Explains the history and functions of labor arbitration. Focuses on the limitations placed on the arbitrator and emphasizes the difference between deciding and compromising on a suit. Includes anecdotes from the experience of the author, a prominent arbitrator. (KH)

The United States is on the verge of a labor shortage that is partly the result of declining birth rates. An increase in work force participation by older adults, encouraged by reversals of early retirement and other policy changes, would be advantageous to employers, workers, and the economy. (Author/SK)

Discusses effects of employment-related geographic relocation, such as stress-related diseases, in relation to nontraditional family systems. Advocates employee assistance programs as method of choice for service intervention. (Author/NB)

The New York newspaper strike of 1978 was the direct result of a series of events that started in 1923 when the pressmen's union established a system that provided a minimum fixed number of pressmen per press unit and legitimized a loose labor pool. From that time, the number of pressmen increased through family-dominated union management that…

After attaining a collective bargaining contract with New York City in 1960, the United Federation of Teachers worked successfully to improve salaries and working conditions. But in the aftermath of the 1975 fiscal crisis, the more equitable participation of teachers in policymaking has emerged as a clear goal. (KH)

Most early research on the impact of undocumented workers on the labor market held that it results in the widespread displacement of native workers. More recent and more sophisticated theory argues that immigrants, both legal and illegal, create jobs by consuming goods and services, and by starting new businesses. This latter idea may not be as…

Evaluates biographies of Cesar Chavez for children and teenagers and provides descriptions of recent books on the children of migrant farm workers. The books, mostly published in the 1990s, cover Chavez's rise as a farm worker activist and include several new works that address the social history of Chavez and the farm workers' struggle. (GR)

As the number of women workers has increased, the conditions of employment have changed. Contingent employment such as part time and temporary work allows women to accommodate their lifestyle needs and enables employers to compete in the world economy. Lack of benefits and lack of advancement opportunities are pitfalls of such arrangements. (VM)

A second series of discussions of American civic issues in the light of European experience is summarized. The overall topics were: the third age of life as a resource in a community, health care, western Eurpoean communism, labor-management co-determination, language education, and the question of whether youth hostels should be subsidized in…