Nowhere is the tension attending simultaneous political democratization and economic liberalization more sharply felt than in the realm of labour relations. What is happening in Soviet trade unions today? How will the emerging independent unions respond to anticipated rises in unemployment? What kind of social regulation of the labour market will be appropriate in the future? These papers from a pathbreaking US-Soviet conference on labour issues reveal a considerable diversity of views on questions whose resolution will be essential to social peace in this period of transition. Among the noted contributors are Joseph Berliner, Sam Bowles, Richard Freeman, Leonid Gordon, V.L.Kosmarskii, Alla Nazimova, Michael Piore, Boris Rakitskii, Iurii Volkov, Ben Ward and Tatiana Zaslavskaia.

Langauge and Discrimination provides a unique and authoritative study of the linguistic dimension of racial discrimination. Based upon extensive work carried out over many years by the Industrial Language Training Service in the U.K, this illuminating analysis argues that a real understanding of how language functions as a means of indirect racial discrimination must be founded on an expanded view of language which recognises the inseparability of language, culture and meaning. After initially introducing the subject matter of the book and providing an overview of discrimination and language learning, the authors examine the relationship between theory and practice in four main areas: theories of interaction and their application; ethnographic and linguistic analysis of workplace settings; training in communication for white professionals; and language training for adult bilingual workers and job-seekers. Detailed case studies illustrate how theory can be turned into practice if appropriate information, research, development and training and co-ordinated in an integrated response to issues of multi-ethnic communication, discrimination and social justice.

Based on an industrial relations case study conducted in a British Steel plant in the north east coast iron and steel industry, this book, first published in 1976, is an account of the application of sociological concepts and ideas to the process of social relations between employer and employee, and between all types of workers in industrial organisations.

This book, first published in 1973, analyses and sets in context one of the major issues in the growth of the European economy. Workers' participation played an increasingly vital role in industrial relations. This book looks at the background and development of different types of participation in Britain, ranging from workers' attempts at co-operative production, through the schemes in the nationalised industries of mining and steel, to the Fairfields Experiment and the Upper Clyde 'work-in' in shipbuilding. This book concludes with an account of the developments in worker councils and worker directors in nine other European countries.

IThis title was first published in 2003. In the early 1990s, Australia, Sweden and the UK dismantled the old centralised pay setting systems which set the pay of civil servants and adopted decentralised pay systems. Consequently, these systems are now being considered by many other European countries as they look to reform their own systems. Bender and Elliott analyse the outcomes of these pioneering reforms in all three countries and, in doing so, provide the most detailed analysis of the pay of civil servants in these three countries to date. The authors further assess the effect that decentralisation had on the inequality of pay both within and between different departments, agencies and ministries. They identify the differences in the rates of pay growth for the different grades of civil servants that lie behind the changes in pay inequality, and assess whether decentralisation changed the way in which civil servants are paid.

The crucial role of employers and managers in the development of industrial relations has been the focus of much recent research. However, there remains little consensus on key issues such as the determinants of managerial strategies, or employers' contributions to differing national patterns of industrial relations. "The Power to Manage" argues that many of these difficulties stem from the limitations of the theoretical frameworks within which the research has been carried out. Both functionalist and evolutionary perspectives subordinate managerial choices to the pressures of the market or the broader patterns of business development. In consequence, these approaches cannot explain the persistent diversity of employers' labour policies or the prevalence of contradictory and incoherent strategies. Taking the characteristic features of British industrial relations as a point of departure, the contributors to this volume present detailed empirical studies of employer labour policies in a variety of countries. These establish a comparative-historical framework within which the characteristics of British developments can be evaluated and explained. This book should be of interest to ad

Title first published in 2003. Contributors from a wide range of European countries illustrate the validity of four propositions about employee participation: that different forms of employee participation mutually reinforce each other; that major shifts in employment relations require innovative approaches to participation; that appropriate conditions (including the provision of training and support) are required for the spread of participation; and that trade unions remain a crucial foundation for the promotion of participation.

This title was first published in 2000: This book describes and accounts for the patterns of industrial relations which have emerged in the UK coal industry since privatization in 1994. In so doing, it also addresses wider issues relating to industrial relations and ownership. Labour relations practices currently evident within the industry are compared with those which prevailed during the final years of nationalization, and a series of case studies demonstrates that both continuity and change are visible. Whilst continuity with the patterns of labour relations established during the final decade of public ownership is shown to have had negative implications for organized labour within the industry however, the changes associated with privatization are demonstrated to have been a more ambivalent force. This book concludes that privatization has had a significant influence upon industrial relations within the industry, and that organized labour has in general been detrimentally affected by these developments.

This title was first published in 2002: Although the economic integration of the European Union is far-advanced, its social dimension remains under-developed. Often there is uncertainty about, and lack of information on, the economic, social and legal situation of employees in the other EU countries. This study investigates this situation. It acknowledges the term "Europeanization" as being in no way clearly defined, but offers an interpretation of the Europeanization of industrial relations as a socio-political process, with the main focus the change within the plant and organization. Industrial relations in Germany are used as a point of reference against which selected aspects of industrial relations in France, the UK, and Italy are compared and contrasted. Specific areas of study include: workplace and company organization; collective bargaining; trade unions and employers' associations; and government regulations and legislative standardization.

"A Handbook of Dispute Resolution" examines the theoretical and practical developments that are transforming the practice of lawyers and other professionals engaged in settling disputes, grievance-handling, and litigation. The book explains what distinguishes alternative dispute resolution (ADR) from other forms of dispute resolution and examines the role ADR can play in the many situations where litigation would once have been the only option, such as family law and company law. In some areas, such as industrial relations, ADR is not an alternative, but the main method of conflict intervention.
In this study, several contributors draw on their experience in negotiating between management and unions. Detailed attention is also given to the wide variety of methods open to the non-litigious, including the use of ombudsmen, negotiation, small-claims courts, and mini-trials.
Because ADR is a new concept, questions about the training of mediators and about the role of central government have not yet been resolved. The final section of the book is devoted to discussion of these issues, with case studies drawn from the international arena -- China, Canada, Australia, Germany, and North America -- to place ADR in a cultural and historical perspective.

This study of the problems confronting institutions for the creation of occupational skills in seven advanced industrialized countries contributes to two different areas of debate. The first is the study of the diversity of institutional forms taken by modern capitalism, and the difficulties currently surrounding the survival of that diversity. Most discussions of this theme analyse economic institutions and governance in general. The authors of this book are more specific, focusing on the key area of skill creation. The second theme is that of vocational education and training in its own right. While sharing the consensus that the advanced countries must secure competitive advantage in a global economy by developing highly skilled work-forces, the authors draw attention to certain awkward aspects of this approach that are often glossed over in general debate: The employment-generating power of improvements in skill levels is limited: employment policy cannot depend fully on education policies While the acquisition of skills has become a major public need, there is increasing dependence for their provision on individual firms, which can have no responsibility for general needs, with government action being restricted to residual care for the unemployed rather than contributing at the leading edge of advanced skills policy. The authors argue that public agencies must find new ways of working with the business sector, acquiring expertise and authority through such means as supporting skills standards and taking the lead in the certification of employers as trainers. There must also be reconsideration of the former role of public-service employment as a provider of secure if poorly paid employment for low-productivity workers. The countries covered are France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, the UK and the USA.

From the 1930s to the 1960s, the Popular Front produced a significant era in African American literary radicalism. While scholars have long associated the black radicalism of the Popular Front with the literary left and the working class, Christin Marie Taylor considers how black radicalism influenced southern fiction about black workers, offering a new view of work and labor. At the height of the New Deal era and its legacies, Taylor examines how southern literature of the Popular Front not only addressed the familiar stakes of race and labor but also called upon an imagined black folk to explore questions of feeling and desire. By poring over tropes of black workers across genres of southern literature in the works of George Wylie Henderson, William Attaway, Eudora Welty, and Sarah Elizabeth Wright, Taylor reveals the broad reach of black radicalism into experiments with portraying human feelings. These writers grounded interrelationships and stoked emotions to present the social issues of their times in deeply human terms. Taylor emphasizes the multidimensional use of the sensual and the sexual, which many protest writers of the period, such as Richard Wright, avoided. She suggests Henderson and company used feeling to touch readers while also questioning and reimagining the political contexts and apparent victories of their times. Taylor shows how these fictions adopted the aesthetics and politics of feeling as a response to New Deal-era policy reforms, both in their successes and their failures. In effect, these writers, some who are not considered a part of an African American protest tradition, illuminated an alternative form of protest through poignant paradigms.

Focussing on a period of rapid and significant change in the coal industry, this volume, originally published in 1936, sets out the economic facts of the industry and discusses the extent to which politics and industry became interwoven during the years 1910-1936. As well as covering key events such as the General Strike of 1926 and the effects this had on both the UK mining industry and the general population, this volume also examines industrial relations, the growth of the unions and modernization of the industry.

Originally published in 1986 the first part of this book outlines some of the general problems of technological change and labour relations. It discusses the politics of rationalisation and of industrialisation in the car industry by examining case studies of Volkswagen British Leyland and FIAT. The impact developments exert on trade unions in the UK, Germany and Italy is discussed simultaneously.

"Employee-organization relationship" is an overarching term that describes the relationship between the employee and the organization. It encompasses psychological contracts, perceived organizational support, and the employment relationship. Remarkable progress has been made in the last 30 years in the study of EOR. This volume, by a stellar list of international contributors, offers perspectives on EOR that will be of interest to scholars, practitioners and graduate students in IO psychology, business and human resource management.

In this book, first published in 1988, the author shows that the movement for industrial democracy has deep roots in British history, and looks at the economic and political potential of industrial democracy as a mechanism to halt 100 years of industrial decline. The author advocates the general adoption of the industrial co-operative form of organisation on two grounds: it provides for authentic industrial democracy, and it maximises commitment to industrial regeneration. Lucid and jargon-free, The Third Way explores the options for economic and institutional change in a mature industrial economy. This title will be of interest to students of business studies.

Airline pilots in various countries around the world have made determined use of industrial action. The use of strike action by the pilots challenges the view that militant trade unionism is confined to lower-paid workers and is associated with a left-wing political orientation. This phenomenon provides the author with an opportunity for singling out the basic factors underlying attitudes and behaviour in industrial relations. His starting point is a 'systems model' of industrial relations which is submitted to critical examination and refined, enhancing its usefulness as a research methodology. In particular he stresses the importance of personality elements in the parties to the disputes. The book, first published in 1972, also provides an analysis of the development of the airlines and their institutions.

Filling an important gap in a neglected area of Russian history, namely the 1880s and early 1890s, this volume, originally published in 1987, examines the labour movement from the perspective of the politicized workers themselves. It examines not only their attitudes toward student intellectuals but also toward the rank and file workers, as well as themselves. These attitudes are essential to understand the extent and the focus of the 'workers intelligentsia's' political and cultural activities. The period the book focusses on was one of relative labour calm whilst at the same time being a period of rapid industrial development. St. Petersburg was chosen because it was the largest city and also the locale of Russia's most technologically advanced industries.

Originally published in 1916, this volume discusses the history of the labour movement during the latter part of the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries, in so far as it relates to the advocacy and use of violence. A contentious issue which divided the labour movement during the 19th century, the author presents arguments made by both sides of this controversy. Nonetheless, the book remains a Marxist critique of violence as practised by direct action anarchists.

Explores the role of women as social actors who contribute to both continuity and change in their society. It examines the inter-linkages between women, industrial work and relations both within the family and in the local community.

The behaviour of US productivity since this book was originally publishedin 1994, has added new relevance to the relationship between profits and productivity. In the long run, productivity growth determines the economic standard of living. This book is divided into three parts: the basis of the first is the empirical finding that, controlling for normal business cycle effects, productivity grows faster when profits have been low than otherwise. The second part discusses how to measure marginal cost using time series data and the third tests a basic assumption that productivity growth is exogenous to labour and capital.

First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Originally published in 1989, this book analyses the economic and political position of the small firm in the 1980s, and in particular the relationship between small and large firms in an advanced capitalist economy. Focusing on the printing and clothing industries, it examines the industrial relation practices in these two contrasting sectors and shows that apparent industrial relations harmony - for example, the lack of strikes - should be put down to the powerlessness of the workforce rather than to contentment.

A sweeping history of the full range of human labor Few authors are able to write cogently in both the scientific and the economic spheres. Even fewer possess the intellectual scope needed to address science and economics at a macro as well as a micro level. But Paul Cockshott, using the dual lenses of Marxist economics and technological advance, has managed to pull off a stunningly acute critical perspective of human history, from pre-agricultural societies to the present. In How the World Works, Cockshott connects scientific, economic, and societal strands to produce a sweeping and detailed work of historical analysis. This book will astound readers of all backgrounds and ages; it will also will engage scholars of history, science, and economics for years to come.