Public universities in the United States confront drastic changes as labour relations continue to evolve towards neoliberal managerial practices. Increasingly, faculty feel excluded from decision-making processes influencing their lives. This article provides a case study of Public Midwestern University (PMU, a pseudonym), where a faculty union…

For most of the past decade, this author has studied union-management efforts to improve public education, and has witnessed extraordinary examples of teachers, union leaders, and administrators working together to improve teaching and learning. In this article, seven case studies on collaborative partnerships between teachers' unions and…

A survey of 86 union representatives in worksites with employee participation programs was followed 3 years later with a survey of 66 reps and 49 corresponding managers. Only 20-30% of the programs failed, although management and union opinions differed. Union reps attributed failure to poor labor relations and were more likely than management to…

American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) and the union representing its workers--Communications Workers of America--have cooperated in a quality of work life program unique in scope and intensity: a labor-management agreement in which 40,000 Bell System employees have participated. Commitment to the program has survived a 1983 strike and the…

Unless unions can gain a greater role in decision making on the content of work, they risk losing members to management-controlled participation schemes. (JOW)

Describes the complex West Germany system of involving employees in the management of large industrial companies. (IRT)

The legality of employment involvement programs--participation of workers in workplace decision making--has not been established. Three National Labor Relations Board decisions illustrate the complex legal, policy, and economic issues relayed to faculty unions. (SK)

Reviews the literature and analyses of the joint problem-solving strategies that have emerged during the 1980s and are used by management and labor to improve company performance, employee welfare, and labor-management relations. Includes a 58-item bibliography and 32 additional references. (JOW)

A combination of crises and innovative attempts to manage them that began in 1980 transformed the relationship between Xerox Corporation and the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, which represents most of Xerox's manufacturing employees. Eight pivotal episodes were largely responsible for the transformation. The first was a joint…

Management drive in both higher education and industry is to offer participation to employees but use such participation to increase management control through identifying weak links in a deliberately stressed work situation. Attacks on faculty unions or senates are all part of management's offensive against any control by labor, and also on…

This guide is intended to be a first-time, general introduction to employee involvement for trade unionists--local leaders, stewards, and rank-and-file members. It makes no attempt to be comprehensive, but instead raises the major issues concerning employee involvement framed in trade union terms. Part I looks at the kinds of employee involvement…

Discusses the inherent conflict between decentralizing movements toward teacher empowerment and participative management and the centralization occasioned by increasing school bureaucratization and collective bargaining by teacher unions. Suggests the need for bold experiments in school labor relationships. Contains 24 references. (SV)

Explores both the practical and legal obstacles facing school-based management, with an emphasis on legal requirements in the state of New York. Suggests that school-based management may be the precursor to a reevaluation of the legal structure of school management labor relations. (MLF)

New managerial techniques such as total quality management and similar worker participation programs are an important albeit controversial component of the recent changes in the workplace brought about by increasing globalization of the economy. In addition, organized labor is faced with a changing and increasingly diverse population of new…

Employee Involvement Schemes (EIS) are modeled after Western European worker participation models. These are grounded in collaborative labor relations and encourage employees to participate in work place decision-making. If employees, as the term is defined in the National Labor Relations Act, take part in EIS decision-making processes, they may…