From February to April, New America conducted over 30 interviews with experts, care providers, and union representatives, focusing on three states. This report outlines key considerations for improving care worker job quality through organizing. We also include case studies on care worker organizing in California, Illinois, Washington, and the…

Biographical sketch of John L. Lewis, with emphasis on his rise and performance as a great labor leader and organizer of the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO). (SH)

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)

The author focuses on laws governing maximum working hours, explaining how their coverage became restricted to women and children and how organized labor showed renewed interest in universal hour laws during the Depression. She advances three hypotheses to explain how laws that once were protective became restrictive. (CT)

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is attempting to develop total programs of occupational safety and health protection. It has established research criteria and a priority system for evaluating the order of investigating suspect substances or agents based upon the expected gain of the health benefit. (Author/MW)

California's strawberry industry offers a case study of both California agriculture's dependence on the exploitation of an imported peasantry, and the destructive consequences of the "free market" and a deliberate low-wage economy. Describes a new form of sharecropping, tantamount to debt peonage; lax federal enforcement of existing…

This document traces the U.S. labor movement's history, documents its achievements, and describes its goals. The labor movement played a central role in the elevation of the U.S. standard of living through benefits negotiated by unions, such as vacations with pay, pensions, health and welfare protection, and grievance and arbitration procedures.…

A study examined why employers use temporary agency and contract company workers and implications of these practices for wages, benefits, and working conditions of workers in low-skilled labor markets. Case studies in manufacturing (automotive supply), services (hospitals), and public sector (primary and secondary schools) industries defined the…

Workers in flexible staffing arrangementsincluding temporary agency, direct-hire temporary, on-call, and contract workersare much less likely than regular, direct-hire employees to be covered by laws mandating or regulating workplace benefits. They are also much less likely to receive pension, health insurance, and other benefits on the job.…

This pamphlet on labor history highlights some of labor's economic and political actions during the past 200 years. The purpose is to provide inspiration and motivation for greater participation in union work. The introduction explains the purpose of unions--to pursue economic independence and social stature for all individuals--for defenseless…

The 1980s have been a period during which important private experiments with innovations have occurred in employee participation, work redesign, and the introduction of new technologies and new systems of production. It is now time to move beyond the experimental stage. The following four interrelated policy initiatives should guide public efforts…

The U.S. agricultural labor market is already, in many respects, a binational one, and it will become increasingly one in which workers who are born in Mexico will follow a variety of worklife trajectories that take them back and forth between both countries. Recognition of this reality has important implications for policy development and program…

This inventory of research and evaluation projects completed during calendar years 1970-1979 for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Education, and Research (ASPER) of the Department of Labor contains summaries of projects on economic, social, and policy background; the labor market; the nature and impact of Department of Labor…

The Changing Employment Relationships Project examined the importance of good employment relationships for workers, employers, and public policy. A nationally representative sample of 2,500 employed Canadians was surveyed, and 8 focus groups were conducted. The research findings were analyzed to explain the multidimensional nature of the…

The current conditions of home workers in the garment industry in Toronto, Canada, were examined through in-depth telephone interviews with 30 Chinese-speaking immigrant women who were employed as home workers in 1999. The paper dicusses the formal training and informal learning experiences of immigrant woman who are garment workers. A comparison…