This article provides a narrative response to a precariousness labour situation. The question it attempts to answer is: how does one cope with the precariousness and injustices of contemporary employment without becoming pessimistic or hopeless? The piece, based on the author's personal experience, argues that we can tell and write our career…

Today's movement in support of the 99 percent is a reminder that throughout U.S. history, a major engine of change has been grass-roots organizing and solidarity. Major history textbooks, however, downplay the role of ordinary people in shaping events--especially those who formed labor unions and used the strike to assert their rights. One of the…

Technology shifts gears. The workers who control it need to learn how to shift gears, too. Workers brought up with universal schooling would respect authority, learn enough "geometry and mechanics" to use in their trades, keep invention alive, and finally see through "the interested complaints of faction and sedition." In other…

The substantial contributions of Marx to the study of contemporary society and, particularly, to the changing conditions of labor in the United States are evaluated. As Marx correctly foresaw, U.S. labor has suffered a steady degradation and displacement. (RM)

Discusses the rise of unemployment in Britain, the changes in the character of the labor force, the increases in part-time employment, and the implications for those involved in employee relations. Includes information about working conditions, labor legislation, and trade union involvement. (JOW)

Quality Circle (QC) and Quality of Working Life (QWL) in the United States are similar in that both stress participative decision making, preserve management's prerogative to have the final say, and are voluntary. QC and QWL programs differ, however, in that labor unions are more involved in QWLs; QCs deal only with technical problems related to…

Recent trends that affect the U.S. system of industrial relations are examined. The most important of these is internationalization. The U.S. industrial relations system is compared with that of Europe and Japan, and suggestions for improving our competitiveness in international markets are made. (Author/RM)

Asserts that by educating young people and by setting an example, teachers and schools can play a significant part in the important crusade to eliminate sweatshops. Reports on what schools, businesses, and others are doing in this crusade. Puts forth ideas for how Catholic schools and the individual can help. (VWC)

Based on an analysis of oral history interviews, this paper examines the events and consciousness surrounding a 1979 strike initiated by 53 female office employees of the Wisconsin Education Association (WEA) Insurance Trust. Faced with sex-discriminatory working conditions, the women at the Trust responded by initiating a strike. For many of the…

Reviews current forces affecting women in the job marketplace, i.e., societal attitudes, discriminatory practices, and lack of role models in top management. Offers suggestions for helping women "meet the system" such as gaining male support, fostering organizational teamwork, and increasing political and legislative activity. (DMM)

This report focuses on "at risk" immigrants in the United States. This third report in a series highlights the plight of low-income immigrant laborers in the United States. This series does not seek to advance specific policies or reforms. It intends merely to relate the stories of newcomers in the confidence that they will speak powerfully for…

In 1972 the Bolivian government passed a law to license journalists. This law created the "colegiado" system, providing for legally protected minimum wages, satisfactory working conditions, and restriction of journalistic employment to those with professional credentials. Although it is still too early to determine whether the law will…

This report reviews the changing role of labor unions in the United States today and proposes actions to increase union membership and strength in the future. The report is organized in 10 sections. The first section describes changes in the work force, especially during the 1960s and 1970s. It is followed by sections describing (1) the failure of…

This article encourages college presidents and trustees to prepare for public relations challenges by tracking issues through four distinct stages: fringe, emerging, getting hot, and white hot/too late. "Fringe" refers to, for example, people discussing an issue at conferences, in professional publications, or among a few concerned…

Historically women have engaged in three types of work: non-wage (work in the household for family use), market work in the home (e.g., home sewing and the selling of home-processed and -cooked foods), and wage work. As the border states industrialized and developed economically, non-wage labor intensified, production at home for the market…