Hollow reforms, like proposals that emphasize get-tough accountability over support for educators and widespread choice over quality neighborhood schools, enjoy their share of supporters. As the author watched the choice and accountability movements gain momentum across the nation, she concluded that curriculum and instruction were far more…

This publication is a status report on faculty contracts and bargaining agents in higher education in the United States for 1991. An introduction summarizes activity across the nation including agents elected, independent agents, decertification, strikes, legislation, first contracts signed, and demographic analysis. A table of faculty contracts…

The history of the recent development of worker education in Australia and New Zealand shows that, in just the past 15 years or so, very significant improvements have occurred in delivery of trade union education. To a very large degree these developments took place because of the existence of a close relationship between the union movement and…

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.…

This student guide provides instructional materials for seven units in the area of labor studies. Unit topics are introduction to labor unions, who labor in America is, collective bargaining: democracy in the workplace, preserving workers' rights: safeguards in the system, partners in education and training, partners in public service: labor…

The United Faculty (UF), representing instructors at Diablo Valley College (DVC), has failed to recognize the special problems of collective bargaining in the academic setting and has instead employed a muscular unionism which limits dialog among teachers, administrators, and trustees. This failure is reflected in current collective bargaining…

It is vitally important for workers in all regions of the world to form unions and to exercise the rights and discharge the responsibilities which membership involves. The right to organize or join a union is essential not only for the welfare of the individual worker, or for all of those belonging to the union, but also for the welfare of society…

This analysis presents a view of the current status of unionism based on statistics reported in the "Chronicle of Higher Education" and from the author's own calculations. It is shown that each year for at least three years, unions have held more elections on public and on four-year campuses than on private and two-year campuses. Each year the…

Considers the impact of services public libraries provide to union members, particularly access to computers, based on experiences with the SEIU (Service Employees International Union). Topics include training; resources for families; education; and Locals Online, a program that provides training and Web content to SEIU local unions. (LRW)

Students of American politics have had little to say about public sector unions and their impacts on government. There is, of course, a vast literature on public bureaucracy. But that literature has always emphasized that the power of bureaucrats is rooted in their expertise, or in the entrepreneurial activities of agency leaders. It has largely…

The shifts in the New Zealand state formation have changed the environment within which teacher unions operate. The entire state has been reorganized into a market based model. From a position established in the 19th century as the voice of the profession in a relationship with the state, after 1989 the teacher associations were structurally…

In this article, the author shares her views on the collected works on women suffrage from 1920-1930, which were collated by the activists at National Federation of Women Teachers (NFWT). She relates how she had been impressed by the NFWT activists' organizational capacity to coordinate 70 identically worded motions in support of women's suffrage,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth examination of the outsourcing of food services on a university campus. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses a detailed case study including interviews with university administrators, contractor administrators, and students and background information taken from student…

The school district in Anne Arundel County, Md., this spring entered into what appears to be a unique contract with the local teachers' union over struggling Annapolis High School: Teachers will work year-round and make a commitment to stay at the school for three years. Designed by Superintendent Kevin Maxwell to fend off a state takeover, the…

This chapter explores recent legal challenges and victories brought forth by part-time community college faculty in Washington State in an effort to attain equity and social justice.