Suchergebnisse

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In 1935, the federal National Labor Relations Act provided U.S. workers the right to bargain over wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment with their employers, forming the framework for collective bargaining in the United States. The Act allowed workers to join together to form unions and required that employers recognize certified employee unions and bargain "in good faith." Although the Act applied broadly to "employees," it and subsequent amendments excluded certain groups of workers from its coverage. Three-quarters of the civilian workforce--or 103 million of the 135 million people in the labor force as of February 2001--had some form of collective bargaining rights from federal, state, or local statutes. In contrast, 32 million civilian workers were without collective bargaining rights under any law, either federal and state. The portion of the total labor force with collective bargaining rights has likely increased since 1959. Since 1959, no major group of workers has lost bargaining rights under the Act. However, other federal, state, and local laws have extended rights to some workers in the groups excluded from the Act, providing bargaining rights to 14.5 million workers, primarily nonprofit health care workers; federal, state, and local government workers; and agricultural workers. Under two recent Supreme Court cases affecting National Labor Relations Board decisions, some workers currently with bargaining rights may either lose bargaining rights or have their rights diminished. In the Kentucky River decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the Board should revise its test for determining whether a worker is a supervisor, and excluded group under the Act, finding that the Board's test served to categorically include certain employees as covered under the act. Because any future tests used by the Board to determine whether or not employees are supervisors should be less categorical and more case-specific, the Kentucky River decision could increase the number of employees considered supervisory and thus excluded from coverage under the act. In the case of Hoffman Plastic, the Court reversed the Board's decision to award back pay to an undocumented alien worker who was fired for union activity. Although the Court did not exclude undocumented alien workers from protection under the Act, it prohibited the Board from awarding back pay to these documented alien workers whose rights had been violated, stating that this remedy would conflict with federal immigration law."

AbstractAn aging workforce and increasing retirement benefits are ongoing problems for states and municipalities. Unions are often blamed for governments offering too generous pension benefits. This contributes to budgetary pressures in some state and municipal governments. This article analyzes the impact of collective bargaining on pension benefit generosity under different economic conditions. The study finds that the impact of collective bargaining on pension benefits is not consistent over time or across pension plans. Collective bargaining has a positive effect on pension benefits under worsening economic conditions. Additionally, unions indirectly influence pension benefit generosity through campaign donations and unionization intensity. The findings suggest mixed impacts of collective bargaining on different groups of public employees regarding pension contributions. The article concludes with implications for the role of unions in public financial performance and strategic human resource management during fiscal austerity.

The British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF), representing all public elementary and secondary school teachers in the province, is one of the largest and most powerful unions in British Columbia. BCTF has always sought formal rights to full-scope collective bargaining, and unrestricted access to striking at the school board level. It has employed a sustained, sophisticated series of strategies to achieve these objectives, quickly adapting to changing political and legal environments. The BCTF has had significant success in advancing its labour relations agenda, establishing a different trajectory for teachers than for most public sector workers in Canada. This article maps BCTF's labour relations strategies and agenda against the backdrop of the political and legal environments, from BCTF's inception to present-day. It argues that, as a result of these factors, BC teachers have experienced a different labour relations history than most public sector workers. Drawing on and adapting Rose's (2004) eras of public sector labour relations, this article identifies the following eras of BC teacher labour relations: an era of exclusion (to 1982), resistance and revitalization (1982-86), expansion (1987-93), reform (1994), reprieve (1994-2001), restraint and consolidation (2002-2007), and reaching an era of realignment beginning in 2007.

AbstractRisk analysis research often focuses on regulation, assessment, and management rather than risk governance. This study contributes to the risk governance literature by analyzing the relationship between collective bargaining rights for firefighters and firefighter fatalities in the United States. Using state‐level data from 2009 through 2018, this analysis shows that states with duty‐to‐bargain rights for firefighters have fewer firefighter fatalities than those without duty‐to‐bargain rights. Further, this analysis shows that the benefit of duty‐to‐bargain rights dissipates in states with a high percentage of fully volunteer fire departments. This study concludes with a discussion of the implications for fire departments and public policy.