A study report and recommendations for training shop stewards, with particular reference to the need for fuller cooperation between unions and management in program planning. A standardized union steward job model is included. (LY)

Summarizes the history of bargaining units formed to represent professional employees and presents the results of a survey of officers of 40 professional staff unions. These unions resemble conventional unions in bargaining issues such as job security and salaries and in their relationship with management. They differ in their infrequent use of…

Examines effects of Harry Braverman's (1974) "Labor and Monopoly Capital" in terms of workers' participation and resistance; gendered outcomes; and changes in skill levels and control strategies. Suggests that Braverman's key premises have been overturned by research and events of the last 20 years. (SK)

The San Francisco Hotels Partnership is a consortium of hotel operators and unions that addresses skill-development needs in the hospitality industry. Participating workers were very satisfied with the opportunity to learn communication, problem solving, and teamwork skills. (SK)

Work-based learning as expressed in national qualifications frameworks is discussed within the theoretical context of Foucault's notion of discipline. Argues that the management of worker subjectivity is an essential element of the governmentality of organizations. (SK)

New forms of work and work organization--customized, specialized, and flexible--require new skills and flexibility in job training. Demand for versatility is calling into question the ways in which knowledge and skills are conveyed. Knowledge generation is becoming inseparable from work production. (SK)

Data from 2,061 British companies in the Workplace Industrial Relations Survey supported the hypothesis that powerful unions reduce the external threat of job loss and therefore the pace of work in unionized firms is less responsive to such threats. (SK)

Looks at the evolution of unions over the past 15 years and suggests that, since they are losing their clout, they may be able to make peace with management. (JOW)

Discusses increasing labor problems in the U.S. Postal Service, despite attempts to change the organizational culture. (JOW)

In the last thirty-five years, higher education has become one of the most heavily unionized sectors in the United States, exceeded only by shipping, select heavy manufacturing, communication, and professional sports. Unionization in traditional blue-collar industries has declined, which is why industrial unions like the United Auto Workers (UAW)…

Engagement is essential for the processing of information. It is presented here as 2 points along a continuum: initial attention (primary self-presentation) and sustained attention (continued self-regulation). The LIBRE (Listen, Identify, Brainstorm, Reality Test, Encourage) Stick Figure Tool (N. S. Guerra, 2003) provides a graphic organizer for…

Presents a biographical sketch of Samuel Gompers, founder of the American Federation of Labor. (CH)

Argues that exclusive representation reduces public employees' freedom of choice, increases the welfare of union leaders at the expense of union members, limits employment opportunities of "outsiders," entrenches the monopoly provision of public services, and generates conflict and instability in labor relations. (Author/MLF)

Labor-management cooperation to improve the quality of products and work life are traced to the early nineteenth century. Government activities in labor relations and experiments in industrial democracy in the United States and abroad are described. (SK)