Rochester Teachers Association President Adam Urbanski is kingpin of a new breed of union leaders who want to be partners, not adversaries, in the school improvement crusade. Despite his good intentions, many people in his hometown are disgruntled with him. The article describes his work over the past five years. (SM)

Unionization of graduate students at the State University of New York since 1967 is chronicled, from graduate student employees' inclusion in faculty collective bargaining to establishment of a separate bargaining unit. Problems facing graduate student employee unions and likely future concerns are discussed briefly. (MSE)

Examines France's trade policies on vocational training at all levels and the role of companies and trade unions in the system. Reveals the complex legal, institutional, and organizational reality of training in France today. (Author)

Notes on planning for successful parent and family weekend programs at colleges and universities include discussion of the event's purpose, scheduling, use of a planning committee, funding, effective promotion, attention to program detail, tailoring programs to subgroups and target populations, event ideas, and family involvement in other campus…

Describes a study of the relationship between the presence of collective bargaining and job satisfaction of two-year college faculty. One-fourth of the full-time faculty at 20 unionized and nonunionized colleges were surveyed using the Job Satisfaction Inventory. Satisfaction levels were higher among nonunionized faculty on seven of eight…

Expansion of the powerful former West German teacher union (the Trade Union for Educators and Scholars) into the former East Germany is chronicled, and potential problems of the recruitment effort are examined. Declining teacher morale and unfulfilled promises of opportunity and freedom of speech are seen as serious threats to positive change.…

Although there is agreement among the government, the Trades Union Congress, and the Adam Smith Institute that child care facilities for working parents in Britain are needed, they vary in the emphasis given to economic, political, and social factors. This article surveys recent reports and sets their arguments in the context of policy and…

The teacher reform debate in Australia is informed by contradictory individualist and work perspectives and assumptions. The challenge for policy is harmonizing perspectives to develop a basis for the practical politics of educational reform. The individualist perspective complements corporate managerialism, whereas the work perspective raises…

Examines the case of bilateral monopoly in the context of joint profit-maximizing solutions. Asserts that, although bilateral monopoly is sometimes viewed as a theoretical model with few real-world applications, the elements of negotiations it contains form the basis for contracts between input sellers and input buyers. (CFR)

Leaders of the movement to unionize graduate teaching/research assistants are learning organizing tactics through the Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions, and plotting strategies for a critical campaign year. Graduate students at 20 universities already have collective bargaining units, students at 15 institutions are campaigning for union…

Considers some of the major technical and organizational issues involved in virtual-catalog production, contrasting them with the traditional union catalog approach exemplified by COPAC, an online public-access catalog composed of academic libraries in the United Kingdom. Suggest a method of integrating these two models of the union catalog.…

Recounts how the part-time faculty at Chicago's Columbia College (Illinois) dramatically improved salaries and gained a strong voice in college decision making through unionization. Emphasis is on the negotiation process which worked to obtain the group's goals without undermining the "rather friendly college environment." (DB)

Women working in export processing zones in the Dominican Republic organized a union using a gendered approach and undertook organizational literacy strategies based on Freire's ideas. They developed community support services to combat oppression. (SK)

Although teacher unions promote private means of resolving labor conflicts instead of using public courts, they are engaged in a war on privatization, especially contracting out. It is surprising that the media and higher education take seriously the contention that unions do not negatively affect educational achievement. Advocates of "the…

Presents a range of responses from professors and graduate students to the questions: "Will the National Labor Relations Board decision to allow graduate students to unionize dramatically reshape the academic environment? If so, is that for good or ill? Will unions help cure graduate school life of its many afflictions or make those afflictions…