TY - BOOK T1 - Justice on the Job: Perspectives on the Erosion of Collective Bargaining in the United States Y1 - 2006 A1 - Block, R. N. A1 - Friedman, S. A1 - Kaminski, M. A1 - Levin, A. KW - collective bargaining KW - human rights KW - labor law KW - workers’ rights AB -

This volume presents an influential group of researchers who examine the current state of workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain collectively. All of the researchers present empirical evidence to support their innovative ideas for advancing workers' rights. (publisher's statement)

PB - Upjohn Institute for Employment Research CY - Kalamazoo, MI L2 - eng ER - TY - CHAP T1 - Significant Victories: An Analysis of Union First Contracts T2 - Justice on the Job: Perspectives on the Erosion of Collective Bargaining in the United States Y1 - 2006 A1 - Juravich, T. A1 - K. Bronfenbrenner A1 - Robert S. Hickey ED - Block, R. N. ED - Friedman, S. ED - Kaminski, M. ED - Levin, A. KW - contract KW - labor movement KW - labor rights KW - negotiation KW - organizing KW - unions AB -

[Excerpt] After two decades of massive employment losses in heavily unionized sectors of the economy and exponential growth of the largely unorganized service sector, the U.S. labor movement is struggling to remain relevant. Despite new organizing initiatives and practices, union organizing today remains a tremendously arduous endeavor, particularly in the private sector, as workers and their unions are routinely confronted with an arsenal of aggressive legal and illegal antiunion employer tactics. This vigorous opposition to unions in the private sector does not stop once an election is won, but continues throughout bargaining for an initial union agreement, all too often turning organizing victories into devastating first-contract defeats.

Despite these overwhelming obstacles, workers still organize and win—through certification elections and voluntary recognition campaigns in both the private and public sectors. And each year unions successfully negotiate thousands of first contracts in the United States, providing union representation for the first time to hundreds of thousands of new workers. This research takes an in-depth look at what unions achieve in these initial union contracts. Why, when confronted with such powerful opposition, do unorganized workers continue to want to belong to unions and newly organized workers want to stay union? What do these first contracts provide that makes the struggle worthwhile?

To explore these questions, we analyze and evaluate union first contracts along four primary dimensions. First, we inventory the basic workers’ rights provided by these contracts, which go beyond the very limited rights provided by federal and state labor law under the “employment at will” system. Second, we evaluate how first contracts provide workers and their unions with the institutional power to shape work and the labor process on a day-to-day basis. Third, we explore how first contracts codify the presence and power of unions in daily work life, and we evaluate which institutional arrangements provide a meaningful role for workers and their unions in their workplaces. Fourth, we examine the kinds of workplace benefits that are codified and supplemented in first contracts, gaining important insights into the types of human resource practices that exist in newly unionized workplaces. Finally, by examining the interactions among these four dimensions, we explore the limitations of what first contracts have been able to achieve in the current organizing environment, and what it would take for unions to improve the quality of first contracts.

JA - Justice on the Job: Perspectives on the Erosion of Collective Bargaining in the United States PB - W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research CY - Kalamazoo, MI L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/248/ ER - TY - CHAP T1 - Construction Organizing: A Case Study of Success T2 - Organizing to Win: New Research on Union Strategies Y1 - 1998 A1 - Condit, B. A1 - Davis, T. A1 - J. M. Grabelsky A1 - Kotler, F. ED - K. Bronfenbrenner ED - Friedman, S. ED - Richard Hurd ED - Oswald, R. A. ED - Seeber, R. L. KW - construction KW - IBEW KW - International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers KW - labor movement KW - organizing KW - trade unions AB -

[Excerpt] This chapter examines how IBEW Local 611, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, reversed its decline and between 1988 and 1994 reemerged as a dominant force in its jurisdiction. What the local did, how it did it, and what other building trade unions can learn from 611's success are the central points of the discussion.

JA - Organizing to Win: New Research on Union Strategies PB - ILR Press CY - Ithaca, NY L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/294/ ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Organizing to Win: New Research on Union Strategies Y1 - 1998 A1 - K. Bronfenbrenner A1 - Friedman, S. A1 - Richard Hurd A1 - Oswald, R. A. A1 - Seeber, R. L. KW - clergy KW - labor movement KW - local labor councils KW - membership KW - union organizing KW - volunteer organizers AB -

[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, in the summer of 1996, the AFL-CIO launched the "Union Summer" program, which placed more than a thousand college students and young workers in organizing campaigns across the country.

PB - Cornell University Press CY - Ithaca, NY L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/188/ ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Restoring the Promise of American Labor Law Y1 - 1994 A1 - Friedman, S. A1 - Richard Hurd A1 - Oswald, R. A. A1 - Seeber, R. L. KW - employment law KW - labor law KW - labor rights KW - workers’ rights AB -

The product of an October 1993 conference on labor law reform jointly sponsored by the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell U. and the Department of Economic Research at the AFL-CIO, this volume both argues the need for fundamental reform of the legal and institutional underpinnings of the US system of workplace representation and offers proposals for the content of that reform.

PB - Cornell University Press CY - Ithaca, NY L2 - eng ER -