Perspectives Online Companion
Spring 2009 (Number 10)
This tenth edition of LERA's Perspectives Online Companion contains four articles on the proposed Employee Free Choice Act. Each derives from remarks delivered as part of the Distinguished Panel at LERA’s Annual Meeting in January 2009. Also in this issue: an article on non-compete clauses in employment contracts and a review of On the Global Waterfront: The Fight to Free the Charleston Five.
(Editor’s Note: A fifth perspective on the Employee Free Choice Act, by a management attorney, was presented at the LERA meeting, but that participant did not contribute an essay for this online feature. LERA welcomes the addition of a management perspective, and interested authors should contact the LERA national office.)

SHOULD CONGRESS ADOPT THE EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT?

• For Organized Labor, The Employee Free Choice Act is Neither a Cinch, Nor a Panacea
  By Steven Greenhouse
  The nation’s labor law system “is inarguably broken,” writes Steven Greenhouse, labor reporter for The New York Times. However, supporters of the proposed Employee Free Choice Act face a tough uphill battle, and revitalization of union organizing will require more than this bill’s passage.

• Prospects for Labor Law Reform After the 2008 Election: A Law Perspective
  By William B. Gould IV
  Labor law reform has been attempted many times since 1959. “This time, we must we must get it right,” writes William Gould, a former chair of the National Labor Relations Board. This article analyzes the current Employee Free Choice Act proposal and presents Gould's recommendations.

• Union Recognition and Collective Bargaining: How Does the United States Compare With Other Democracies?
  By John Logan
  Opponents portray the proposed Employee Free Choice Act as “radical and undemocratic,” writes John Logan, a scholar based at the University of California-Berkeley. His article demonstrates why the proposed legislation is a modest reform measure.

• Prospects for Labor Law Reform: A Labor Perspective
  By Jonathan Hiatt
  AFL-CIO general counsel Jonathan Hiatt explains why the current obstacles to expanded collective bargaining in the United States represent “a two-dimensional crisis of human rights and economic wellbeing.” According to Hiatt, coercion of workers will be less of a problem under the Employee Free Choice Act than it is under the present law.

NON-COMPETE AGREEMENTS AT WORK: AN EMERGING ISSUE FOR LERA
Severed but Tethered: The Restrictions and Implications of Post-employment Contracts
By Richard L. Hannah
“Just as divorce often does not end the economic relationship of marriage, job termination does not necessarily end the economic relationship between employee and employer,” writes economist Richard Hannah of Middle Tennessee State University. Describing the nature and pervasiveness of non-compete clauses in job contracts, his article lays out a promising new line of employment-relations research and considers the practical matter of how post-employment covenants fit into the broader context of evolving post-employment relationships.

BOOK REVIEW
A Labor Struggle on the Waterfront
By Hoyt N. Wheeler
On the Global Waterfront: The Fight to Free the Charleston 5 tells the story of five longshoremen in the port of Charleston, South Carolina, whose arrest in early 2000 became a global incident. This review essay, by Hoyt N. Wheeler, a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of South Carolina, reflects on that struggle.

Fall 2008 (Number 9)
This ninth edition of LERA's Perspectives Online Companion contains three articles and three Industry Council reports. The first essay, by Marick F. Masters, considers what is at stake for labor in the U.S. elections of 2008. The second, by Lydia Morrow Ruetten and Marsha Katz, examine the challenges of negotiating and implementing organizational change in a unionized setting. Both essays anticipate subjects that will appear in the forthcoming print edition of Perspectives on Work. The third article, by Charles Whalen, reviews three books about the current economy and its impact on working families. Industry Council reports address LERA-sponsored research and dialogue on health care, higher education, and the public sector.

LABOR IN AMERICAN POLITICS: PREVIEW
Labor in 2008: What’s At Stake?
By Marick F. Masters
The U.S. elections of 2008 may be pivotal for organized labor. This article examines electoral landscape, labor’s resources and key objectives, and the position in which labor finds itself at this critical juncture.

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE: PREVIEW
Negotiating and Implementing Change in a Unionized, Academic Environment
By Lydia Morrow Ruetten and Marsha Katz
This article describes the labor-management negotiations process, results and major lessons of implementing institutional and cultural change at Governors State University.

BOOK REVIEW
Wall Street vs. Working Families: A Review Essay
By Charles J. Whalen
Reviews Supercapitalism, by Robert B. Reich, The Big Squeeze, by Steven Greenhouse, and The Squandering of America, by Robert Kuttner.

INDUSTRY COUNCIL REPORTS
Innovations in Health Care Delivery and their Implications for Workers and Patients
By James Bialke, Jody Hoffer Gittell, Jim Pruitt, and Dana Weinberg

LERA’s Newest Industry Council Focuses on Higher Education
By Michael Loconto

Public Sector Industry Council Update
By Marick F. Masters and Michael Filler

Perspectives on Work Online Companion Archive
Spring 2008 Edition (Access through LERA Members Library)
Fall 2007 Edition (Access through LERA Members Library)
Spring 2007 Edition (Access through LERA Members Library)
Fall 2006 Edition (Access through LERA Members Library)
Spring 2006 Edition (Access through LERA Members Library)
Fall 2005 Edition (Access through LERA Members Library)
Spring 2005 Edition (Access through LERA Members Library)
Fall 2004 Edition (Access through LERA Members Library)

Readers are encouraged to contact LERA (at LERAoffice@uiuc.edu ) for information on the print-edition of Perspectives or to become a LERA member.

Labor and Employment Relations Association
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