In "The Teacher Insurgency," Leo Casey addresses how the unexpected wave of recent teacher strikes has had a dramatic impact on American public education, teacher unions, and the larger labor movement. Casey explains how this uprising was not only born out of opposition to government policies that underfunded public schools and…

Ever wonder why union members' salary and benefits, workload agreements, and other aspects of their collective bargaining agreements, or "contracts," often remain unchanged and enforced during the all-too-common periods when public employees labor without a contract? In New York, the answer boils down to an understanding of the Public…

Over the course of the 1980s and 1990s, the contours of neoliberalism took shape, as individual corporations implemented new strategies seeking to shift the frontier of control in their favor and increase their profits. Their actions began to shape the political and economic practices of both major political parties, and the orientation of…

Of all the recent budget cuts made by the Eagle County, Colorado, school district--the loss of 89 staff jobs through attrition and layoffs, a 1.5 percent across-the-board pay cut, and the introduction of three furlough days--none sparked as much anger or faced the same scrutiny as the decision to cut three foreign-language teaching positions and…

Research on social movements and public policy has expanded tremendously in recent years, yet little of this work considers the role of movement opponents in the political process or how the movement-countermovement dynamic is influential in contests over policy. This historical study begins to fill this void by analyzing the contestation between…

Critiques Samuel Bacharach and Edward Lawler's theory of argument in bargaining. Concludes that although their theory does not sufficiently account for argument as process or as point of view, their ideas represent a viable starting point for understanding and investigating the nature of argument in dispute resolution. (MM)

An historical run down on teacher strikes and legislation concluding that the schools must have the authority to negotiate and settle. Collective bargaining, the author says, is a process of confrontation. (Author/AF)

Fact finders should be called on the scene only when an impasse results in a disagreement over facts. Nevertheless, mediators typically recommend fact-finding regardless of the nature of the impasse. Such a move typically exacerbates the controversy instead of settling it. (Author/IRT)

Although strikes by public employees are illegal in Michigan, the rate of strike in Michigan public schools has been double that in the private sector. Teachers have been using the legal impasse procedures of mediation and fact-finding as a form of political power and pressure to bleed the school districts. Reasons for this include the…

Reasons for the failure of a teachers' strike are analyzed. (JD)

Discusses the history of silk production from its beginnings in China. Concentrates on the development of the industry in Lyon, France, and the uprising of silk weavers in 1831 and 1834. (JOW)

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AND LABOR UNION STRENGTH HAVE GIVEN RISE TO TWO SERIOUS CHALLENGES FACING PRIVATE ENTERPRISE, INFLATION AND INTERFERENCE WITH MANAGERIAL AUTHORITY. IN RECENT YEARS, THE COST OF LIVING HAS AVERAGED AN INCREASE OF FOUR PERCENT PER YEAR WHILE LABOR COSTS HAVE ACHIEVED AN ANNUAL RATE OF INCREASE OF OVER SIX PERCENT. AT THE SAME…