Unions in America provides a concise and current introduction to what America's labor unions do and why they do it. In this engaging text, author Gary Chaison portrays America's unions as complex, self-governing organizations that are struggling to regain their lost membership, bargaining power, and political influence. This accessible textbook offers an impartial overview of American unions that ranges from the struggle for recognition from employers in their earliest years to their present-day difficulties.
Legitimacy is vital to unions. Without it, they lose political and ideological support, members, and access to funds. Gary Chaison and Barbara Bigelow use the concept of legitimacy as a lens through which to understand the steady decline in union size and influence and to suggest new strategies for union revitalization.Chaison and Bigelow relate legitimacy to five case studies: the UPS strike, the organization of clerical workers at Harvard, the AFL-CIO associate membership campaign, the fight against NAFTA, and the Massachusetts Nurses Association Campaign for Safe Care. The cases show the need for unions to move beyond pragmatic concerns and link their activities to the broader interests of their constituencies, demonstrating not only that they offer something tangible in return for support (pragmatic legitimacy) but also that they are doing the right thing (moral legitimacy).Chaison and Bigelow's work has practical implications for the management of unions' core activities—organizing, collective bargaining, and political action.
The past fifteen years have been difficult for the labor movements in industrial countries. Gary N. Chaison addresses questions implicit in the decline of unions in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand: How and why do labor unions merge under pressure? What role do mergers play in the unions' strategies to deal with membership losses, management opposition, and hostile governments? Are there distinctive national profiles of union mergers? Chaison begins by describing the dynamics of the union merger process as large unions combine with each other in amalgamations, as small unions are absorbed into larger ones, and as local unions affiliate into nationals. He discusses the reasons for mergers, the barriers to consolidation, and the problems of integration which may result. The five chapters that follow are arranged in order of increasing intensity in merger activity, ranging from the United States, where interest in mergers is growing, to New Zealand, where changing legislation has catalyzed an enormous wave of mergers. For each of the five countries considered, Chaison characterizes the industrial relations climate and merger record since 1980, explains landmark mergers, identifies the antecedents, and assesses the chances that a sudden flood of mergers will occur. The final chapter compares the national profiles, extrapolating the significant differences and common threads. Chaison concludes that while mergers can play a critical role in revitalizing labor movements and building the dominant unions of the future, they are not necessarily solving the fundamental economic and political problems that plague unions.
This book explains how collective bargaining has changed in important and lasting ways over the past decade. We are now seeing a new and powerful strain of the concession bargaining that traces its roots back to the early 1980s. The collective bargaining of the past decade can be characterized as ultra-concession bargaining because it is an intense and self-perpetuating deviation from earlier concession bargaining. Employers now act and unions react, rather than the other way around. Employers no longer have to establish a credible case of financial hardship, or commit to the traditional quid pro quo of saving jobs in return for lower labor costs, or guarantee singularity (that concession bargaining is a single even that will not have to be repeated). Not all collective bargaining occurs as this extreme variant but it has become the prevailing form. Essentially, there has been a sea change in collective bargaining in America.The book describes the transformation of collective bargaining in a lively and readable manner, avoiding academic, legalistic or technical jargon, and it will appeal to persons interested in the future directions of collective bargaining and unionism in America, (e.g., the general public, graduate and undergraduate students in human resource management and industrial relations courses, and labor relations managers and union activists and staff). The book deals with aspects of union revival as it asks whether ultra-concession bargaining is cause or outcome of the unions’ declining influence in the American economy and society. Above all, by using published reports on bargaining and interviews and surveys of bargaining settlements, the book shows where the concession bargaining is now and where it is heading.
Globalization is commonly described in trade and cultural terms but its impact on unions and collective bargaining is seldom assessed. The few studies of unions and globalization are mostly collections of cases studies of how unions can work together or with other alliance partners to defend against the power of multinational corporations. This book goes beyond the current research by asking how unions have tried to deal with globalization and how globalization might threaten the fundamental union mission of taking wages, hours and conditions of employment out of competition. The introductory chapter defines globalization and uses the case of the Detroit Three automakers (GM, Chrysler and Ford) to show how globalization can affect employment and union size, influence and relevancy. The second chapter shows how unions deal globalization through collective bargaining regarding outsourcing, alliances, strikes and political action, including lobbying and international work standards. The final chapter argues that the unions cannot continue unchanged in this age of globalization and asks what they must do to be effective and relevant.
Unions in America' provides a concise and current introduction to what America's labour unions do and why they do it. Chaison portrays America's unions as complex, self-governing organisations that are struggling to regain their lost membership, bargaining power, and political influence.
Globalization is commonly described in trade and cultural terms but its impact on unions and collective bargaining is seldom assessed. The few studies of unions and globalization are mostly collections of cases studies of how unions can work together or with other alliance partners to defend against the power of multinational corporations. This book goes beyond the current research by asking how unions have tried to deal with globalization and how globalization might threaten the fundamental union mission of taking wages, hours and conditions of employment out of competition. The introductory chapter defines globalization and uses the case of the Detroit Three automakers (GM, Chrysler and Ford) to show how globalization can affect employment and union size, influence and relevancy. The second chapter shows how unions deal globalization through collective bargaining regarding outsourcing, alliances, strikes and political action, including lobbying and international work standards. The final chapter argues that the unions cannot continue unchanged in this age of globalization and asks what they must do to be effective and relevant.
Legitimacy is vital to unions. Without it, they lose political and ideological support, members, and access to funds. Gary Chaison and Barbara Bigelow use the concept of legitimacy as a lens through which to understand the steady decline in union size and influence and to suggest new strategies for union revitalization.Chaison and Bigelow relate legitimacy to five case studies: the UPS strike, the organization of clerical workers at Harvard, the AFL-CIO associate membership campaign, the fight against NAFTA, and the Massachusetts Nurses Association Campaign for Safe Care. The cases show the need for unions to move beyond pragmatic concerns and link their activities to the broader interests of their constituencies, demonstrating not only that they offer something tangible in return for support (pragmatic legitimacy) but also that they are doing the right thing (moral legitimacy).Chaison and Bigelow's work has practical implications for the management of unions' core activities—organizing, collective bargaining, and political action.
The past fifteen years have been difficult for the labor movements in industrial countries. Gary N. Chaison addresses questions implicit in the decline of unions in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand: How and why do labor unions merge under pressure? What role do mergers play in the unions' strategies to deal with membership losses, management opposition, and hostile governments? Are there distinctive national profiles of union mergers? Chaison begins by describing the dynamics of the union merger process as large unions combine with each other in amalgamations, as small unions are absorbed into larger ones, and as local unions affiliate into nationals. He discusses the reasons for mergers, the barriers to consolidation, and the problems of integration which may result. The five chapters that follow are arranged in order of increasing intensity in merger activity, ranging from the United States, where interest in mergers is growing, to New Zealand, where changing legislation has catalyzed an enormous wave of mergers. For each of the five countries considered, Chaison characterizes the industrial relations climate and merger record since 1980, explains landmark mergers, identifies the antecedents, and assesses the chances that a sudden flood of mergers will occur. The final chapter compares the national profiles, extrapolating the significant differences and common threads. Chaison concludes that while mergers can play a critical role in revitalizing labor movements and building the dominant unions of the future, they are not necessarily solving the fundamental economic and political problems that plague unions.
Second in the Jerry and Pawn Domestic Bliss series, in which hilarity abounds in Nakhon-Pathom, Thailand. Fun for the whole family. In this "episode", an extremely shy guy becomes a hit with the ladies thanks to hypnotism.
Unions in America provides a concise and current introduction to what America′s labor unions do and why they do it. In this engaging text, author Gary Chaison portrays America′s unions as complex, self-governing organizations that are struggling to regain their lost membership, bargaining power, and political influence. This accessible textbook offers an impartial overview of American unions that ranges from the struggle for recognition from employers in their earliest years to their present-day difficulties. Key Features: Provides a clear and unbiased view of unions, to present readers with an impartial perspective Offers readers a current assessment of unions with recent examples and descriptions of emerging or continuing trends in organizing, collective bargaining, and political action Provides a concise overview of unions that introduces readers to fundamental union activities without overwhelming them with too many details about alternative process, outcomes, and legal issues Covers a wide-range of important topics such as the evolution of unions; union structure and growth; union government and administration; the union as bargaining agent; union political activities; proposals for union revival, and insight on the future of unions Unions in America is an excellent text for undergraduate and graduate students studying unions and labor relations in a variety of fields including Industrial Relations, Human Resource Management, Economics, and Sociology. It will also be a valuable resource for workers, managers, or anyone else looking for a foundation for understanding the state of unions in America.
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