Employers have long turned to behavioral science for guidance on making their organizations more effective. Labor scholar Paul F. Clark believes union leaders should also take advantage of the valuable discoveries made in this field, and he offers a straightforward account of how they can do so. Much of the behavioral science research relevant to unions relies on complex statistical analyses and is disseminated through scholarly journals. This clearly written book makes the findings of behavioral science accessible to those committed to building a stronger labor movement. It describes behavioral science's understanding of such topics as organizational commitment and member participation and suggests how this knowledge can best be applied to unions. Building More Effective Unions offers practical strategies unions can use to their advantage in a number of areas, including: -Union participation -Organization and retention -Union orientation and socialization -Political action -Grievance procedures -Information and communications -Union image-building -Union culture -Union leadership The book features examples of how unions and their leaders have benefited from putting the principles of behavioral science into practice.

Private-sector collective bargaining in the United States is under siege. Many factors have contributed to this situation, including the development of global markets, a continuing antipathy toward unions by managers, and the declining effectiveness of strikes. This volume examines collective bargaining in eight major industries airlines, automobile manufacturing, health care, hotels and casinos, newspaper publishing, professional sports, telecommunications, and trucking to gain insight into the challenges the parties face and how they have responded to those challenges.The authors suggest that collective bargaining is evolving differently across the industries studied. While the forces constraining bargaining have not abated, changes in the global environment, including new security considerations, may create opportunities for unions. Across the industries, one thing is clear private-sector collective bargaining is rapidly changing."

More than any other labor victory of the 1930s, the emergence of the Steel Workers' Organizing Committee symbolized the rise of organized labor to a position of power in the United States. Yet, as the contributors to this volume demonstrate, the unionization of the steel industry, and most notably the role of SWOC and Philip Murray in that process, has received far less attention than it deserves. Beginning with a discussion of why the unionization of steel has been relatively neglected by labor historians, the contributors to this volume analyze early organizing efforts in steel, the major transformations wrought and felt by the union, and the character of the union members and leaders. Critical throughout is discussion of the role of Philip Murray in shaping the United Steelworkers of America into one of the premier economic, social, and political institution of the war years and beyond. Contributors: David Brody, Malvyn Dubovsky, Ronald L. Filippelli, Mark McColloch, Ronald W. Schatz