Despite declines in private-sector union membership in the United States, labor relations remains an essential topic within the field of human resource management. However, most undergraduate students have little experience with labor unions, making it difficult to enhance learning by applying labor relations concepts to their prior experiences.…

On October 16, 2017, over 12,000 faculty, librarians, and counsellors in 24 independent postsecondary colleges in Ontario, Canada went on strike for the fourth time since they organized in 1971 as members of the Civil Service Association of Ontario and won their first collective agreement the next year. Begun as an apolitical, self-consciously…

Many often identified the Catholic Church with the cause of labor and worker's rights in the United States. However that was not the common situation encountered by laborers throughout most of the nineteenth century. The proclamation of the social encyclicals: Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum (1891) and Pope Pius XI's Quadragesimo Anno (1931)…

Two articles are presented in this column. "Life in an Auto Factory: Simulating how Labor and Management Interact" by Eric B. Freedman describes a classroom simulation of management and labor relations in an auto factory. Classroom handouts are included. The next article, "Women of Action and County Names: Mary Musgrove County--Why…

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…

Describes the French system of social relations and the trend toward weaker government intervention and stronger employer and labor roles. (AM)

The case of a strike against Ford and opposition to building an electronics plant in the United Kingdom illustrates the issues facing companies and unions in adopting Japanese industrial practices. Efficient production arrangements conflict with traditional multiunionism, and bargaining positions sometimes lead to company investment in countries…

Historical evidence is presented for the thesis that exclusive union representation by majority rule was adopted in the private sector primarily to pave the way for a corporative state. Peaceful, orderly collective bargaining by "responsible" unions in a competitive economy was a minor, secondary consideration. (Author/MLF)

Trends toward greater teacher unionization will increase in the 1980s, as teachers react to economic pressures springing from school closures, declining enrollments, and attempts to fund private schools with public taxes. Educational unions will become more politically active, to protect teachers' union and civil rights. (RW)

The growing trend of judicial support allowing employers and third parties to seek damages in public employee strikes is reviewed from the union perspective. Includes a discussion of the historical trend of liability theories. This area of public sector labor relations law is developing with no clear national trend. (MD)

Argues that labor laws have not contributed to stability in the transportation industries. (BH)

Recommends the selective strike as the best means to resolve railway labor disputes. (BH)

Labor relations between schools and their employees are likely to experience continued change in the 1980s, affecting not only the legislative framework for collective bargaining in the public sector, but also union representation struggles, job security, bargaining issues, layoff procedures, and arbitration. (RW)