LIR 801
Trade Union History, Structure and Administration
Summer 19985/1/98
COURSE OBJECTIVES: to provide MLRHR students with:
1.an understanding of American labor unions and of a union perspective, and an appreciation of the role of unions in American society and of their involvement in politics and the economy today;
2.an introduction to basic theoretical and historical foundations of labor unionism in the United States and to the general evolution of American unions over the last one hundred years;
3.an understanding of basic union structures, organization and governance (from locals to federations) and how they affect union democracy and membership commitment and participation, and of the main legal requirements on unions regarding their internal affairs;
4.an overview of the key challenges facing unions as they approach the 21st century including declining numbers and influence, global markets and competition, extremes of labor-management cooperation and warfare, and workforce diversity, workplace violence, and work reorganizations and industrial relations transformations; and
5.an introduction to key contemporary authors and journals in LIR concerned with theories, history, structure, administration and current challenges facing U.S. labor unions.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING:
Union analysis paper(7-10 pp./due June 9)*35%
Union leader presentation(5-10 min./June 23 or 25)*20%
Union/LIR research paper(12-15 pp./due July 2)*35%
Class attendance and participation10%
100%
*See class assignment memos for details.
INSTRUCTORS:
M. Catherine Lundy (517)415 SKH
and
John L. Revitte (517)417 SKH
Professors, Labor and Industrial Relations
MichiganStateUniversity
4th Floor, South Kedzie Hall
East Lansing, MI48824-1032
OFFICE HOURS: by appointment
REQUIRED TEXTS AND READINGS:
Zieger, Robert, American Workers, American Unions, 2nd ed., 1994.
Nissen, Bruce, Unions and Workplace Reorganization, 1997.
Course Handouts: Several other articles, book chapters and legal cases are required, and are noted (*) under each session, and will be distributed as course handouts, as well as some optional supplementary readings. If you are not in class when any extra handouts are distributed, it is your responsibility to get them from another student or the instructor.
COURSE OUTLINE AND REQUIRED READINGS
LIR 801 [Summer Semester 1998]
(Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:20 a.m. - 1:10 p.m., 107 EBH):
May 19COURSE OVERVIEW, INTRODUCTIONS AND DISCUSSION (CL/JR)
No assigned readings.
In Class Video “American Dream”
May 21THEORIES AND EARLYHISTORY OF THE U.S. LABOR MOVEMENT (JR)
Rev. George Higgins, “Organized Labor and Collective Bargaining at the Crossroads”, Perspective on Work (IRRA), v. 1, n. 2 (1997), pp. 15-17.*
John Dunlop, "The Development of Labor Organization: A Theoretical Framework," 1948 in Simeon Larson and Bruce Nissen (eds.), Theories of the Labor Movement, 1987, pp. 12-22.*
Bruce Laurie, Artisans Into Workers, 1989, pp. 141-210.*
In Class Video: “The River Ran Red” exerpts
May 26HISTORY (continued) (JR)
Robert Zieger, American Workers, American Unions, pp. 3-136.
In Class Video: “The Inheritance” exerpts
May 28HISTORY (continued) (JR)
Robert Zieger, American Workers, American Unions, pp. 137-205.
Gordon Lafer, “Yale on Trial: Scholarly Life in the Age of Downsizing”, Dissent, Summer 1997, pp. 78-84.*
David Moberg, “The UPS Strike: Lessons for Labor”, Working USA, v. 1, n. 3 (1997), pp. 11-15 & 29.*
[OPTIONAL: John Sweeney, “America Needs a Raise”, Perspectives on Work (IRRA), v. 1, n. 3 (1998), pp. 20-23.]
In Class Video: “Salt of the Earth” exerpts and “From Calumet to Kalamazoo”
June 2UNION COMMITMENT AND THE LEGAL RIGHTS OF UNION STEWARDS (CL)
Robert Repas, “The Duties of Union Officers and Stewards”, pp. 11-40, and “Processing Grievances”, pp. 88-125, in Repas, Contract Administration, 1984.*
Daniel Gallagher and Paul Clark, “Research on Union Commitment: Implications for Labor”, Labor Studies Journal, v. 13, n. 1 (Spring 1989), pp. 52-71.*
Paul Clark, et al., “Building Union Commitment Among New Members: The Role of Formal and Informal Socialization”, Labor Studies Journal, v. 17, n. 3 (Fall 1993), pp. 3-16.*
Christopher J. Martin, “Some Reflections on Weingarten and the Free Speech Rights of Union Stewards”, Employee Relations, v. 18, n. 4 (Spring 1993), pp. 647-53.*
June 4THE ROLES OF UNION STEWARDS (continued) and
THE DUTY OF FAIR REPRESENTATION (CL)
Elvis C. Stephens, “The Union’s Duty of Fair Representation: Current Examination and Interpretation of Standards”, Labor Law Journal, November 1993, pp. 685-96.*
In Class Video: “The Duty of Fair Representation”.
June 9THE WORLD OF THE WORKER (CL)
Eugene Volokh, “ Thinking Ahead About Freedom of Speech and Hostile Work Environment Harassment”, Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, v. 17, n. 2 (1996), pp. 305-20.*
Vern Baxter and Anthony Margavio, “Assaultive Violence in the U.S. Post Office”, Work and Occupations, v. 23, n. 3, pp. 277-96.*
In Class Video: “The Boss”
June 11UNION STRUCTURES, INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION AND DEMOCRACY (JR)
James Wallihan, Union Government and Organization, 1985, chapters 5, 6 and 8, pp. 86-130 and pp. 152-177.* [OPTIONAL: Paul Jarley, et al., “Member-Union Relations and Union Satisfaction”, Industrial Relations, v. 29, n. 1 (Winter 1990), pp. 128-34.]
Paul Jarley and Jack Fiorito, "Associate Membership: Unionism or Consumerism?" Industrial and Labor Relations Review, v.43, n.2 (Jan. 1990), pp. 209-13 and 222-4.*
“Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, As Amended” - excerpts.*
William Gould IV, “Campaign Finance Reform and the Union Dues Dispute Under Beck”, NLRB Press Release, Oct. 8, 1997, 8 pp. [OPTIONAL: “Communications Workers v. Beck”, 108, U.S. Supreme Court, 2641, 128 LRRM 2729 (1988).]
Kenneth Conboy, “Decision, In re: Cheatem… (of the) Election Officer for the IBT”, Press Release, Nov. 17, 1997, pp. 1 and 63-72.* [OPTIONAL: (Herman Benson), “Teamster Election: Democracy Voided”, Union Democracy Review, n. 115 (Nov. 1997), pp. 1 & 4; and David Corn, “The Prosecution and Persecution of Ron Carey”, The Nation, April 6, 1998, pp. 11-16.]
In Class Video: “Hoffa” exerpts
June 16DIVERSITY: THE ROLE OF WOMEN AND MINORITIES IN LABOR UNIONS (CL)
John T. Delaney and M. Catherine Lundy, "Unions, Collective Bargaining, and the Diversity Paradox", in E. Kossek and S. Lobel (eds.), Human Resource Strategies for Managing Diversity, 1996.*
Diane Sinclair, “The Importance of Gender for Participation in and Attitudes to Trade Unionism”, Industrial Relations Journal, v. 27, n. 3, pp. 239-252.*
Michael Goldberg, "Top Officers of Local Unions", Labor Studies Journal, v. 19, n. 4 (Winter 1995), pp. 3-23.*
Helen Elkiss, “Training Women for Union Office: Breaking the Glass Ceiling”, Labor Studies Journal, v. 18, n. 2 (Summer 1994), pp. 25-42.*
June 18UNIONS FOCUS IN THE 1990s: MERGERS, ORGANIZING AND POLITICS (JR)
David Moberg, “The Resurgence of American Unions: Small Steps, Long Journey”, Working USA, v. 1, n. 1 (1997), pp. 20-31.*
Directory of U.S. Labor Organizations, 1997 Edition, pp. 1-8.* [OPTIONAL: Lisa Williamson, "Union Mergers: 1985-94 Update", Monthly Labor Review, v. 118, n.2 (February 1995), pp. 18-25; and “One Organization for All American Educators? A Special Report on the AFT/NEA Unity Negotiations”, NEA Higher Education Advocate, 1998, pp. 5-8.]
Kate Bronfenbrenner, et al., “Introduction”, pp. 1-18, and Kate Bronfenbrenner and Tom Juravich, “It Takes More Than House Calls: Organizing to Win with a Comprehensive Union-Building Strategy”, pp. 19-36, in Organizing to Win: New Research on Union Strategies, 1998.* [OPTIONAL: Stephen Lerner, “It is an Exciting Time to be an Organizer”, pp. 23-6 and Janice Fine, “Community Unionism: The Key to the New Labor Movement”, pp. 32-5, Perspective on Work (IRRA), v. 1, n. 2 (1997); and Lisa Belkin, “The Union Kids”, New York Times Magazine, Jan. 21, 1997, pp. 26… 69.]
Marick Masters, “Unions at the Crossroads”, Working USA, v. 1, n. 5 (1998), pp. 10-23; Harry Kelber, “AFL-CIO Unions Gear Up for 1998 Elections”, The Labor Educator, March/April 1998, pp. 1-3; and Rev. Edward Boyle, “Chaplain’s Corner”, The Labor Guild’s Labor Life, v. 18, n. 4 (April 1998), p. 2.* [OPTIONAL: Richard Rothstein, "Unions and the New Administration", Dissent, Spring 1993, pp. 159-65; David Brody, “Labor Elections: Good for Workers?” Dissent, Summer 1997, pp. 71-7; Robert Borosage, “Fast Track to Nowhere”, The Nation, Sept. 29, 1997, pp. 20-22; and Matt Witt and Steve Trossman, “NAFTA, Round Two”, Working USA, v. 1, n. 3 (1997), pp. 30-7.]
In Class Video: “Union Summer” and “There’s Supposed to be a Law”
June 23LABOR ASSOCIATIONS and Student Presentations (CL)
No assigned readings.
GUEST SPEAKER: John Karabian,
Labor Relations Director, Michigan Nurses Association
JUNE 25UNIONS AND THE NEW AMERICAN WORKPLACE and Student Presentations (JR)
Bruce Nissen, Unions and Workplace Reorganization, pp. 9–90.
David Glenn, “Making Them Flinch: Five Riddles for the Labor Movement”, Dissent, Fall 1997, pp. 51-5.*
James Rundle and Patricia Greenfield, “Worker Representation Without Worker Consent”, Working USA, v. 1, n. 2 (1997), pp. 62-72.*
In Class Video: “Changing Situation of Workers”
June 30THE NEW UNIONISM: PREPARING FOR UNION-MANAGEMENT COOPERATION AND WARFARE (JR)
Bruce Nissen, Unions and Workplace Reorganization, pp. 93–225.
Bruce Kaufman, “The Future of the Labor Movement: A Look at the Fundamentals”, Labor Law Journal, August 1997, pp. 474-84.*
[OPTIONAL: Steve Babson, “When ‘Empowerment’ Means ‘Exploitation’”, Working USA, v. 1, n. 1 (1997), pp. 68-76; and Thomas Geoghegan, Which Side Are You On?, (Chapter 12: Citizens), 1991, pp. 251-275.]
In Class Video: “Collision Course”
July 2AMERICAN UNIONS AND INTERNATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS (CL)
Keith Sisson, Closing the Gap - Ideas and Practice: Direct Participation in Organizational Change, (The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions: 1996), pp. 1-37.*
Thorsten Schulten, “European Works Councils: Prospects for a New System of European Industrial Relations”, European Journal of Industrial Relations, v. 2, n. 3 (1996), pp. 303-24.*
NOTE: NO FINAL EXAM
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