The Mission Ahead: Labor

(left to right) William Galston, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; Noah Pickus, director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University; Peter Skerry, professor of political science at Boston College.

Clark: EFCA’s First Contract Compulsory Arbitration Provisions Could Be Disastrous

June 22, 2009

While most of the debate over the euphemistically titled Employee Free Choice Act initially centered on the use of card checks instead of secret ballot elections to determine whether employees want union representation, EFCA’s compulsory interest arbitration provisions for first contracts are finally getting the critical scrutiny that they deserve. On that score, EFCA is anything but free choice for either employees or employers.

Kochan & Zack: Negotiations, Mediation Key to First Contract Arbitration

June 15, 2009

The highly charged debate between business and labor over how to reform labor law now is focusing on how to negotiate a first contract once a majority of employees have demonstrated they want union representation. A just-completed study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's John-Paul Ferguson shows that even after a majority of employees vote for union representation, they only get a first contract about 56 percent of the time. And if an employer resists by…

In May, Roll Call published a special edition of the Mission Ahead dedicated to "The Future of the American Worker." It took a look at the near-term policy debates that will affect American businesses and the work force and relied on a range of experts to outline their visions of the future.

David Bonior

Sweeney: Congress, Stand Up for Workers

May 18, 2009

Congress faces a host of critical issues right now — restoring a healthy economy, reforming health care, stabilizing climate change, regulating the financial sector, reforming trade policy and restoring our standing in the world.

Bernard: EFCA Slams Door of Opportunity Shut on Minorities

May 18, 2009

Our country’s focus has rightly been on the economy in recent months. Given that the economic situation remains precarious, you might assume Congress would be focused on measures that would encourage growth.

Johnson: Businesses Need Total Flexibility

May 18, 2009

Labor and employment policy stands at an important crossroads, as a confluence of political and economic factors have created an environment where these issues are now at the forefront.
New employment mandates and more rigid labor rules lend themselves to easy sound bites, as evidenced by the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first bill signed into law by President Barack Obama.

Sherk: Reward Workers With Better Laws

May 18, 2009

Over the past generation, the labor market has changed profoundly. Computers have automated many manual and repetitive tasks. The share of American workers employed as operators, fabricators and laborers or in precision production craft and repair occupations has fallen by 10 percent. Robots have relieved many workers of the tedium of the assembly line.

Angelides: Economy, Environment Can Mesh

May 18, 2009

In 2003, when the Apollo Alliance was founded, it was widely held that a healthy environment necessarily came at the expense of a healthy economy. Our economic foundation still rested on the century-old principle that the more energy we used, the better off we were.

Gorbis: Organizational Change Is Coming Soon

May 18, 2009

In the past century we have mastered the art of corporate organization — the art of organizing people and resources for the ultimate goal of maximizing shareholder profits. Along the way, we developed a host of management theories and practices that have become bibles to generations of working men and women.

Kilberg: Tech Industry Will Lead U.S. Out of Crisis

May 18, 2009

From people working in laboratories to people working in their garages, the technology industry has been the beneficiary of innovators. It is this innovation that has pushed us into the 21st century and will sustain us through the next decade, as uncertain as times are now. While other industries languish, technology remains on the cutting edge. The reasons? Bright, trained, educated workers who know how to innovate. Technology is poised to help lead us out of the recession.

Mensah: Help to Restore Workers’ Sense of Financial Security

May 18, 2009

As we begin to take stock of the damage caused by the financial crisis, one thing is clear: The American workers’ sense of financial security has been dealt a devastating blow.

Pollin: Standard of Living Must Be Raised

May 18, 2009

Working people in the United States are currently experiencing the most severe blows to their living standard since the 1930s. Amid the bank bailouts, home foreclosures and auto industry collapse, the official unemployment rate for April rose to 8.9 percent, the highest monthly level since 1983. The figure rises to 15.8 percent if we use the Labor Department’s broad measure of unemployment and underemployment.

Prising: A Melding of Generations Aids the Workplace

May 18, 2009

Most organizations these days include employees of a variety of ages and cultures. However, in recent years there has been increasing attention on the apparent disparity between the “Boomers” (workers born in the post-war years stretching from the mid-1940s to mid-1960s), “Generation X” (those born from the mid-1960s to late 1970s) and “Generation Y” or “Millennials” (those born between the late 1970s and 2000).

Ramirez: Hispanics Poised To Flex Muscle in Politics, Policy

May 18, 2009

There is no doubt the 2008 elections were indeed historic, but while the results of the 2010 midterms — and the decennial U.S. Census in the same year — may not have the rock star quality of the presidential contest, they very likely will have a far-reaching and long-lasting impact on our nation’s politics and electoral map.