The Noble Order of the Knights of Labor was the most ambitious and significant labor organization of the Gilded Age. As the charismatic leader of this group, Terence Powderly was America's first nationally known labor leader, the first to achieve a high degree of recognition from working people, industrialists, and politicians across the continent. To most Americans, Powderly "was" the Knights of Labor. Based on an exhaustive examination of Powderly's voluminous correspondence, this book offers a critical analysis of Powderly's efforts to oversee the most spectacular experiment in class-wide solidarity ever undertaken.

Phelan paints a sympathetic and probing portrait of a complex figure caught up in the whirlwind of local and national events. He details the challenges and pressures of labor leadership at a time when industrialization was convulsing the nation, and when the labor movement was struggling to build a viable national institution capable of creating a more egalitarian society. The national focus of this study helps to synthesize the numerous community studies written on the Knights in recent years and offers fresh perspectives on the ultimate meaning of the organization. It is the first detailed examination of the Knights' leadership since the Powderly and Hayes Papers have become available.

Drawing on Marxism and engaging with theorists such as Mikhail Bakhtin, Gilles Deleuze, and Slavoj i ek, John Michael Roberts argues that a new expressive ideology has coalesced within the contemporary workplace around the theme of 'competence'. The 'competence' agenda encourages management and workers to build networks of trust, cooperation and dialogue between one another. By examining the competent public sphere as it appears in the global economy, the author takes to task the competence agenda, relates this agenda to the hegemony of global finance and to the fetishism of the new economy, exposes the dilemmas and contradictions of the competence agenda, and through everyday examples from the UK and USA illustrates how competence is played out and resisted in the contemporary workplace. This bookprovides a fascinating critical account of how the way we work today is debated and discussed by management and workers.

Covering the role of trades unions and labour organizations in industrial relations, Industry's Democratic Revolution contains case studies from Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and USA. Each chapter is authored by a president or secretary general of one of the largest industrial unions from that particular country, which gives an unparalleled insight into the workings of unions and their participation in the key issues of industrial relations such as: productivity factors; guaranteed wages; union participation in management decision-making; de-centralization of industrial power; and policy research.

This comparative study of industrial relations provides an analysis of a wide range of phenomena, with a view to uncovering the origins of national diversity. It takes into account the notion of strategic choice, set within a series of constraints of environment, organizational and institutional conditions and power relationships. The book: covers a wide range of examples from the UK, USA, France, Germany Italy, Sweden, Eastern Europe, Latin America, India and Japan; includes a comprehensive analysis of management and employers' associations, labour and trades unions; and examines the role of the state in comparative perspective.

This book examines the escalation of an organizational conflict to one of the most talked about industrial crises of the past decade: the demise of Eastern Airlines. Through an analysis of the messages exchanged by some of its key participants--the representatives of the pilots and management of Eastern--this study attempts to explain how and why some 4,000 men and women walked away from high-paying glamour jobs and toppled an institution. The book is not an evaluation of the economic climate or financial events that put Eastern into a critical bind; instead, it is an analysis of the human cost of an organizational tragedy that might possibly have been avoided.

The results of the study support communication theory that predicts that when an agitative group bearing the characteristics of the pilots of Eastern Airlines conflicts with an establishment such as Eastern's management under Frank Lorenzo, the establishment can always successfully avoid or suppress agitative movements. This work will be of interest to scholars and practitioners in industrial relations, labor-management studies, corporate communication, and American industrial history.

The most comprehensive hazmat emergency response training manual following NFPA and OSHA competency criteria

The choice of firefighters and other rapid response personnel for years, this user friendly manual helps first responders build their skills step-by-step to professionally handle any hazmat emergency. Organized to enhance understanding and retention--and reinforced with copious illustrations, photographs, learning exercises, and case studies--this book takes the reader from preplanning to dispatch to the stabilization of an incident, and on to post-incident critique and follow-up. New material addresses advances in protective clothing, new products for confinement and containment, and changes in the OSHA Respiratory Protection Standard, plus much more. Additional chapters cover WMDs, with sections specific to WMD response including site control, personal protective equipment, and decontamination.

The study of European labor relations has traditionally been divided between two major theoretical perspectives. Descriptive nation-studies and case studies of specific developments have dominated the European continent. In contrast, the Anglo-Saxon approach has been more explicitly comparative and theoretical in its orientation. As a consequence of their unique advantages and common disadvantage of a focus on national developments to the exclusion of general trends, Europe remains a patchwork of different nations with respect to labor relations. Hans Slomp offers this book as an effort to complement this national perspective with a European view. He provides a general introduction to European labor relations, offering comparative material from a range of countries. Each chapter covers a specific period; the division into periods is based on important changes in economic and political conditions common to most of Europe. In accordance with the continental approach, attention is devoted not just to the form, but also to the content of labor relations. The survey covers the issues of labor relations as practiced by employers or employers' associations and trade unions rather than as an academic discipline. For the general reader, Slomp's work provides a much-needed survey of European labor relations. For the labor relations scholar, it facilitates the distinction between what is truly specific for one country and what is a variation from a European trend.

How dangerous is someone's job? People from ages 22 through 64 spend roughly 40% of their non-sleeping time at a job where there is considerable potential for exposure to fatal safety and health risks. The purpose of this book is to improve the knowledge and working environment of American workers, by providing an in-depth look at the job hazards in 324 industries and 265 occupations. Human Resource managers, industry trade organizations, corporate CEOs, health care administrators, secondary school counselors, as well as, scholars and upper level college and graduate students in the areas of Human Resources, Management, Health Care Management, Law and Social Environment will find this work extremely useful.

Founded in 1893, the National League of the Blind was the first nationwide self-represented group of visually impaired people in Britain. This book explores its campaign to make the state solely responsible for providing training, employment and assistance for the visually impaired as a right, and its fight to abolish all charitable aid for them.

This book aims to fill some of the gaps in historical narrative about labor unions, Nigerian leftists, and decolonization during the twentieth century. It emphasizes the significance of labor union education in British decolonization, labor unionism, and British efforts at modernizing the human resources of Nigeria.

In his heyday, Carlo Tresca ranked among the most important radicals and labour activists in the United States, often sharing the spotlight with Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, 'Big Bill' Haywood, and Emma Goldman. A charismatic Italian anarchist who became a folk hero to immigrant and native-born workers alike, Tresca was described by comrades as a 'freelance revolutionary' because of his independent spirit and militant activism. During his wild and adventurous career spanning nearly forty years (1904-1943), Tresca pursued a range of activities unmatched by any of his radical contemporaries: independent newspaper editor, labour agitator and organizer, civil libertarian, foremost leader of the Italian American anti-fascist resistance, and an indomitable foe of Stalinism. Culminating over a decade of research, this fast-paced and vivid biography brings to life the volatile world of radical politics in early twentieth-century America through one of its foremost figures.

Herbs and spices are among the most versatile and widely used ingredients in food processing. As well as their traditional role in flavouring and colouring foods, they have been increasingly used as natural preservatives and for their potential health-promoting properties, for example as antioxidants. Edited by a leading authority in the field, and with a distinguished international team of contributors, the Handbook of herbs and spices provides an essential reference for manufacturers wishing to make the most of these important ingredients.
The first group of chapters looks at general issues including quality indices for conventional and organically produced herbs, spices and their essential oils.
The main body of the handbook consists of over twenty chapters covering key spices and herbs from aniseed, bay leaves and black pepper to saffron, tamarind and turmeric. Each chapter covers key issues from definition and classification including: chemical structurecultivationpost-harvest processinguses in food processingfunctional propertiesquality indicesmethods of analysisThe Handbook of herbs and spices is a standard reference for all manufacturers using herbs and spices in their products.

The food industry faces an unprecedented level of scrutiny. Consumers are not only concerned with the safety and quality of food products but also the way in which they are produced. At the same time the food industry has developed new ways of assuring appropriate standards for its products and their methods of production, developing systems such as TQM and HACCP to identify and manage key steps in production. These new methods require new skills in auditing. Auditing in the food industry provides an authoritative guide to the range of standards and the auditing skills they demand.
Part one sets the scene with an introductory chapter reviewing developments in standards affecting the food industry. There then follows chapters on how retailers audit their suppliers and how governments have moved from a traditional inspection role to one of 'regulatory verification' with its emphasis on auditing the robustness of a business's own systems for managing safety and quality.
Part two examines the key aspects of safety and quality. A first chapter reviews the ways retailers assess supplier HACCP systems. There is then a chapter reviewing TQM systems that provides a context for a discussion of auditing techniques for HACCP-based quality systems. A final chapter looks at standards governing the analytical methods used in safety and quality control.
Part three considers newer standards that are becoming increasingly important in the food industry. There are chapters on benchmarking an organisation against others as a way of improving performance, auditing the impact of food processing operations on the environment and auditing organic food processing.
Auditing in the food industry is a valuable guide to the range of standards facing the food industry and the ways it can audit, and thus improve the quality of its performance.

Is the behaviour of a crowd in an emergency situation predictable? Are the different patterns occurring in pedestrian flow based on common rules? How does panic change human reactions? These and other questions have been the scope of the international conference on Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics. This book contains elaborate manuscripts written by scientists as well as practitioners from various disciplines: architecture, civil, naval and fire safety engineering, physics, computer science and mathematics. There has been considerable progress over the last decade and the central topic of human motion and behaviour has come more and more into the centre of interest, mainly due to increasing computer power and the development of new simulation models. This is the first conference dealing with modelling and simulation of pedestrian and crowd movement as well as the dynamical aspects of evacuation processes.

A comparative study of how the current industrial relations systems come to be and of changes in such systems in non-industrialized countries since the 1980s. After an introduction, six essays look at the delusion of the Molotov cocktail in South African industrial relations, colonialism and industrial relations in India, from ostensible voluntarism to interventionism in Malaysia, corporatism and nationalism in Mexico, and colonialism and labor relations in Hong Kong.

This book explains the fundamental principles involved in hazardous materials management. It provides a thorough and readable explanation of the laws governing the management of hazardous materials and potential management responses, including both technical and policy-related alternatives. Integrated throughout the text are definitions of numerous technical and legal terms involved in hazardous materials management, as perceived by the professional community and involved regulatory agencies.

This book is a comprehensive treatment of worker participation in the United States and its relation to the legal system. The purpose of the study is to analyze the meaning and practice of industrial democracy and to propose statutory reforms that would benefit both management and labor. It is unique in its interdisciplinary approach, which combines research from the fields of history, law, industrial relations, sociology, and organizational behavior.

Labor-management cooperation and worker participation are subjects of vigorous debate. This work examines the arguments concerning the benefits and deficiencies of involvement programs, their impact on union relationships, and their function as techniques to enhance productivity and competitiveness in the workplace. The study traces the history of participation from its inception in the 1870s through the 1980s, surveying the case law from 1934 to 1991, and provides a political and economic context for the analysis of participation. The book will be of interest to scholars and professionals in industrial relations, industrial sociology, labor law, and labor studies.

Labor-Management Cooperation in a Public Service Industry outlines the historical aspects of labor-management cooperation and the characteristics of the transit industry which made it conducive to this cooperation. The second chapter discusses different cooperative programs such as employee input programs, safety programs, performance incentive programs, and training programs. Administrative considerations are examined in chapter three, along with the potential difficulties and calculating cost benefits. The two appendices offer a case study analysis format and quantitative assessment of four quality circles. This book contains extensive interviews with nearly seventy mass transit practitioners.

Accident prevention is a broad issue and covers a wide range of types of industry and activity. It can be dealt with in a number of ways, and this book focuses on one of them: the use of experience feedback. This means employing the tool of safety, health and the environment (SHE) information system.
Students, health and safety experts and high level practitioners should find this a useful introduction to the basic principles of feedback control and accident diagnosis. It also introduces the various methods and tools of SHE practice, including methods of accidents and near-accident Reporting and investigation, and workplace inspections and SHE analysis and audits. It should also help the assessment of the potentials and limitations of a number of existing techniques. Finally guidance is given on the implementation of a computer supported SHE information system. The book is illustrated with cases describing applications during design, construction and operation. Throughout there is a balance between guidance on SHE practice and a comprehensive presentation of alternative solutions.
Key Features:
* combines a highly successful lecture course with sophisticated practice
* written in a basic "how to" approach
* provides a comprehensive survey of theory and practice
* fully international case studies

eBook available with sample pages: 0203186176

Award-winning ergonomist Karen Messing is talking with women--women who wire circuit boards, sew clothes, clean toilets, drive forklifts, care for children, serve food, run labs. What she finds is a workforce in harm's way, choked into silence, whose physical and mental health invariably comes in second place: underestimated, underrepresented, understudied, underpaid. Should workplaces treat all bodies the same? With confidence, empathy, and humour, Messing navigates the minefield that is naming sex and biology on the job, refusing to play into stereotypes or play down the lived experiences of women. Her findings leap beyond thermostat settings and adjustable chairs and into candid, deeply reported storytelling that follows in the muckraking tradition of social critic Barbara Ehrenreich. Messing's questions are vexing and her demands are bold: we need to dare to direct attention to women's bodies, champion solidarity, stamp out shame, and transform the workplace--a task that turns out to be as scientific as it is political.

Millions of laborers, from the Philippines to the Caribbean, performed the work of the United States empire. Forging a global economy connecting the tropics to the industrial center, workers harvested sugar, cleaned hotel rooms, provided sexual favors, and filled military ranks. Placing working men and women at the center of the long history of the U.S. empire, these essays offer new stories of empire that intersect with the "grand narratives" of diplomatic affairs at the national and international levels. Missile defense, Cold War showdowns, development politics, military combat, tourism, and banana economics share something in common-they all have labor histories. This collection challenges historians to consider the labor that formed, worked, confronted, and rendered the U.S. empire visible. The U.S. empire is a project of global labor mobilization, coercive management, military presence, and forced cultural encounter. Together, the essays in this volume recognize the United States as a global imperial player whose systems of labor mobilization and migration stretched from Central America to West Africa to the United States itself. Workers are also the key actors in this volume. Their stories are multi-vocal, as workers sometimes defied the U.S. empire's rhetoric of civilization, peace, and stability and at other times navigated its networks or benefited from its profits. Their experiences reveal the gulf between the American 'denial of empire' and the lived practice of management, resource exploitation, and military exigency. When historians place labor and working people at the center, empire appears as a central dynamic of U.S. history.