Traces the history of Al Shanker's work in building the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), focusing on his tenure as president of the organization. During his presidency, the AFT won 1,249 elections involving half a million people and added 373 locals to its membership. (SLD)

Presents comments spoken at a human rights conference by Han Dongfang, a Chinese activist who was jailed after an attempt to organize China's first independent union from a tent in Tiananmen Square during the democracy movement. Today, he is barred from the mainland but works from Hong Kong through Radio Free Asia. Comments focus on foreign…

Explores the effects of layoffs on work behavior and attitude of employees not laid off. Study results indicate that survivors become more withdrawn from their jobs if they believe management handled the layoff unfairly, and these tendencies are more evident if layoff victims were included in survivors' scope of justice. (JS)

Describes a multimedia training program developed for Union Pacific to help improve management-worker relations and to improve service reliability by improving morale and motivating employees for training. Courses are described; multimedia interactivity is explained, including decision making and problem solving; and future plans are reviewed.…

Discusses the rise of the concept of improved skills recognition in Australian industry. Highlights include the role of industrial relations; the Australian vocational education and training system; recognition, industrial relations, and workplace change; career and training paths; credentials; and future prospects. (10 references) (LRW)

Critical analysis of the ideological character of vocational training initiatives implemented in South Africa, 1976-89, and comparison to "new vocationalism" in Great Britain suggest that South African training programs aim to instill capitalist values and stabilize labor relations while doing little to improve Black participation in the…

A management perspective of major issues in higher education labor law in the 1990s addresses: sexual harassment; the Civil Rights Act of 1991; diversity on campus, elimination of mandatory retirement for faculty; development of contingent work force; and unionization of residents, interns, and graduate assistants. Predicts alternatives to…

Discusses the development of teachers' unions as adversaries of school boards in the 1960s. Today there are signs that unions are moving from an industrial model of labor relations to a more professional union model, one in which union leaders and school leaders can become allies in the effort to improve schools. (SLD)

Examines the legal issues that may have impacts on charter schools. Considers the results of a study of the impact of charter school laws on urban schools (E. Rofes, 1998). Questions whether charter schools are public institutions and examines the key constitutional issues they face. Also reflects on labor issues and dealing with teachers' unions.…

The author discusses what he considers to be the 10 leading cases on education labor relations decided in state and federal courts during the 1990s. Concludes with a prediction that efforts to implement merit-pay schemes tied to student performance will lead to employment conflict. (PKP)

We examine the idea that an individual's "employability" subsumes a host of person-centered constructs needed to deal effectively with the career-related changes occurring in today's economy. We argue that employability represents a form of work specific (pro)active adaptability that consists of three dimensions--career identity, personal…

New managerial techniques such as total quality management and similar worker participation programs are an important albeit controversial component of the recent changes in the workplace brought about by increasing globalization of the economy. In addition, organized labor is faced with a changing and increasingly diverse population of new…

Employee Involvement Schemes (EIS) are modeled after Western European worker participation models. These are grounded in collaborative labor relations and encourage employees to participate in work place decision-making. If employees, as the term is defined in the National Labor Relations Act, take part in EIS decision-making processes, they may…

The term "Latinas" encompasses many different groups of women. Despite the disparities among the cultures of their countries of origin, Spanish-speaking peoples have been lumped as "Hispanics," and later "Latinos," in the United States. The Latino group is rapidly becoming the largest minority population in the United…

This collection of 18 papers review the fundamentals in collective bargaining in higher education. Areas discussed include arbitration, grievance preparation, the collective bargaining process, diversity, technology, staff bargaining, and faculty and staff participation in employee involvement schemes. An annual legal update is included. The…