<p> During the decades between 1950 and 1970, unionization in the United States was at its peak. Private and public employees gained advances in the improvement of working conditions and other terms and conditions of employment through cohesive action and collective bargaining. Today, unions represent only 11.1% of America&rsquo;s workforce with the numbers constantly declining with one exception &ndash; the public sector. Employers, both public and private, lament the involvement of an outsider, asserting that the collective bargaining relationship impedes management&rsquo;s ability to manage workforces and to accomplish agency performance objectives effectively. Law enforcement management, plagued by problems of increasing crime and decreasing fiscal and staffing resources, confront the same challenges. However, evidence is lacking regarding whether there are variances in performance between union and non-union departments from a public safety perspective. This research measures police department performance in 76 municipal non-union and union departments using crime rates, arrest rates, clearance rates, and community relationships. Statistical analysis was conducted using multiple regression and MANCOVA. There was a significant, positive relationship between collective bargaining status and department size. As department size increased, the departments were more likely to have collective bargaining. There was no significant relationship between collective bargaining status and crime rates, arrest rates, clearance rates, and total community score in a univariate analysis. However, when considering the inter-correlation of these factors, there was a statistically significant relationship. Therefore, collective bargaining status was not significantly related to police department performance. The null hypothesis for Research Question One was not rejected. The findings of this research indicate no measurable difference in individual performance indicators between unionized and non-unionized police departments. However, significance was indicated when examining the performance indicators together as a whole using MANCOVA. Therefore, the null hypothesis for Research Question Two was rejected.</p>

<p>Sexual Orientation Discrimination: Effects of Microaggressions on Coming Out and Organizational Attraction

This dissertation examines the creation and evolution of the agricultural economy and labor relations of South Texas from the late Nineteenth Century to the Nineteen Sixties. The changing demographic reality of Mexico, with massive population shifts northward during the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century, caused massive emigration to the United States once the violence of the Mexican Revolution erupted after 1910. Hundreds of thousands fled north of the border, most of them traveling to South Texas. This migration wave out of Mexico met another group of migrants traveling from the Southeast and Midwest who sought to purchase farm land in South Texas as the region underwent a transition from ranching to agriculture.;A new regime of labor and racial relations emerged from these simultaneous migrations, built on a system of social and residential segregation, continued migration from Mexico, and seasonal immobilization of workers. While this system never stopped the mobility of the Mexican and Mexican American populations of South Texas, it did allow the region to continue paying the lowest wages in the nation even as production and profits soared. Agricultural interests in the rest of the country were not long in taking notice, and began recruiting workers from South Texas by the thousands during the Nineteen Twenties after immigration from Europe had slowed down following the passage of restrictive immigration legislation in 1917, 1921, and 1924.;The South Texas model of labor relations then went national during the era of the Bracero Program from 1942-1964. Originally meant to be an emergency contract labor program between the United and Mexico during World War II, it morphed into a method by which growers could replicate the labor market conditions of South Texas, with basic rights of choice, mobility, and citizenship disregarded in favor of cheap and easily exploitable foreign labor.;Throughout the Twentieth Century, in other words, South Texas has not been a peripheral, backward region with little importance for the rest of the nation. Instead, the rest of the nation has followed in the footsteps of South Texas.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to determine the perception among defense attorneys regarding the New Reform Law SB899. The study was also to further assess defense's satisfaction with regard to the leadership provided by Governor Schwarzenegger, Senator Poochigian and The Legislature as a whole. Furthermore the study was to assess defense attorneys' readiness to defend the gains afforded following the passage of the reform law. / The sampling procedure for this study is one of the three types of non-probability sampling called Purposeful Sampling. The population for this study includes all defense attorneys who are members of the California State Bar and are currently engaged in defending Workers' Compensation cases in the State of California. / The sample of this study was obtained from defense attorneys who practice in the Southern California Tri-County (Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego) region. The survey instrument had 34 questions out of which 6 were demographic in nature. Surveys were administered to 110 Defense Attorneys. A total of 31 (N = 31) respondents participated for a response rate of 31%. / According to the analysis done on the study the highest mean scores were obtained on questions relating to the concern defense attorneys have regarding the provisions of SB899 that are exposed to serious legal challenges up to and including reversals on appeal (M = 4.52). / Concurrently defense attorneys have confirmed their readiness to defend the gains of SB899 and have given high marks (M = 4.23) regarding the plan of action for the future that will be to litigate and argue for preservation of the law. Defense attorneys also strongly agreed that SB899 enjoys broad support amongst California employers, insurance carriers and third party administrators (M = 4.06). Their impression regarding the Governor's leadership including Senator Poochigian's was also positive and has drawn moderately high agreement (M = 3.58). Participants also have validated the Governor's argument on the detrimental effect of high premiums (M = 3.68). / This study provides solid evidence that defense attorneys are concerned about certain aspects of the New Reform Law being reversed on appeal while affirming their commitment to preserve the gains afforded by the same. Their success or failure for preservation of SB899 will without a doubt be closely monitored by all stakeholders.

<p> A Likert Scale Attitudinal Survey was distributed to sworn, non-supervisor, police officers at six police departments in the state of California in a department roll-call setting to measure the counterbalance of power, trust, and influence between police managers and police union leaders. The relationship between a police management and police union leadership is critical component in the internal dynamics of the police organization. The results from this study provide evidence that although on average rank and file police officers tend to trust and attribute more power within police organizations to police unions rather than to police managers, an analysis of the survey responses by inferential statistics showed that these differences were not statistically significant. Furthermore, an analysis of the survey results measuring the relationship between the specific leadership bases of power and trust revealed a statistically significant relationship between the perception of trust by rank and file officers and the use of specific bases of power by police managers and police union leaders. In conclusion, the implications for studies of leadership, power, and policing are discussed.</p>

Multinational enterprises shape global and national politics by their enormous economic power. In the introduction, I briefly discuss the definition of a multinational, as well as the role of labour standards relating to child labour. / In Part I, I will focus upon the political and economic relationship between States and MNEs. I will also discuss the tensions this relationship creates. In the second part, I focus on the issue of child labour and different kinds of approaches countries take. / Before dealing with international efforts to create a universal code, I examine two internal codes. / Part III addresses two main issues. First, the question how human rights and MNEs relate to each other is dealt with. Then the issue of international legal responsibility will be elaborated. / Finally, the thesis concludes that public opinion and shame may be the key to successfully address the issue of child labour.

Mediation---a private and informal dispute resolution process, attended by the immediate disputants and facilitated by an impartial and neutral third person without power to impose a decision---is analyzed for its compatibility with the rationales and its effects on the functions of employment law. / The process is found to be conceptually compatible with a theoretical perspective on employment law that focuses on efficiency, but inconsistent with the perspectives that emphasize the importance of individual rights in employment or the social balance of diverging interests. / In practice, mediation fosters efficiency, but is not capable of ensuring individual rights and improving social justice. / Consequentially, mediation is suitable for the resolution of disputes under contractual employment law, but---without procedural safeguards---not suited to resolve disputes governed by employment regulations. Where disputes are governed by both contractual and regulatory elements, mediation's suitability depends on the relative importance of the different elements.

Thesis (J.S.D.)--Columbia University, 2005. / (UnM)AAI3188729. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-09, Section: A, page: 3437. Adviser: Mark Barenberg.

<p> The labor movement&rsquo;s groundswell in the 1990s accompanied a period of intense competition and conglomeration within the retail book sector. Unexpectedly, the intersection of these two trends produced two dozen union drives across the country between 1996 and 2004 at large retail bookstores, including Borders and Barnes &amp; Noble. Historians have yet to fully examine these retail organizing contests or recount their contributions to the labor movement and its history, including booksellers&rsquo; pioneering use of the internet as an organizing tool. This thesis focuses on the aspirations, tactics, and contributions of booksellers in their struggles to unionize their workplaces, while also exploring the economic context surrounding bookselling and the labor movement at the end of the twentieth century. While the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) auspiciously announced a national campaign in 1997 to organize thousands of bookstore clerks, the only successfully unionized bookstore from this era that remains today is the Powell&rsquo;s Books chain in Portland, Oregon with over 400 workers represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 5. </p><p> Local 5&rsquo;s successful union campaign at Powell&rsquo;s Books occurring between 1998 and 2000 is at the center of this study and stands out as a point of light against a dark backdrop of failed union attempts in the retail sector during the latter decades of the twentieth century. This inquiry utilizes Local 5&rsquo;s internal document archive and the collection of oral histories gathered by labor historians Edward Beechert and Harvey Schwartz in 2001 and 2002. My analysis of these previously unexamined records demonstrates how Powell&rsquo;s efforts to thwart the ILWU campaign proved a decisive failure and contributed to the polarization of a super majority of the workforce behind Local 5. Equally, my analysis illustrates how the self-organization, initiative, and unrelenting creativity of booksellers transformed a narrow union election victory to overwhelming support for the union&rsquo;s bargaining committee. Paramount to Local 5&rsquo;s contract success was the union&rsquo;s partnership with Portland&rsquo;s social justice community, which induced a social movement around Powell&rsquo;s Books at a time of increased political activity and unity among the nation&rsquo;s labor, environment, and anti-globalization activists. The bonds of solidarity and mutual aid between Local 5 and its community allies were forged during the World Trade Organization (WTO) demonstrations in Seattle in 1999 and Portland&rsquo;s revival of May Day in 2000. Following eleven work stoppages and fifty-three bargaining sessions, the union acquired a first contract that far exceeded any gains made by the UFCW at its unionized bookstores. The Powell&rsquo;s agreement included improvements to existing health and retirement benefits plus an 18 percent wage increase for employees over three years. </p><p> This analysis brings to light the formation of a distinct working-class culture and consciousness among Powell&rsquo;s booksellers, communicated through workers&rsquo; essays, artwork, strikes, and solidarity actions with the social justice community. It provides a detailed account of Local 5&rsquo;s creative street theater tactics and work stoppages that captured the imagination of activists and the attention of the broader community. The conflict forced the news media and community leaders to publicly choose sides in a labor dispute reminiscent of struggles not seen in Portland since the 1950s. Observers of all political walks worried that the Portland cultural and commercial intuition would collapse under the weight of the two-year labor contest. My research illustrates the tension among the city&rsquo;s liberal and progressive populace created by the upstart union&rsquo;s presence at prominent liberal civic leader Michael Powell&rsquo;s iconic store and how the union organized prominent liberal leaders on the side of their cause. It concludes by recognizing that Local 5&rsquo;s complete history remains a work in progress, but that its formation represents an indispensable Portland contribution to the revitalized national labor movement of the late 1990s.</p><p>