation Game Of Video Game Developers?, Marie-Josee Legault, Johanna Weststar
Management and Organizational Studies Publications
In this paper we question whether videogame developers face a representation gap due to the lack of unionization or whether their current means of action are appropriate and sufficient protections against employment risk. To answer this question we will first sketch the working conditions of videogame developers and then describe their individual and collective means of action to face employment challenges. We will then discuss the strengths and failings of these approaches vis a vis unionization and propose potential alternatives that would be a better fit than the traditional Wagnerian model of union representation.
The Myth Of Equality In The Employment Relation, Aditi Bagchi
The Myth Of Equality In The Employment Relation, Aditi Bagchi
All Faculty Scholarship
Although it is widely understood that employers and employees are not equally situated, we fail adequately to account for this inequality in the law governing their relationship. We can best understand this inequality in terms of status, which encompasses one’s level of income, leisure and discretion. For a variety of misguided reasons, contract law has been historically highly resistant to the introduction of status-based principles. Courts have preferred to characterize the unfavorable circumstances that many employees face as the product of unequal bargaining power. But bargaining power disparity does not capture the moral problem raised by inequality in the employment …
What Makes For Effective Labor Representation On Pension Boards?, Johanna Weststar, Anil Verma
What Makes For Effective Labor Representation On Pension Boards?, Johanna Weststar, Anil Verma
Management and Organizational Studies Publications
This article examines the efficacy of labor representation on pension boards. Using existing literature and interviews with labor trustees, this article develops a model where a more formal approach to recruitment and selection, skill acquisition, and accountability is hypothesized to aid labor trustees in achieving effective integration and representation on pension boards. Data indicate that labor trustees are placed in a challenging environment with insufficient support from their union, other trustees, or the board. These findings have important implications for the selection, training, and integration of labor trustees and the success of a labor agenda on pension issues.
Transnational Labor Mobilizing In Two Mexican Maquiladoras: The Struggle For Democratic Globalization, Victoria Carty
Transnational Labor Mobilizing In Two Mexican Maquiladoras: The Struggle For Democratic Globalization, Victoria Carty
Sociology Faculty Articles and Research
The struggle to improve workers' rights in Mexican maquiladoras and export processing zones elsewhere in the world is central to the politics of global economic integration. State-centered development is increasingly compromised by supranational institutions and trade agreements. Meanwhile, multinational corporations are relocating at an unprecedented rate to overseas locations. Export processing zones are notorious for poor working conditions and result in a "race to the bottom." The maquila sector in Mexico is a prime example of this phenomenon. This article uses two case studies to examine ways in which grassroots organizing has successfully resisted low wages and poor working conditions …