September 9, 2011
Multimedia educational videos about public-sector bargaining are outdated. Prominent is the Waldenville series on negotiation, mediation, and grievance handling. These materials could be/should be updated to contemporary issues.
September 8, 2011
I am very proud of the large number of EPRN researchers who, over the past week, have published op-eds, appeared in the media, and provided private advice to our leaders on how to address the nation’s jobs’ crisis. We have collected a sample of them here for easy reference. This is exactly why we created EPRN—to generate and communicate policy ideas that are well grounded in objective, analytic research. Following this message are EPRN researcher sources, contact information...
September 7, 2011
In advance of President Obama's employment speech this week (Sept 8, 2011) Nancy Folbre makes the case for public jobs, marshalling research and ideas from EPRN and Center for Economic and Policy Research senior economist Eileen Appelbaum, former Clinton administration Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and members of Congress to support direct government job creation and funding. Folbre also supports a proposal to create jobs in home health care services to the elderly as opposed to nursing...
September 5, 2011
It is not surprising that employees who might want to blow the whistle on employer actions would also want to conceal who it was who blew the whistle, for fear of being fired or disciplined. However, going public is more likely to protect a whistle-blowing employee who is disciplined or discharged, because it is easier to prove that the employer had a motive to retaliate against the employee.
September 4, 2011
One of employees’ basic rights under the National Labor Relations Act is to discuss their terms and conditions of work. A recent case involving an employee working for a temporary employment agency provides an example of those rights. NLS Group. NLRB v. Northeastern Land Services, Ltd., d/b/a The NLS Group, Case No.10-2156 (1st Cir. June 22, 2011).
September 2, 2011
from the LERA LEL Labor and Employment Law News - August 2011
September 1, 2011
Available data from BLS suggests that the current unemployment problem should not be diagnosed as primarily structural. There is no evidence of a recent increase in structural job market problems.
August 31, 2011
California has various state laws governing collective bargaining of public employees. Most public employees are covered by these statutes. State government workers in the executive branch (excluding the University of California) are largely covered by contracts negotiated with the state and approved by the legislature. The Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) provides an evaluation of these contracts.
The video provided here offers a summary of recent agreements. More detail is...
August 30, 2011
On the Friday before Labor Day, Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld and Rosemary Batt were interviewees on University of Illinois WILL public radio's Focus 580 show. Their subject: "The Changed and Changing Nature of Employment and Work in the 21st Century."
Rosemary Batt is Alice H. Cook Professor of Women and Work, at Cornell University's Industrial and Labor Relations School and Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld is professor and dean of the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the...
August 29, 2011
This week's New York Times Economix blog from Nancy Folbre laments the high involuntary unemployment rate and cites new studies that show what unemployed people do. Contrary to what sometimes passes as conventional wisdom, they're not tripping the light fandango, sipping Perrier and eating bon-bons. They spend their new unpaid time doing housework, becoming better and thriftier shoppers and doing child care. In our high-tech, specialized society, the unemployed's...
