In recent years, issues pertaining to graduate student union organizing have been at the center of several political battles and court cases. This attention is, at least in part, due to the growth of graduate student unions at a time when organized labor's influence is receding in other, more traditionally unionized sectors of the labor force. As…

Intended primarily for educators, legislators, and the general public in the state of Pennsylvania, this public affairs brochure addresses the question of whether binding arbitration should be legislated in that state as a means of resolving labor disputes between a local school district and its employees. The brochure reviews the history of…

One of the most sensitive issues in K-12 education today is that of professional negotiations between administration and teachers. This paper describes the effects of mediation training on negotiation talks between teachers and management. Teams of representatives from a teachers' union and a board of education participated in a 1-week mediation…

Collective bargaining is a process influenced by many factors. A review of the literature, including an assessment of Dunlop's, Smythe's, Levinson's, and Craig's models, indicates that most models of collective bargaining are partial, dealing only with some of the components of the bargaining process. A model of educational collective bargaining…

Data were collected from teacher and trustee representatives on negotiation teams in 13 school districts in Manitoba (Canada) to determine the effects of collective bargaining on the relationship between teachers and boards. Differences were found to center on the issue of authority in such areas as teaching conditions, staffing procedures, and…

Discusses two new challenges that face faculty bargaining organizations: first, the Supreme Court's decision in "NLRB vs. Yeshiva University" that faculties exercising power over governance of their institutions have managerial status that excludes them from protection under the National Labor Relations Act, and, second, the current…

Unions of professionals are comparable to neither traditional professional associations nor traditional unions. To reject unionization because it is allegedly "unprofessional" is supported neither by the theoretical base, the historical record, nor the current reality. (Author)

Collective bargaining contracts with teachers unions have reduced principals' autonomy but have still left them opportunities for effective administration of their schools. Interviews with 289 educators in six diverse school districts across the country show that contracts have limited principals' powers both from above, by centralizing labor…

School-based management (SBM) and its counterpart, shared decision making, raise traditional questions about power, representativeness, decentralization, and professionalism. This paper turns to history to provide a framework for untangling the issues that have come to the fore in current debates about power and shared school governance. In a…

Changes in production systems have altered the interdependence between workers and management. New patterns of interdependence brought new responses, e.g., workers formed unions, and management turned to the human relations movement to secure voluntary employee cooperation. When voluntary compliance proved inadequate, collective bargaining and…

Three aspects of the collective bargaining process are detrimental to school district governance: (1) teachers' associations gain decision-making authority over management prerogatives; (2) union demands illegally infringe on statutory duties of school districts; and (3) the conflict between laypersons and professionals for control of the schools…

Results of a study involving 450 teachers in three California school districts show that two sets of standards exist for judging the effectiveness of teacher unions. For union leaders, legitimacy means keeping promises to teachers by winning concessions from management and, at the same time, working toward a more credible and cooperative…

Emphasizing a distinction between interpersonal versus intergroup behavior, this paper investigates the impact of interpersonal and intergroup characteristics on the individual's decision to rely on collective action. Four dimensions of interpersonal versus intergroup behavior--social mobility versus social change, personal deprivation versus…

Drawing on survey data from 83 New York school districts and case studies of 6 districts, the project reported here explores several aspects of schools and districts as organizations. The conceptual framework guiding the study emphasizes that educational organizations are not governed either by their structure or by the reactions of individuals,…