Introduction / David Lewin, Bruce E. Kaufman -- Partnerships of steel? : forging high involvement work systems in the U.S. steel industry : a view from the local unions / Saul A. Rubinstein -- The union commitment of adjunct faculty / Kathleen L. Pereles -- Shaping political preferences through...

For the AFL-CIO, the 2000 presidential election was a test of a revised political action program that concentrated resources on “issue based” political education and intensive member contact. Using quasi-experimental methods, I evaluate the effect of direct mailings, telephone calls, and...

Although the organizational practice of using “contingent or non-traditional workers” has been escalating since the mid-1980s, only recently has research begun to focus on the consequences of this practice. In unionized workplaces, labor leaders have begun to organize these workers. Although...

The study analyses production worker hiring standards based on time series personnel records drawn from matched plants in the U.S., U.K., Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium. Our hypothesis is that labor market regulation pushes upwards hiring standards for production workers. Labor market...

The employment practices of major American companies underwent a marked transformation in the fifteen-year period dating roughly from the beginning of World War I to the oncoming of the Great Depression in late 1929 (Jacoby, 1985; Lescohier, 1935). At the start of World War I, the practice of...

This paper evaluates the only industry-wide process initiated by a union through collective bargaining to reorganize traditional work systems and transform labor relations. It analyzes attempts over the past decade by the United Steelworkers of America to introduce its model for a more...

JoAnn Wypijewski, reflecting on the experience of workers laid off from General Electric’s (GE) Bloomington, Indiana refrigerator plant, as GE announced profits of $12.7 billion, and the relocation of half the production to Celaya, Mexico, asks: What will it take to match fire with fire at GE,...

The topic of company unions – employee associations sponsored and organized by management – has generated strong feelings. For many years, conventional labor unions have been vehemently opposed to worker representation through company unions. Conventional labor unions have viewed company...