Employment Relations in the United States : Law, Policy, and Practice

by Raymond L Hogler

• ISBN13: 9780761926542
• ISBN10: 0761926542
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-12-15
• Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc

Summary

This book presents an overview of the economic, political, and social forces that shaped contemporary employment relations practices in United States. It provides students with the historical background they need to understand how the US system developed and how it differs from systems in other industrialized nations. Individual employment rights, including protecting individual employees from discrimination and workplace 'rights', are thoroughly examined. In addition, current policy issues in employment (raising the minimum wage, growth of a contingent workforce, privatizing retirement) are discussed in detail.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Contemporary Employment Relations in Historical Perspective

The Start of a New Millenium

Analyzing "Exceptionalism": Is the United States Different and Why?

Studying Work

The Nature of Labor Contracts

An Overview of This Book

Firms and Managers

Organized Labor

Community Institutions

PART I. THE ERA OF MANAGEMENT, 1880 - 1935

2. Industrial Expansion and the Foundations of Unionisms

The Rise of Corporations

Beginnings of Collective Organization

Union Growth and Labor Conflict

From Conflict to Cooperation

3. Managerial Control and the Beginnings of State Regulation

Judges and the Law of Employment Contracts

Injunctions and Antitrust

Scientific Management and the Efficiency Movement

Welfare Capitalism and the Emergence of the Modern Personnel System

Workers' Compensation Insurance - An Early Exception to Exceptionalism

Summing up the 1920s

PART II: THE EVOLUTION OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

4. The Creation of Federal Labor Policy: World War I Through the New Deal

Wartime Policies and the Effect on Collective Bargaining

Labor Legislation Before the Wagner Act

The National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act of 1935

Social Legislation: Retirement, Unemployment, and Labor Standards

The Federal Mandates and the Collective Bargaining Process

5. Rise and Decline of the Labor Movement, 1935 - 2000

Founding of the CIO

The Supreme Court and the Wagner Act

Labor Relations During World War II

The Labor Management Relations (Taft-Hartley) Act, 1947

Cosolidation of Collective Bargaining and Employment Policies

Union Decline: 1970s to the Millenium

PART III: INDIVIDUAL EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS, 1960s - 2000s

6. Protecting Individuals From Discrimination

Equal Pay Act

Civil Rights Acts

Age Discrimination in Employment Act

Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990

7. Workplace Rights and Benefits

Workplace Health and Safety: OSHA

Employee Retirement and Income Security Act

Health Insurance and Employment

The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993

Exceptions to the Employment At Will Rule

PART IV: REBUILDING THE EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT: PRACTICES, POLICIES, AND POLITICS

8. Contemporary Employment Issues

Organizational Justice as an Alternative to Litigation

Bringing Unions Back In

Economic Security for U. S. Workers: Health Insurance, Pensions, and Employment Stability

9. Conclusions

Back to the Future?

The Job Machine in the 2000s

A Final Thought

Index

About the Author