During the winter months of 2002-03 there was played out the most significant and bitter industrial dispute in the UK since the miners' strike of 1984-85. There then followed a further eighteen months of protracted negotiations, overshadowed by the Government's preparations for invasion of Iraq, constant threats to ban strikes, and the passing of draconian anti-union laws. This book tells the story of the firefighters' dispute and shines a beacon on the way the New Labour Government was prepared to go extraordinary lengths - though it was not always successful - to thwart the ambitions of a relatively small and dedicated group of public servants, who were seeking pay justice after years of decline in their relative pay, despite significant increases in productivity and skill levels.

Labour Relations in Transition provides a unique insight into the realities of Russian industrial enterprises in the transition period as it affects workers on the shop floor. Based on a unique collaborative programme of ethnographic and case study research, this volume includes original work by Western and Russian scholars focusing on the restructuring of wages, employment and industrial relations, and how workers have responded to these changes. As well as presenting pioneering analysis of trade unions and industrial conflict, Labour Relations in Transition addresses changing status hierarchies within the workforce, the position of women in production, the process of bankruptcy, and insider and outsider control. This is the third volume in the series Management and Industry in Russia and will be welcomed by sociologists and Russian specialists for addressing contemporary Labour-Management relations within the context of the changing significance of work and work relations in the lives of Russian workers.

Household Chemicals and Emergency First Aid is an essential manual that covers 386 household chemicals, discusses their hazards when mixed with other chemicals, describes the symptoms of overexposure, and provides instructions for emergency first aid treatment. The book is intended to be used in the event that label instructions on household chemicals have not been followed. It describes what may possibly happen and how to handle the situation if it does occur. Poison control centers are listed by state with phone numbers and addresses. Because household accidents involving chemicals are so prevalent, this manual is a ""must have"" book for all emergency medical technicians, paramedics, and other emergency first aid providers. It is also useful for anyone wanting detailed information regarding emergency situations with household chemicals.

Should trade unions passively respond to turbulent changes in industrial relations or can they innovate and set their own agenda? In the face of technological, economic, political and cultural change, trade unions across Europe face a genuine threat to their past achievements and their future capacity to act and shape industrial relations.In The Challenges to Trade Unions in Europe , a group of prominent authors examines the unions' strategic policies in seven European member states and at the European Union level, as well as their responses to the globalization of economic competition. Using theoretical and historical analysis as well as up-to-date empirical research, they examine the successes of trade unions and their capacity to innovate in order to remain strategic actors in the industrial relations arena. In particular, the authors examine trade union policies responding to topical issues such as training, sustainable growth, flexibility, decentralization, deregulation and neo-liberal state policies. The Challenges to Trade Unions in Europe explores responses to the main economic, managerial, political and socio-cultural features of the transformation process facing trade unions in Europe. It will be welcomed by researchers and students interested in industrial relations, personnel management, and the social and economic implications of European integration.

Within the area of safety, different perspectives exist on how to provide an adequate basis for managing risk. Safety experts emphasize the cautionary principle, stating that in the face of uncertainty, caution should be the dominant standard. On the other hand, relying on economic assessment often leads to decisions made using expected values to optimize return on investment. Safety Risk Management: Integrating Economic and Safety Perspectives aims to illuminate this dichotomy while debating important questions. For example, is 'safety always first?' Additionally, in many risk environments only partial knowledge is available and limited emphasis may be mistakenly given to uncertainty. Risk management deals with balancing the dilemma inherent in exploring opportunities on the one hand, and avoiding losses, accidents, and disasters, on the other. Safety Risk Management: Integrating Economic and Safety Perspectives comprises a collection of work in this field with special focus given to situations with the potential for substantial reward but also with the possibility of immense losses and extreme consequences. This book aims to contribute to clarifying the problem by proposing an appropriate basis for managing risk to meet related practical challenges. The book consists of two parts: chapters covering fundamental concepts and approaches; and, chapters illustrating applications of these fundamental principles.

Perestroika's fate was determined by the hostile reaction of the working class. Strikes, protest and the fear of working class action had a devastating impact, yet relatively little is known about the workers' movement during this period. This book surveys the development of the new workers' movement in Russia under perestroika to understand how it connected with the workers at shop floor level and the national and local political authorities to whom it addressed its demands, and whose development it sought to influence. Drawing on a programme of collaborative research on Russian industrial relations from 1987 to 1992, the authors use a series of case studies to explain the gulf between the thousands of tiny independent groups, often based in a single enterprise or even a single shop and regional and national organizations without a grassroots base. Extensive interviews with participants, tape and video recordings as well as substantial documentary material are used in case studies of the 1989 miners' strike in Kuzbass, the Kuzbass Regional Council of Workers' committees, the Independent Miner's Union in Kuzbass, Sotsprof in Moscow and the Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Unions.

Business, Organized Labour and Climate Policy examines the current lack of effective action in bridging the gap between climate change goals and governmental policies. With little published about the role of employers' organizations and trade unions in the climate change policy process, this book evaluates their involvement and argues that labour market considerations should be a central element of climate change policy. The study applies ecological modernization theory as a framework to guide policy development and negotiation. Application of the framework finds that employers' organizations and trade unions are effective civil society advocates, but responding to the labour market implications of climate change is neither institutionally embedded nor prioritized. Included are case studies of climate change policy in six developed and two developing economies, as well as within organizations such as the European Union and the UNFCCC. The emergence of labour issues in formal climate agreements demonstrates the impact that climate change is having on the broader economy and employment, and the need for business and labour to take concrete action. Providing an invaluable reference for policy development, this work will appeal to academics and students, as well as employers' organizations and trade unions. This book provides a unique perspective on key stakeholding organizations in climate change policy and presents a platform for engaging with government.

A MacArthur Award-winning scholar explores the explosive intersection of farming, immigration, and big business At the outset of World War II, California agriculture seemed to be on the cusp of change. Many Californians, reacting to the ravages of the Great Depression, called for a radical reorientation of the highly exploitative labour relations that had allowed the state to become such a productive farming frontier. But with the importation of the first braceros-""guest workers"" from Mexico hired on an ""emergency"" basis after the United States entered the war-an even more intense struggle ensued over how agriculture would be conducted in the state. Esteemed geographer Don Mitchell argues that by delineating the need for cheap, flexible farm labour as a problem and solving it via the importation of relatively disempowered migrant workers, an alliance of growers and government actors committed the United States to an agricultural system that is, in important respects, still with us. They Saved the Crops is a theoretically rich and stylistically innovative account of grower rapaciousness, worker militancy, rampant corruption, and bureaucratic bias. Mitchell shows that growers, workers, and officials confronted a series of problems that shaped-and were shaped by-the landscape itself. For growers, the problem was finding the right kind of labour at the right price at the right time. Workers struggled for survival and attempted to win power in the face of economic exploitation and unremitting violence. Bureaucrats tried to harness political power to meet the demands of, as one put it, ""the people whom we serve."" Drawing on a deep well of empirical materials from archives up and down the state, Mitchell's account promises to be the definitive book about California agriculture in the turbulent decades of the mid-twentieth century.

This book explores a number of important issues in the area of occupational safety and hygiene. Presenting both research and best practices for the evaluation of occupational risk, safety and health in various types of industry, it particularly focuses on occupational safety in automated environments, innovative management systems and occupational safety in a global context. The different chapters examine the perspectives of all those involved, such as managers, workers and OSH professionals. Based on selected contributions presented at the 16th International Symposium on Occupational Safety and Hygiene (SHO 2020), held on 6-7 April, 2020, in Porto, Portugal, the book serves as a timely reference guide and source of inspiration to OSH researchers, practitioners and organizations operating in a global context.

The presence of transaction costs greatly modifies the traditional picture of the allocation of resources through the market. It gives rise to many phenomena inexplicable in the simple market view and to problems of government policy. Oliver Williamson has been a leading figure in this analysis. His interpretations of corporate governance and of the complementarity between internal controls and the market have been the most profound in the literature. It is good that his leading essays are now available in collected form.' - Kenneth J. Arrow, Stanford University, US'Oliver Williamson's contributions to economics are certainly among the most important of the past several decades, and their importance will be increasingly recognized as economists come to grips with all that he has accomplished. This collection provides an unparalleled view of those contributions, and it belongs on the bookshelf of everyone who wants to understand complex economic transactions.' - David Kreps, Stanford University, US 'This book provides a terrific opportunity to have a collection of Oliver Williamson's best papers on transaction cost economics all in one convenient volume.' - Paul L. Joskow, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and MIT 'Williamson's work on transaction cost economics has shaped the thinking of all social scientists about organizations and institutions. This volume reprints many of his seminal papers on the subject, and is valuable both as commemoration and for reference.' - Avinash Dixit, Princeton University, US Transaction cost economics has and continues to be a fruitful area of research. There is still much to be done in the field with past research being used in conjunction with the vast number of contractual phenomena that have yet to be investigated in transaction cost economics terms. New challenges are posed by the need to move beyond the design of new contractual instruments (such as financial derivatives) to include an examination of the lurking hazards that attend contract implementation. This important collection brings together Professor Williamson's key papers on transaction cost economics. It will be of benefit to academics, scholars and practitioners with an interest in this progressive subject.

Anton Pannekoek discusses the viability of workers' councils as an effective means of administrating a socialist society, as contrasted to the centralized doctrines of state communism or state capitalism. Conceived as an alternative way to establish and sustain socialism, the workers councils have so far never been successfully established at a national scale. Part of the problem was disagreements among revolutionaries about their size and responsibilities; while Lenin supported the notion during the revolutionary period, the councils were phased out in favor of a centralized state, rather than diffused through the strata of society. Pannekoek draws on history for his ideas, noting the deficiencies of previous revolutions and the major objectives a future revolution should hold. The various tasks a state of worker's councils must accomplish, and the enemies that must be overcome - notably fascists, bourgeois elements and big business - are listed.

Working for pay is a common experience throughout North America for youth, with up to 80 percent of high school students working for at least a short duration of time through the course of a year. Once adolescents enter the labor market, they usually continue working, though they change jobs frequently through to their early 20s. Most working youth are employed during both the school year and the summer. Adolescents and young adults are exposed to a variety of workplace risks and hazards that include operating dangerous tools, machinery, and vehicles; handling cash in situations prone to robbery; and working with supervisors and co-workers whose own 'safe work practices' are suspect. Proper orientation and training is sometimes minimal; supervision can be limited and of questionable quality. Given that over the past fifty years the proportion of adolescents entering the workforce has increased six-fold for both males and females, and that the number of working youth is expected to continue increasing due to globalization and diffusion of new technologies, there is definite cause for concern. Why the large discrepancy between young people and adults when it comes to workplace injury? Why are our future workers being injured at all? Youth willingly enter work settings expecting to be guided and protected, yet many are exposed to work environments and safety cultures leading to quite different outcomes. Some answers may lie in better understanding the young worker experience or in the similarities and differences between the young worker and adult worker experience. We only know that a simplistic, rote answer will not suffice, especially when young people continue to be injured, some fatally, on the job. In an effort to begin answering some of these questions, we have developed this two part book. Part I is designed to provide the reader with an overview of what we know about young workers and some of the factors that may influence their ability to stay safe at work. The literature draws attention to areas ranging from the Nature of the Workplace, to Risk Perception, and finally to Management and System Support. Where appropriate, the findings from the Young Worker Young Supervisor (YWYS) project are brought into the existing literature on young worker health and safety. Part I sets the tone for Part II of the monograph by giving the reader an idea of what young workers find themselves facing when they enter the world of work, from characteristics of the workplace to unique conditions and relationships of young workers. To further illuminate the issues and situations youth face in the workplace, Part II presents a series of vignettes that were drawn from real life situations observed through the course of the YWYS project. The vignettes are brief, evocative descriptions, accounts, or episodes representing the types of experiences common to young workers. These vignettes are based on the case studies and interviews conducted during the course of the YWYS project. The circumstances presented in the vignettes reflect the conditions under which many young workers find themselves. As farfetched as some of the managers' and young workers' behavior may seem in the vignettes, the events are fictionalized versions of real workplace occurrences. Each vignette is followed by one or more 'scenario(s)', each presenting an open-ended problem taken from real life and faced by young workers. Each scenario ends with a series of questions intended to encourage the reader towards further discussion.

How does the politics of working life shape modern organizations? Is our desire for meaningful, secure work increasingly at odds with corporate behaviour in a globalized economy? Does the rise of performance management culture represent an intensification of work, or create opportunities for the freewheeling individual career? This timely and engaging book, by leading authorities in the field, adopts the standpoint of the 'questioning observer'. It is for those who need an informed account of work that is accessible without being superficial. The book is unique in its multi-dimensional approach, weaving together analysis of individual work experience, political processes in organizations, and the wider context of the social structuring of markets. The book identifies central questions about working experience and answers them in a direct and lively manner. It has a strong analytical foundation based on a political economy framework, giving particular weight to the contradictory character of organizations. These contradictions turn on the competing demands placed on organizations and the different political projects of groups within them. This perspective integrates the chapters, and permits numerous scholarly debates to be addressed - including those on identity projects, gender and work, power and participation, escalation in decision-making, and the meaning of corporate social responsibility. This book is suitable for undergraduate and graduate classes in Organizational Behaviour, Business Strategy and the Sociology of Work and Employment. It will also appeal to the general reader interested in grappling with the complexity of the changing environment of work.

View the Table of Contents. Read the Preface.

"Laboras Home Front is an outstanding contribution. Balanced and fair-minded, Kerstenas richly documented account puts the AFL at the center of wartime labor relations and domestic history generally. . . . Kersten also sheds new light on the key role of the AFL in the emergence of social democratic liberalism during the era of World War II."
--Robert H. Zieger, University of Florida

"Labor's Home Front is the work of a careful and thorough historian. Kersten establishes the centrality of the often neglected American Federation of Labor to the story of labor's uphill efforts during World War II to breathe life into the lofty ideals embodied in the Four Freedoms. He skillfully weaves his case studies--on gender, race, union rivalries, safety, the open shop, and postwar planning--into a narrative fully attentive to the evolution of the Federation's ideology and politics, poignantly conveying the spirit of sacrifice and suffering without romanticizing his subjects. This is a genuinely important book."
--Eric Arnesen, author of "Brotherhoods of Color: Black Railroad Workers and the Struggle for Equality"

One of the oldest, strongest, and largest labor organizations in the U.S., the American Federation of Labor (AFL) had 4 million members in over 20,000 union locals during World War II. The AFL played a key role in wartime production and was a major actor in the contentious relationship between the state, organized labor, and the working class in the 1940s. The war years are pivotal in the history of American labor, but books on the AFL's experiences are scant, with far more on the radical Congress of Industrial Unions(CIO).

Andrew E. Kersten closes this gap with Labor's Home Front, challenging us to reconsider the AFL and its influence on twentieth-century history. Kersten details the union's contributions to wartime labor relations, its opposition to the open shop movement, divided support for fair employment and equity for women and African American workers, its constant battles with the CIO, and its significant efforts to reshape American society, economics, and politics after the war. Throughout, Kersten frames his narrative with an original, central theme: that despite its conservative nature, the AFL was dramatically transformed during World War II, becoming a more powerful progressive force that pushed for liberal change.

The southern textile strikes of 1929-1931 were ferocious struggles--thousands of millhands went on strike, the National Guard was deployed, several people were killed and hundreds injured and jailed. The southern press, and for a time the national press, covered the story in enormous detail. In recounting developments, southern reporters and editors found themselves swept up on a painful and sweeping re-examination and reconstruction of southern institutions and values. Whalen explores the largely unknown world of southern journalism and investigates the ways in which the upheaval in textiles triggered profound soul-searching among southerners. The southern textile strikes of 1929-1931 were ferocious struggles--thousands of millhands went on strike, the National Guard was deployed, several people were killed and hundreds injured and jailed. The southern press, and for a time the national press, covered the story in enormous detail. In recounting developments, southern reporters and editors found themselves swept up on a painful and sweeping re-examination and reconstruction of southern institutions and values. Whalen explores the largely unknown world of southern journalism and investigates the ways in which the upheaval in textiles triggered profound soul-searching among southerners.

The worlds of labor, journalism, and the American South collide in this study. That collision, Whalen claims, is the prelude to the stunning social, economic, and cultural transformation of the American South which occurred in the last half of the twentieth century. The textile strikes shocked the mind of the South, a fact that can readily be seen in hometown papers, as reporters and editors ran the gamut from denial and scheming to hoping and dreaming--sometimes even bravely confronting the truth. The reevaluation of southern manners and mores that would culminate in the Civil Rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s can be dated back to this period of turmoil.

Rapid changes within the modern business landscape have created new demands for human resources management. With a different set of challenges to face, human resources managers must implement novel approaches to improve policy effectiveness. Strategic Labor Relations Management in Modern Organizations is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly research on emerging human resource practices in relation to labor management, featuring innovative methods to remain competitive in the global business arena. Focusing on critical analyses and real-world applications, this book is ideally designed for professionals, upper-level students, managers, and researchers actively involved in human resources settings.

This is a study of a progressive law firm and its three partners. The firm was founded in 1936 and existed until the death of one partner in 1965. The partners were harassed by the FBI primarily for defending labor union members and leaders and the defense of both. The firm's primary client was Harry Bridges, the long term President on the International Longshoreman's and Warehouseman's Union (ILWU). The irony was that the more the FBI persecuted labor unions, the more business the firm had from those harassed by the FBI. During this time the FBI was primarily interested in controlling the Communist Party. While the clients of the firm were sometimes Communists, the law partners were not Communist Party members. In both of these ways the FBI was wasting its time in persecuting this firm. Although the primary data used involved existing records (for example all of the partners had extensive FBI files), we also interviewed colleagues and relatives of the partners.

This timely publication concentrates on the exposure to pesticides by agricultural workers and residential users of pesticides through inhalation and physical contact.

The book discusses more recently discovered risks such as pesticides on indoor carpets and includes new trends in data interpretation.

"Occupational & Residential Exposure Assessment for Pesticides" complements the other title on pesticide exposure in the series - "Pesticide Residues in Drinking Water," by Hamilton/Crossley and is a must for all professionals in the Pesticide Industry as well as academics.

This is a study of how governments and their specialist advisers, in an age of free trade and the minimal state, attempted to create a viable legal framework for trade unions and strikes. It traces the collapse, in the face of judicial interventions, of the regime for collective labour devised by the Liberal Tories in the 1820s, following the repeal of the Combination Acts. The new arrangements enacted in the 1870s allowed collective labour unparalleled freedoms, contended by the newly-founded Trades Union Congress. This book seeks to reinstate the view from government into an account of how the settlement was brought about, tracing the emergence of an official view - largely independent of external pressure - which favoured withdrawing the criminal law from peaceful industrial relations and allowing a virtually unrestricted freedom to combine. It reviews the impact upon the Home Office's specialist advisers of contemporary intellectual trends, such as the assaults upon classical and political economy and the historicized critiques of labour law developed by Liberal writers. Curthoys offers an historical context for the major court decisions affecting the security of trade union funds, and the freedom to strike, while the views of the judges are integrated within the terms of a wider debate between proponents of contending views of 'free trade' and 'free labour'. New evidence sheds light on the considerations which impelled governments to grant trade unions a distinctive form of legal existence, and to protect strikers from the criminal law. This account of the making of labour law affords many wider insights into the nature and inner workings of the Victorian state as it dismantled the remnants of feudalism (symbolized by the Master and Servant Acts) and sought to reconcile competing conceptions of citizenship in an age of franchise extension. After the repeal of the Combination Acts in the 1820s collective labour enjoyed limited freedoms. When this regime collapsed under judicial challenge, governments were obliged to devise a new legal framework for trade unions and strikes, enacted between 1871 and 1876. Drawing extensively upon previously unused governmental sources, this study affords many wider insights into the nature and inner workings of the mid-Victorian state, tracing the impact upon policy-makers of contemporary assaults upon classical political economy, and of the historicized critiques of labour law developed by Liberal writers. As contending views of 'free trade' and 'free labour' came into collision, an official view was formed which favoured allowing an unrestricted freedom to combine and sought to withraw the criminal law from peaceful industrial relations.

Developing an Effective Safety Culture implements a simple philosophy, namely that working safely is a cultural issue. An effective safety culture will eventually lead to the desired goal of zero incidents in the work place, and this book will provide an understanding of what is needed to reach this goal. The authors present reference material for all phases of building a safety management system and ultimately developing a safety program that fits the culture.
This volume offers the most comprehensive approach to developing an effective safety culture. Information is easily accessible as the authors move first through, understanding the cost of incidents, then to perspectives and descriptions of management systems, principal management leadership traits, establishing and evaluating goals and objectives, providing visible leadership, and assigning required responsibilities. In addition, you are given the means to systematically identifying hazards and develop your own hazard inventory and control system.
Further information on OSHA requirements for training, behavior-based safety processes, and the development of a job hazard analysis for each task is available as well. Valuable case studies, from the authors' own experience in the industry, are used throughout to demonstrate the concepts presented.
* Provides the tools to rebuild or enhance a desired safety culture
* Allows you to identify a program that will fit your specific application
* Examines different philosophies in relation to safety culture development

In 1897 a small landholder named Robert Eastham shot and killed timber magnate Frank Thompson in Tucker County, West Virginia, leading to a sensational trial that highlighted a clash between local traditions and modernizing forces. Ronald L. Lewis's book uses this largely forgotten episode as a window into contests over political, environmental, and legal change in turn-of-the-century Appalachia. The Eastham-Thompson feud pitted a former Confederate against a member of the new business elite who was, as a northern Republican, his cultural and political opposite. For Lewis, their clash was one flashpoint in a larger phenomenon central to US history in the second half of the nineteenth century: the often violent imposition of new commercial and legal regimes over holdout areas stretching from Appalachia to the trans-Missouri West. Taking a ground-level view of these so-called "wars of incorporation," Lewis's powerful microhistory shows just how strongly local communities guarded traditional relationships to natural resources. Modernizers sought to convict Eastham of murder, but juries drawn from the traditionalist population refused to comply. Although the resisters won the courtroom battle, the modernizers eventually won the war for control of the state's timber frontier.