Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio University, June, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 382-398).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1974. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis has explored the need for working class solidarity in collectivities to meet external threats, A collectivity such as the AFL-CIO could use its house organ, The American Federationist, to inspire solidarity among workers through the use of class conscious expressions. The method employed in this study was a content analysis of selected articles for expressions deemed to evoke class solidarity. The hypothesis of the study was that the mean of class conscious expressions would be higher for a high threat period than for a low threat period.The.findings did not support the hypothesis and the literature on labor collectivities was re-examined. Many authors have cited the AFL-CIO for a lack of class consciousness and for behaving simply as an interest group in response to threats. The-findings of the study are consistent with these citations. The AFL-CIO appears in summary, as an interest group with a status quo orientation.

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It is well established that the frequency of claims filed for benefits under the workers' compensation program is dependent not only on the number of workers employed but is influenced by work characteristics such as the nature of work performed, the type of job, and the level of employment. This thesis hypothesized that, in addition to work characteristics, the frequency of claims filed is significantly related to worker characteristics such as age and gender. Using data on the actual number of claims filed for workers' compensation benefits by university employees, this study investigated the relationship between worker and job characteristics, and the incidence of claims for workers' compensation benefits. It is found that, for the aggregated workforce in the institution, there are significant relationships between the claims filed and the function, sedentary / non-sedentary type of employment, the job-family, and the age of the worker. However, on disaggregation, no significant relationships were found between the claims filed by employees in administrative, faculty, and research positions, and their age, gender, and the type of their jobs. Non-sedentary nature of the job was found to be related to claims filed by male workers in technical jobs, and possibly related to claims fueled by workers in the clerical category. Age of the worker was found to be significantly related to claims filed by younger workers in support activities such as maintenance, groundskeeping, and food services, and possibly related to professionals in similar activities. Gender was not found to be related to claims filed by workers in any category. / Master of Science

Workers' education, a form of adult education, emphasized the study of economic and social problems from the workers' perspective. When the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) created its adult education program in 1933, workers' education classes were included. Between 1933 and 1943 thirty-six states participated in the federal experiment in workers' education. Seventeen of these states, including Indiana, were involved throughout the entire ten years of the program. With as many as two thousand teachers employed at one time, officials conservatively estimated that the program reached at least one million workers nation-wide.Three distinct phases of a federal workers' education program existed: FERA (1933-1935), Works Progress Administration (WPA--prior to separation from the other adult education programs, 1935-1939), and WPA Workers' Service Program (1939-1943). In separate chapters these phases of federal workers' education are examined from both the federal and state perspectives.FERA and WPA workers' education stimulated educational activities within the labor movement. For example, in Indiana this program was particularly popular among the new Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) unions. Federal workers' education activities also encouraged union-university cooperation and laid the foundation for labor education at Indiana University. In addition, the WPA Workers'' Service Program served as the model for a Federal Labor Extension Service, similar to the existing federal agricultural extension program, that, for reasons beyond the scope of this study, was never implemented.If nothing else, the FERA and WPA workers' education projects put thousands of unemployed people to work and helped the morale of both the relief recipients and the adults who attended classes. Never supported at levels necessary to reach a majority of the population, federal aid to workers' education was, at the very least, a sincere attempt by liberal relief administrators,educators, and labor leaders to serve the educational needs of American workers.Government documents, correspondence, and manuscript collections from the National Archives, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, and Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, constitute the basic sources for this paper.

This study investigates some factors involved in the genesis of political deviance by regarding established values and norms as major sources of deviant behavior. Important kinds of political deviance in North American society are seen as emerging from a cleavage in perspective which originates in the different social backgrounds of elites and non-elite groups. 'Elites' are groups of individuals who hold positions at the apex of the various institutions, and who can appreciably influence the life chances of others. The term 'non-elite groups' refers to those groups of persons who have no such prerogative. Existing standards of behavior are taken as a point of departure by regarding them as alienating conditions from the viewpoint of some non-elite members of society. Such non-elite estrangement from existing values and norms may result in protest which, in a given circumstance, officialdom may define as deviant conduct. In order to dissolve the challenge which this deviance signifies to commonly accepted standards the authorities may react to it by the enacting and/or application of rules. The types of devices the authorities will apply to control the deviant conduct depend upon the conditions they perceive as motivating it. Two social conditions are here assumed to be frequent sources of alienation and, ultimately, deviance. One such condition has its origin in the man-work relationship and can be described in terms of the orthodox Marxian notion of alienation from work. Another condition refers to the total disenchantment of a group of individuals with established values and norms. These assumptions suggest the interrelation of the three major sociological concepts of alienation, deviance and social control in order to demonstrate that the phenomena represented by them manifest themselves in a temporal sequence that is integral to the process of becoming deviant. This theoretical outline guided the sociological interpretation of historical materials that encompass some of the activities engaged in by radical labor movements in North America during the post-World War I and II periods. Documents from Labor, business and government sources were introduced as the data. The study confirms an often-made assumption that political deviance and possibly other forms of deviance emanate from a cleavage in perspective that arises from the different social experiences common to elites and non-elite groups. Where such cleavage is appreciable, the authorities frequently perceive Labor's conduct as motivated by a Communist conspiracy that aims at the replacement of existing standards with the objectives of the "co-operative commonwealth". Where this cleavage is less pronounced, the authorities perceive some groups of individuals as disaffected from the work role. A comparison of the U.S. and Canadian perspectives of the events examined generally reveals only minor differences between the U.S. and Canadian Labor Movements. These differences are here regarded as resulting from the evolution of the North American Trade Union Movement itself. No important differences are found to exist between the perspectives of these incidents by the U.S. and Canadian authorities in the two historical periods examined. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

This study attempted to address the relative merits of the Weberian and Structural Marxist perspectives for explaining changes in the distribution of wage labor. The findings of the study suggested that many of the common assumptions held by Weberians and Structural Marxists concerning the effects of technological growth, increasing bureaucratization of production, increasing concentration of capital, and growth in the ranks of white-collar workers are not supported with data on manufacturing industries in the post-war era. Moreover, this study introduced collective action as an important determinant for explaining changes in the labor process and in the distribution of wage labor. The findings indicate that workers collective action enhances our understanding of labor process development and changes in wage labor. And, the findings suggest that the struggle between workers and capitalists is vital to understanding the process of capitalist development since World War II, contrary to the popularly held beliefs of many post-industrial theorists. / Ph. D.