Back in the mid-2000s, in public and in the news media, Joseph P. Burke, then superintendent of the Springfield public schools, and Timothy T. Collins, president of the local teachers' union, often seemed to be at odds with each other. Out of the public eye, however, the two men had begun meeting regularly. When Burke left the district, the work…

The further education (FE) sector in England has experienced two decades of marketisation. This article takes as its focus the first five years of incorporation (1993-1998) for one case study college in a city ("Coppleton") in the West Midlands of England, five years that were dominated by a contract dispute. Data from interviews with…

Purpose: This study examined how labor-management relations between school districts and teacher associations seem to affect teacher contract provisions regarding the role of seniority in teacher assignment and how contract provisions and teacher assignment policies seem to affect beginning teachers' perceptions about their work environments.…

In the Fall 2007, there were landmark labor contracts agreed upon between the United Autoworkers (UAW) and the Big Three Automakers--General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and Chrysler LLC. The impetus for these truly historic labor agreements was to afford the automakers to remain competitive in the global market while labor was to be protected.…

The purpose of this cross-sectional, comparison study attempted to investigate if a code of conduct existed in New Jersey teacher union contracts to nursing/hospital union contracts. Archived data of public school district and nursing/hospital union contracts held with the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Committee (NJ PERC) and Health…

For five decades, collective bargaining has been implemented in American public schools (Loveless, 2000). It has protected the rights of teachers; and teacher work conditions issues and compensation have improved (Hannaway & Rotherham, 2006). However, improvements have created adversarial labor-management relationships, resulted in excessive…

Arlene C. Ackerman, who took the helm of Philadelphia's public schools a little more than a year ago, is pushing for changes that would upend how teachers are paid and assigned to schools. The veteran urban superintendent is battling tradition in the 167,000-student system, but insists that increasing the effectiveness of the city's nearly 10,700…

Effective labor relations training for first-line supervisors should cover the contract, basic labor relations principles, consistent application of discipline, and cost savings concepts. (Author/IRT)

This issue reviews trends in public sector employment (particularly in the light of government policy to reduce it), wages (in a context of cash limits), and strikes and other forms of industrial action. It also considers recent developments in the structure, organization, and policy of the "actors" in public sector industrial relations.…

A study of commercial arbitration in the textile industry that points up the greater flexibility of arbitration in decisionmaking over the litigation process. (Author)

This study examines affective commitment to employing and client organizations among long-term contracted employees, a new and growing employment classification. Drawing on organizational commitment and social exchange literatures, we propose two categories of antecedents of employee commitment to client organizations. We tested our hypotheses…

Research and experience in school labor relations suggest that superintendents can be more effective during contract talks by acting like unbiased education leaders--not tough negotiators. Superintendents can avoid taking adversarial positions by staying off the bargaining team and following suggested guidelines for their role as educator,…

This outline of court cases considers all aspects of collective bargaining, including such topics as changes in teacher assignments, budget allowances, school calendars, class size, evaluation of teachers, job security, nonrenewal of contracts, sick leave, and workload. (Author/IRT)

This series of questions and answers on factfinding in public sector labor relations focuses on the practical aspect of impasse resolution. Rather than choosing a theoretical or historical approach, the practical approach was chosen because factfinding is not a formal process that must rigidly conform to textbook rules. Instead, factfinding can be…

This series of questions and answers on contract administration in public sector labor relations focuses on the practical aspects of both contract administration and grievance handling. Its purpose is to provide information and examples to help practitioners better understand the roles of labor and management while operating under a collective…