West Germany from 1949 to 1990 was a story of virtually unparalleled political and economic success. This economic miracle incorporated a well-functioning political democracy, expanded to include a "social partnership" system of economic representation. Then the Wall came down. Economic crisis in the East industrial collapse, massive layoffs, a demoralized workforce triggered gloomy predictions. Was this the beginning of the end for the widely admired "German model"? Lowell Turner has extensively researched the German transformation in the 1990s. Indeed, in 1993 he was at the factory gates at Siemens in Rostock for the first major strike in post-Cold War eastern Germany. In that strike, and in a series of other incisively analyzed workplace and job developments in eastern Germany, he shows the remarkable resilience and flexibility of the German social partnership and the contribution of its institutions to unification. His controversial and, to some, radical findings will stimulate debate at home and abroad."

West Germany from 1949 to 1990 was a story of virtually unparalleled political and economic success. This economic miracle incorporated a well-functioning political democracy, expanded to include a "social partnership" system of economic representation. Then the Wall came down. Economic crisis in the East industrial collapse, massive layoffs, a demoralized workforce triggered gloomy predictions. Was this the beginning of the end for the widely admired "German model"? Lowell Turner has extensively researched the German transformation in the 1990s. Indeed, in 1993 he was at the factory gates at Siemens in Rostock for the first major strike in post-Cold War eastern Germany. In that strike, and in a series of other incisively analyzed workplace and job developments in eastern Germany, he shows the remarkable resilience and flexibility of the German social partnership and the contribution of its institutions to unification. His controversial and, to some, radical findings will stimulate debate at home and abroad."

This book, the first on industrial relations research methods, comes at a time when the field of industrial relations is in flux and research strategy has become more complex and varied. Research that once focused on the relationship between labor and management now involves a wider range of issues. This change has raised a number of key questions about how research should be done.The contributors represent four countries and a range of fields, including economics, sociology, psychology, law, history, and industrial relations. They identify distinctive research strategies and suggest approaches that might be appropriate in the future. Among their concerns are the relative value of qualitative and quantitative methods, of using primary and secondary data, and of single versus multimethod techniques.

Denis Collins believes that participatory management systems are inevitable in democratic societies because they are ethically superior to authoritarian management systems. Managers must begin to share decision making and economic outcomes with their employees if they want to obtain long-term efficiency and effectiveness in a competitive business environment. Changes in power relationships are bound to occur in the transitional period, Collins reports, and will challenge the flexibility of management.

Scanlon Plans were developed in the 1930s as a way to link improvements in productivity to employee wages. Popular because of the large amount of employee involvement in their design, Scanlon Plans are in place at 260 Fortune 1000 companies, as well as many smaller firms. To understand the considerable variation in the success of gainsharing plans and participatory management more generally, Collins studied six companies that used Scanlon Programs, explaining the nuts and bolts of each plan. He addresses the concerns of workers, managers, and unions when they were present, highlighting political games employees must address to enhance success. Collins then offers a new theory of gainsharing based on conflicts of interest at work.

The years between 1930 and 1979 witnessed a period of intense labor activity in Latin America as workers participated in strikes, unionization efforts, and populist and revolutionary movements. The ten original essays AEMDNMOin this volume examine sugar mill seizures in Cuba, oil nationalization and railway strikes in Mexico, the attempted revolution in Guatemala, railway nationalization and Peronism in Argentina, Brazil's textile strikes, the Bolivian revolution of 1952, Peru's copper strikes, and the copper nationalization in Chile--all important national events in which industrial laborers played critical roles. Demonstrating an illuminating, bottom-up approach to Latin American labor history, these essays investigate the everyday acts through which workers attempted to assert more control over the work process and thereby add dignity to their lives. Working together, they were able to bring shop floor struggles to public attention and--at certain critical junctures--to influence events on a national scale. The contributors are Andrew Boeger, Michael Marconi Braga, Jonathan C. Brown, Josh DeWind, Marc Christian McLeod, Michael Snodgrass, Andrea Spears, Joanna Swanger, Maria Celina Tuozzo, and Joel Wolfe.

Since World War I, says Joseph McCartin, the central problem of American labor relations has been the struggle among workers, managers, and state officials to reconcile democracy and authority in the workplace. In his comprehensive look at labor issues during the decade of the Great War, McCartin explores the political, economic, and social forces that gave rise to this conflict and shows how rising labor militancy and the sudden erosion of managerial control in wartime workplaces combined to create an industrial crisis. The search for a resolution to this crisis led to the formation of an influential coalition of labor Democrats, AFL unionists, and Progressive activists on the eve of U.S. entry into the war. Though the coalition's efforts in pursuit of industrial democracy were eventually frustrated by powerful forces in business and government and by internal rifts within the movement itself, McCartin shows how the shared quest helped cement the ties between unionists and the Democratic Party that would subsequently shape much New Deal legislation and would continue to influence the course of American political and labor history to the present day.

"A Living Wage", the rallying cry of activists, has a revealing history, here documented by Lawrence B. Glickman. The labor movement's response to wages shows how American workers negotiated the transition from artisan to consumer, opening up new political possibilities for organized workers and creating contradictions that continue to haunt the labor movement today.

Nineteenth-century workers hoped to become self-employed artisans, rather than permanent "wage slaves". After the Civil War, however, unions redefined working-class identity in consumerist terms, and demanded a wage that would reward workers commensurate with their needs as consumers. This consumerist turn in labor ideology also led workers to struggle for shorter hours and union labels.

First articulated in the 1870s, the demand for a living wage was voiced increasingly by labor leaders and reformers at the turn of the century. Glickman explores the racial, ethnic, and gender implications, as white male workers defined themselves in contrast to African Americans, women, Asians, and recent European immigrants. He shows how a historical perspective on the concept of a living wage can inform our understanding of current controversies.

Nearly every country that produces cars views the automobile industry as strategically important because of its direct economic significance and because it serves as a bell-weather for innovation in employment conditions. In this book, industrial relations experts from eleven countries consider the state of the industry worldwide. They are particularly interested in assessing whether the loudly heralded model of lean production initiated by Toyota has become pervasive.

The contributors focus on employment practices: the way work is organized, how workers and managers interact, the way worker representatives respond to lean production strategies, and the nature of the adaptation and innovation process itself. Global competition and changing technological possibilities are pressuring other industries to transform their employment practices and the auto industry may be an important harbinger of what is to come.

In the early twentieth century, an era characterized by unprecedented industrial strife and violence, thousands of employers across the United States pioneered a new policy of labor relations called welfare work. The paternalistic practices and forms of compensation they introduced were designed not only to control workers but also to advertise the humanity of corporate capitalism and thus to thwart the advance of legislated reform. In a penetrating contribution to a burgeoning literature on the development of the U.S. welfare state, Andrea Tone offers a new interpretation of the role of welfare capitalism in the shaping of that development.

"This book has two main strengths. First, its approach gives a sense of the texture and variety of the implementation of lean production, the forces that shape it in practice, and the alternatives that may be available. Second, the book's international focus provides a wealth of fascinating material concerning the influence of national conditions on the shaping of production practices." Harley Shaiken, author of Work Transformed: Automation and Labor in the Computer AgeNearly every country that produces cars views the automobile industry as strategically important because of its direct economic significance and because it serves as a bellwether for innovation in employment conditions. In this book, industrial relations experts from eleven countries consider the state of the industry worldwide. They are particularly interested in assessing whether the loudly heralded model of lean production initiated by Toyota has become pervasive.The contributors focus on employment practices: the way work is organized, how workers and managers interact, the way worker representatives respond to lean production strategies, and the nature of the adaptation and innovation process itself."

This paperback facsimile edition restores to print Howard Kester's Revolt among the Sharecroppers, a lost classic of southern radicalism. First published in 1936, Kester's brief, stirring book provides a dramatic eyewitness account of the origins of the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union (STFU), the Arkansas Delta sharecroppers' organization whose cause was championed by religious radicals and socialists during the 1930s. Accompanying Kester's original text is a substantial new introductory essay by historian Alex Lichtenstein. This edition will introduce general readers, scholars, and students to a social movement with significant historical implications. In its commitment to interracialism, the STFU challenged long-standing southern traditions. In its hostility to the agricultural recovery programs of the 1930s (which tended to benefit landowners at the expense of tenant farmers), the union offered an early critique of New Deal liberalism. And, finally, in its insistence that the dispossessed could assume control of their own destiny, the STFU foreshadowed the progressive social movements of the 1960s. Thus, Revolt among the Sharecroppers is an important primary document that makes a signal contribution to our understanding of southern history, labor history, African American history, and the history of Depression-era America. Kester's text recounts the early history of the STFU and its criticisms of the New Deal in compelling, accessible prose. Lichtenstein's introduction offers biographical background on Kester, explores the religious and socialist beliefs that led him to work with the STFU, describes the racial and social climate that shaped the union's emergence, places the union'srise and decline within the context of 1930s politics, and outlines the legacy of this remarkable organization.

The postwar miracle, says John Price, made Japan and its corporations the toast of the global village, with scholars across the United States pointing to Japan as the model for future enterprise. The economic bubble burst, however, in 1989, and Price documents difficulties that have surfaced since that time. In Japan itself, the common self-assessment is "rich country, poor people" and government reports regularly criticize society for being too enterprising. In emulating Japan, Price asks, are we choosing a path Japan itself is rejecting?Price probes the paradoxes in postwar labor-management relations, particularly in the years between 1945 and 1975. Basing his analysis on the history of labor in Mitsui's Miike mine in Kyushu, Suzuki Motors in Hamamatsu, and Moriguchi City Hall, the author questions the common interpretation that industrial relations are based on lifetime jobs, seniority-based wages, and enterprise unions. He also asks whether Japanese workers have been genuinely empowered by the developments in recent years. In his description of the rough-and-tumble world of postwar Japanese industrial relations, Price pays particular attention to the Occupation period, the rise of Shunto, the increased industrial conflict prior to 1975, and the transition to generalized labor-management cooperation. Relying on French regulation theory and on Michael Burawoy's concept of production regimes, Price suggests a revisionist interpretation of the transformation of Japan's political economy, offering new insights into the rise of lean production and the quality movement in Japan.

World Employment Programme Background papers for training in population, human resources and development planning. Paper No. 6. The main objective of the Programme is to help Member States incorporate demographic elements into employment-related policies and, more broadly, to facilitate the integration of population and human resources development issues into national development planning. The present paper addresses the issues of assessing women's contribution to economic development.

It is no secret that corporate America is in trouble--as are labor unions--and a principal reason is our archaic system of labor-management relations, which excludes labor from participating in, and sharing responsibility for, the growth and profitability of the enterprises for which it works. In a book sure to arouse controversy in both management and labor circles, Barry and Irving Bluestone propose a New Enterprise Compact under which labor becomes co-responsible with management for all strategic business decisions--pricing, investment, plant location, and more.

Between 1870 and 1942, successive generations of Asians and Asian AmericansOCopredominantly Chinese, Japanese, and FilipinoOCoformed the predominant body of workers in the Pacific Coast canned-salmon industry.

This study traces the shifts in the ethnic and gender composition of the cannery labor market from its origins through it decline and examines the workers' creation of work cultures and social communities. Resisting the label of cheap laborer, these Asian American workers established formal and informal codes of workplace behavior, negotiated with contractors and recruiters, and formed alliances to organize the workforce.

Whether he is discussing Japanese women workers' sharing of child-care responsibilities or the role of Filipino workers in establishing the Cannery and Field Workers Union, Chris Friday portrays Asian and Asian American workers as people who, while enduring oppressive restrictions, continually attempted to shape their own lives.

In the series "Asian American History and Culture," edited by Sucheng Chan, David Palumbo-Liu, Michael Omi, K. Scott Wong, and Linda Trinh VA.
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This volume presents selected extracts from International Labour Conventions and Recommendations, and from relevant resolutions and conclusions of various ILO conferences and bodies, relating to labour law and labour relations. Topics covered include: freedom of association; dispute settlement; enterprise-level labour relations; labour relations in the public service; tripartism; employment security; remuneration; and collective bargaining.

The presence of Japan Inc. looms larger than ever for millions of American managers and workers, as hundreds of Japanese companies open plants and offices in local communities across the United States. What is it like to work for the Japanese? Can Americans, with their strong tradition of individualism, adjust to a Japanese "team system" that emphasizes harmony and close cooperation? How do Americans and Japanese resolve the misunderstandings that arise from differences in language and culture? Journalists Joseph and Suzy Fucini sought the answers by studying relations between Americans and Japanese at the Mazda plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, the first wholly-owned Japanese auto plant to employ a unionized American workforce. For three years, the Fucinis followed events at the plant, interviewing more than one hundred workers, managers and outside suppliers. The authors conclude that for all its strengths, the team system requires the sacrifice of individual interests to the good of the group, and that no matter how hard an individual tries to become part of the Mazda team, advancement for both managers and workers will be limited by the fact that they are not Japanese.

Lynch condemns the sloppy, fearful thinking that has converted affirmative action into quotas and that has kept social researchers shying away from this explosive topic.

"Shulamit Reinharz Choice"

There is nothing quite like Frederick Lynch's book which describes how affirmative action works in real life, and points to some very disturbing effects. This is a subject that should be discussed not only in the Supreme Court and Lynch makes an important contribution to that discussion. "Nathan Glazer, Harvard University"

More and more questions have surfaced in the past decade concerning the wisdom and fairness of affirmative action programs. In this book, Lynch takes a hard look at affirmative action policy development and the social and ethical implications of a system that promotes gender and race as criteria for vocational advancement and educational opportunity. He focuses on the experiences of white males who have been victims of reverse discrimination under such programs and explores the lackluster response from government, the media, and employing institutions. Lynch examines the political taboo that for two decades effectively stifled discussion of the issues that affirmative action raises in both public discourse and scholarly analysis. He reviews the original ideals and purposes of affirmative action and contrasts them with the program as it has actually operated in everyday work settings. In case studies based on interviews and other data, Lynch assesses the reactions of white males to affirmative action social barriers, as well as their impact on co-workers, friends, and relatives. He describes the role of the mass media, the social sciences, and ideological elites in creating a conspiracy of silence concerning the hidden and unintended consequences of affirmative action policies. The only study that deals specifically with the impact of affirmative action on white males, this book is a must read for anyone who is truly interested in understanding the sociological, political, and psychological complexities of this issue.

One of the important objectives of the ASEAN Programme on Industrial Relations for Development (a joint project ILO/UNDP/ASEAN) was to promote the study and analysis of basic issues in labour relations and labour laws within the ASEAN countries. To meet this objective a number of national experts have been invited under the Project to prepare country studies on the following issues: the problem of union recognition; the administration and enforcement of collective agreements; the voluntary and compulsory arbitration of labour disputes; the right to strike and lockout. These studies, which have now been completed and published, are aimed to provide an opportunity for students, practitioners, policy-makers to acquire valuable insights based on the experience of the ASEAN countries. It is hoped that these materials will promote comparative studies in labour relations and labour laws which in turn could lead to cross-fertilisation of ideas and concepts and even to desirable reforms.

In this book, Walton and McKersie attempt to describe a comprehensive theory of labor negotiation. The authors abstract and analyze four sets of systems of activities which they believe account for much of the behavior found in labor negotiations. The first system of activities, termed "distributive bargaining," comprises competitive behaviors that are intended to influence the division of limited resources. The second system is made up of activities that increase the joint gain available to the negotiating parties, referred to as "integrative bargaining." They are problem-solving behaviors and other activities which identify, enlarge and act upon the common interests of the parties. The third system includes activities that influence the attitudes of the parties toward each other and affect the basic relationship bonds between the social units involved. This process is referred to as "attitudinal structuring." The fourth system of activities, which occurs as an integral aspect of the inter-party negotiations, comprises the behaviors of a negotiator that are meant to achieve consensus within one's own organizations. This fourth process is called "intra-organizational bargaining." Each sub process has its own set of instrumental acts or tactics. Therefore, each of the four model chapters is followed by a chapter on the tactics which implement the process. These chapters translate the model into tactical assignments and include an abundance of supporting illustrations from actual negotiations. This study should be of interest to several audiences, including students and teachers of industrial relations, social scientists interested in the general field of conflict resolution, as well as practitioners of collective bargaining and other individuals directly involved in international negotiations. The overall theoretical framework has been derived by a mixture of inductive and deductive reasoning. Extensive fieldwork and several dozen printed case studies have provided the bulk of the empirical data. In terms of meaning, the study has three touchstones: the field of collective bargaining; the field of conflict resolutions; and the underlying disciplines of economics, psychology, and sociology.