1. Lecture 1 Contingent Employment and Employment Conditions
Contemporary Period
Lecture 1
Contingent Employment and Employment Conditions

2. Administrative
Reading for next time – Material in Boris and Lichtenstein (Article by Ross, “Temp Blues” and “Sweatshop Workers Speak Out”) and Perspectives on Work (Article by Sleigh)

3. Review
1970s and 1980s
New patterns of unionism, bargaining and conflict
Government anti-unionism
Post-industrial society
Women in the labor force
White men in the labor force
New approaches to union organizing

4. Today Growth of Contingent Employment
New Technology and Employment Conditions

5. I. Growth of Contingent Employment
Categories workers classified as contingent
Temporaries
Part-timers
Seasonal workers
Consultants
Contractors
Free-lancers

6. Characteristics of Contingent Employment
Insecurity
No career ladder
No fringe benefits
No unionization
Lack of legal protections
Many “temps” are really “perma temps” working for the same company for years

7. Defenders of Contingent Employment
Claim employees want the flexibility
Provides employment that wouldn’t be there otherwise for people who need it
Employers need this to be able to compete in the global market place

8. Opponents of Contingent Employment
In Europe, in several countries, temporary agencies are required to provide benefits
Part-time employees are entitled to proportional benefits
Employers will find employees unwilling to learn skills and insufficiently loyal

9. II. New Technology and Employment Conditions
Physical difficulty of work
Injuries at work
Repetitive stress injuries
Ergonomics
Authoritarian rules
“on call”

10. Growth of Sweat Shops
Both in older technologies (shoes and textiles) and in newer technologies (computers)
Employers increasingly demand that work comes before anything else
“Full service” employers

11. Privacy at Work (and off)
Electronic Monitoring
Computer software that tracks how many key strokes you do per minute, how many seconds you are not working at the keyboard, what web sites you visit
Reading employees’

12. Privacy at Work (and off)
Telephone Monitoring
Camera monitoring
Supermarkets and Department stores
School buses
Hired Investigators
At work – to check for theft
Away from work – to check on absences

13. Next Time
Unions in the contemporary period

14. Lecture 2 Unions and Strikes
Contemporary Period
Lecture 2
Unions and Strikes

15. Administrative Reading on Union Organization, Employers and the Law
Grady
Roth
Neither in B&L

16. Review Growth of Contingent Employment
New Technology and Employment Conditions

17. Today Union Membership and Organizing AFL-CIO
Strikes in the Contemporary Period

18. I. Union Membership and Organizing
What happened to union membership and union density in the 1990s?
Tremendous number of union mergers
Union interest in corporate governance

19. Union Organizing
Continued failure of unions to organize fast enough to offset membership losses
Growing organization among new groups, especially of low wage and powerless workers
Successful organizing not based on the NLRB model

20. Union Organizing Organization of home health aids
Dramatic growth of unionization among graduate student teaching assistants
Union Network International

21. Unionization in Higher Education
AAUP
Yeshiva Decision (1980) Supreme Court
Result was halt to faculty unionization in private universities
Sudden and dramatic growth of Graduate student unions in 1990s
Favorable NLRB decisions
Employers responded as they always do

22. II. AFL-CIO No seriously contested election for president since 1900
1995 coalition challenged Lane Kirkland with President of Service Employees, John Sweeney
Forced Kirkland’s resignation in favor of Secretary-Treasurer Tom Donahue
Donahue still lost to Sweeney

23. II. AFL-CIO
New officers represented the new work force and the new unionism
Sweeney – Service Employees
Richard Trumka – United Mine Workers
Linda Chavez-Thompson - AFSCME

24. II. AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO accepted need to diversify its own governing structures
Attempted to increase dramatically resources devoted to organizing
Developed the “union summer” program for college students
“Union City” campaign

25. II. AFL-CIO: the split of 2005
Underlying issues
“Change to Win” coalition failed to gain majority at 2005 AFL-CIO Convention
SEIU and Teamsters disaffiliated
Retaliation
New Federation

26. III. Strikes in the Contemporary Period
Continued frequent use of strike replacements and threat of strike replacements
What happened to the pattern of strikes in the 1990s?
UPS strike

27. Opportunities for Effective Strike Tactics
Tactics of graduate teaching assistants
Opportunities due to lean production and just-in-time inventory management
Beginnings of international union cooperation

28. Next Time
Union Organization, Employers and the Law