Faculty Publications - Collective Bargaining, Labor Law, and Labor History

Change and Transformation in Asian Industrial Relations

Sarosh Kuruvilla et al. — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 11:21:19 PDT

Authors argue that industrial relations systems change due to shifts in the constraints facing those systems, and that the most salient constraints facing IR systems in Asia have shifted from those of maintaining labor peace and stability in the early stages of industrialization, to those of increasing both numerical and functional flexibility in the 1980s and 1990s. The evidence to sustain the argument is drawn from seven “representative” Asian IR systems: Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, India, and China. They also distinguish between systems that have smoothly adapted (Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines) and systems that have fundamentally transformed (China and South Korea), and hypothesize about the reasons for this difference.

Industrial Relations in the U.S. Automobile Industry: An Illustration of Increased Decentralization and Diversity

Harry C. Katz — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 10:51:09 PDT

"This paper traces the evolution of employment relations in the U.S. auto industry over the post World War II period with particular emphasis on recent developments. There is a strong movement toward growing variation in employment relations within both the assembly and parts sectors of the auto industry. Variation appears both through the spread of more contingent compensation and team systems of work organization. There is also wide variety across plants and industry segments in basic employment systems including low wage, human resource, Japanese-oriented, and joint team-based approaches. Declining unionization is a particularly strong influence in the parts sector although nonunion operations have no spread to the assembly sector. While these trends are well illustrated by developments in the auto industry, they are trends common to other parts of the U.S. economy."

The Municipal Budgetary Response to Changing Labor Costs: The Case of San Francisco

Harry C. Katz — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 10:04:26 PDT

"This paper analyzes how expenditures of the city of San Francisco were altered in response to changes in municipal labor costs over the period 1945 through 1976. A hybrid of the "demands" and the "organizational" models of budgeting is used to measure the budgetary response to changes in the relative prices of labor inputs. Descriptive and econometric evidence reveals significant adjustments both among and within departments in reaction to changes in relative labor costs. The empirical evidence demonstrates that the city's budgetary process is guided by simple allocative rules modified by price-responsive adjustments."

The Meanings of Deindustrialization

Jefferson Cowie et al. — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 09:14:25 PDT

"The point of departure for any discussion of deindustrialization must be respect for the despair and betrayal felt by workers as their mines, factories, and mills were padlocked, abandoned, turned into artsy shopping spaces, or even dynamited. While economists and business leaders often speak in neutral, even hopeful, terms such as "restructuring," "downsizing," or "creative destruction," metaphors of defeat and subjugation are more appropriate for the workers who banked on good-paying industrial jobs for the livelihoods of their families and their communities."

Interest Arbitration, Outcomes, and the Incentive to Bargain

Henry S. Farber et al. — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 10:51:29 PST

"This study develops a model of bargaining that demonstrates that an interest arbitration procedure will encourage negotiated settlements to the extent that risk aversion dominates the preferences of the parties and there is uncertainty regarding the arbitrator's behavior. The authors conclude that it is likely that risk aversion does dominate preferences, but the evidence is not conclusive. They also argue that uncertainty may be reduced over time for various reasons, leading to increased use of arbitration and a convergence between the terms of negotiated and arbitrated agreements."

Industrial Relations Performance, Economic Performance, and QWL Programs: An Interplant Analysis

Harry C. Katz et al. — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 10:34:48 PST

"This study analyzes the relationship among plant-level measures of industrial relations performance, economic performance, and quality-of-working-life programs. The analysis employs pooled time-series and cross-section data from 18 plants within a division of General Motors for the years 1970-79. The empirical results show strong associations between industrial relations and economic performance measures and limited support for the hypothesis that quality-of-working-life efforts improve both kinds of performance."

Training and Workforce Preparedness: Introduction

Harry C. Katz — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 08:21:25 PST

"An introduction to a special, multi-part report on training and workforce preparedness."

The Decentralization of Collective Bargaining: A Literature Review and Comparative Analysis

Harry C. Katz — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 07:55:45 PST

"The author reviews evidence that the bargaining structure is becoming more decentralized in Sweden, Australia, the former West Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, although In somewhat different degrees and ways from country to country. He then examines the various hypotheses that have been offered to explain the significant trend Shifts In bargaining power, as well as the diversification of corporate and worker Interests, have played a part in this change, he concludes, but work reorganization has been more influential still. He also explores how the roles of central unions and corporate industrial relations staffs are challenged by bargaining structure decentralization, and discusses the research gaps on this subject that need to be filled."

National Struggles in a Transnational Economy: A Critical Analysis of US Labor's Campaign Against NAFTA

Jefferson Cowie — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 12:41:40 PST

"Following an overview of US workers' changing relation to free trade in the postwar era, this article offers a critical review of labor's fight against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Breaking the campaign down into a typology of four major themes around which the struggle focused — fear of job losses, the unfair suppression of labor rights in Mexico, cross-border solidarity, and international labor rights — it explores the efficacy of these approaches in terms of their ability to build toward a transnational agenda for unions in North America. The article argues that, although many new and creative ideas emerged from the struggle, the overall tone and content of the anti-NAFTA campaign failed to construct a usable transnational political space for the future of organized labor and instead served to nurture nationalistic social identities within the United States."

Equality of Opportunity in Retirement Funds

Michael Evan Gold — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 08:54:56 PST

The Similarity of Congressional and Judicial Lawmaking Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Michael Evan Gold — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 07:36:50 PST

Following a brief statement of the legislative history of Title VII, this Article describes how, and then explains why, four important issues were treated as they were by Congress and the courts. The evidence reveals that both institutions of government were influenced by the competing interests, and that the conclusion is drawn that the process of lawmaking is similar in this important way in both courts and the legislature.

Union Organizing Among Professional Women Workers

Kate Bronfenbrenner — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 14:08:56 PST

"Women in professional and technical occupations fill a unique niche in the US workforce and the US labor movement. For, while the image of an elementary or secondary school teacher is not likely one that would come to mind as the most typical example of either a worker, a professional, or a union member, it actually would be one of the better answers one could give."

Introduction: Bringing the Study of Work Back to Labor Studies

Tom Juravich et al. — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 05:50:09 PST

Raw Power: Plant-Closing Threats and the Threat to Union Organizing

Kate Bronfenbrenner — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 12:07:50 PST

Today, in the post-NAFTA climate of expanding trade agreements and skyrocketing levels of corporate migration, a majority of employers continue to make plant-closing threats during organizing campaigns. A recent study found that plant-closing threats continue to be among the most powerful anti-union strategies, and threats are even more pervasive than they were in 1993-95.

Declining Unionization, Rising Inequality: an Interview with Kate Bronfenbrenner

Kate Bronfenbrenner — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 12:02:35 PST

Kate Bronfenbrenner is director of labor education research at the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. She worked for many years as an organizer with the United Woodcutters Association in Mississippi and the Service Employees International Union in Boston. She is the author, co-author and editor of numerous books and articles on union strategies.

Offshoring: The Evolving Profile of Corporate Global Restructuring

Kate Bronfenbrenner et al. — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 11:33:27 PST

For all of the increase in international trade and rising concern about shifting of manufacturing and service jobs away from the United States, there is remarkably little detailed data on the scope of outsourcing. In part that reflects corporation's reluctance to announce plans to shift production or office work overseas. Even more, it is a consequence of the U.S. government's failure to collect data on the phenomenon.

This article reports on the results of a study intended to fill this information gap. Our research involves a combination of online media tracking and corporate research and the creation of a database including information on all production shifts announced or confirmed in the media during a specified period. The study examines production shifts from January 1 through March 31, 2004.

We'll Close! Plant Closings, Plant-Closing Threats, Union Organizing and NAFTA

Kate Bronfenbrenner — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 11:21:12 PST

This article is based on Final Report: The Effects of Plant Closing or Threat of Plant Closing on the Right of Workers to Organize. The report was commissioned by the tri-national Labor Secretariat of the Commission for Labor Cooperation (the NAFTA labor commission) "on the effects of the sudden closing of the plant on the principle of freedom of association and the right of workers to organize in the three countries."

The Changing Nature of Corporate Global Restructuring: The Impact of Production Shifts on Jobs in the US, China, and Around the Globe

Kate Bronfenbrenner et al. — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 06:22:14 PST

Despite the increasing amount of trade between China and the US, and the increase in foreign direct investment from the US into China, there is no government body that collects information detailing the incidence of production shifts out of the US to China or any other country. In the fall of 2000, the predecessor to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) commissioned Cornell and the University of Massachusetts Amherst to study the extent and nature of production shifts out of the US and into China from October 2000 through April 2001. In order to conduct this research we developed a methodology that involves a combination of online media tracking and corporate research and the creation of a database including information on all production shifts announced or confirmed in the media during that period. In July 2004 the USCC asked us to update that research, starting with an initial period of January 1 through March 31, 2004.

New Unity for Labor?

Ruth Milkman et al. — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 13:06:03 PST

From the “Editor’s Introduction”: Within today’s AFL-CIO, a different set of frustrations with the bureaucratic structure and leadership is simmering. The relative lack of new organizing and the continuous toll of jurisdictional rivalries have produced a call for radical restructuring, or “New Unity Partnership” (NUP). As articulated by the leaders of some of the most powerful and dynamic of federation affiliates, including the Service Employees International Union’s president Andrew L. Stern, the promise (or threat, depending on one’s point of view) of the NUP deserves full scrutiny. To that end, we are pleased to present a forum organized by Ruth Milkman and Kim Voss of the University of California’s Institute for Labor and Employment, focused on the core concepts of the NUP proposal. The edited discussion features four labor policy experts: Stephen Lerner, director of the SEIU’s Building Services Division and a leading NUP draftsman; Kate Bronfenbrenner of the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations; Dan Clawson, a sociologist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and Jane Slaughter, of Labor Notes.

Towards a Unified Theory of the Law of Employment Discrimination

Michael Evan Gold — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 10:42:40 PDT