Workplace Prof Blog

Recent Productivity Increases Due in Part to Decline in IT Prices

On February 3, 2005, the Congressional Research Service updated "Productivity: Will the Faster Growth Rate Continue?"

The Report attributes the recent pickup in productivity in part to the rapid rate of decline in the prices of computers and other IT equipment. An important factor in those price declines has been innovation in the manufacture of microprocessors. As computer prices have fallen, their use has become much more widespread. Because of falling prices it has become profitable to put computers to uses with smaller and smaller returns. There is also the prospect that it may take firms a considerable amount of time to adapt the way they do business to take advantage of their investments in IT equipment. As was the case with other historic technological advances, the productivity gains attributable to investments in IT equipment may ripple through the economy for some time.

18 pgs
Document No: RL32456

Thanks to Law Librarian Blog for the tip.

About Wal-Mart

Three articles about Wal-Mart's employment practices.

In At a Small Shop in Colorado, Wal-Mart Beats a Union Once More, Steven Greenhouse (NYT) describes a recnet unsuccesful organizing drive at the tire-and-lube shop at a Wal-Mart store in Loveland, Colorado.  Among other very interesting issues, the article describes how some employees who initially signed authorization cards, voted against the union following Wal-Mart's campaign against the union.

Alicia Sylvia, a single mother of 10-year-old twins, was a big union booster at the outset.

"Compared to other stores, we don't even make what cashiers make," said Ms. Sylvia, who earns just under $9 an hour writing up service orders as cars arrive at the garage and says she cannot afford Wal-Mart's health insurance. In Colorado, full-time unionized supermarket cashiers generally earn $15.66 an hour after two years.

"We should make more, since we work on vehicles and can get burned, and we have to stand out in the cold and heat," she said. "If you're working 10-hour days in the rain and getting your pants wet and freezing all day, it's not fun."

She acknowledged that the antiunion videos had helped turn her against unionizing.

"I really wish Wal-Mart would become better," she said. "But even if we get a union, it will be a long battle. Wal-Mart doesn't have to agree to anything. The message we got was, 'You're a small bunch of guys, and you can stand out there and strike, and we're going to replace you.' They'll never agree to a contract, out of pure stubbornness. I'm so confused."

In the Wal-Mart Manifesto, Timothy Noah (Slate .com) debunks Wal-Mart's CEO (H. Lee Scott Jr.) recent speech in which Lee argues that Wal-Mart is good to its employees.

"What's fairly new in Scott's speech (a related ad campaign was launched last month) is Wal-Mart's rising on its hind legs to tell the world that it is good to its employees. I'd thought it was a settled matter that Wal-Mart had achieved its miraculously low prices by squeezing its employees. Not so, said Scott:

Wal-Mart's average wage is around $10 an hour, nearly double the federal minimum wage. The truth is that our wages are competitive with comparable retailers in each of the more than 3,500 communities we serve, with one exception—a handful of urban markets with unionized grocery workers. … Few people realize that about 74 percent of Wal-Mart hourly store associates work full-time, compared to 20 to 40 percent at comparable retailers. This means Wal-Mart spends more broadly on health benefits than do most big retailers, whose part-timers are not offered health insurance. You may not be aware that we are one of the few retail firms that offer health benefits to part-timers. Premiums begin at less than $40 a month for an individual and less than $155 per month for a family.

The apparent purpose of the speech was to counter political resistance to the building of Wal-Mart "supercenters" in California. But if Scott saw much danger that Wall Street might believe his rosy picture of labor relations, he wouldn't paint it, because that would create an investor stampede away from Wal-Mart stock. What we have, then, is a unique rhetorical form: Nonsense recited by someone who is relying on most of his listeners to understand that he is spouting nonsense. Wal-Mart took the trouble to send this speech out to writers "who are in a position to influence a lot of others," according to a cover e-mail I received from Mona Williams, Wal-Mart's vice president for corporate communications. I took Williams' email as a plea to expose the dishonesty in Scott's remarks (Stop us before we kill again!) disguised as a plea to give Scott's remarks a fair hearing. I will try to oblige."

Finally, Robert B. Reich (ex-Secretary of Labor) argues that we should stop blaming Wal-Mart and instead look at ourselves for Wal-Mart's employment practices ("Don't Blame Wal-Mart").  According to Reich,

"But isn't Wal-Mart really being punished for our sins? After all, it's not as if Wal-Mart's founder, Sam Walton, and his successors created the world's largest retailer by putting a gun to our heads and forcing us to shop there.

Instead, Wal-Mart has lured customers with low prices. "We expect our suppliers to drive the costs out of the supply chain," a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart said. "It's good for us and good for them."

Wal-Mart may have perfected this technique, but you can find it almost everywhere these days. Corporations are in fierce competition to get and keep customers, so they pass the bulk of their cost cuts through to consumers as lower prices. Products are manufactured in China at a fraction of the cost of making them here, and American consumers get great deals. Back-office work, along with computer programming and data crunching, is "offshored" to India, so our dollars go even further.

Meanwhile, many of us pressure companies to give us even better bargains. I look on the Internet to find the lowest price I can and buy airline tickets, books, merchandise from just about anywhere with a click of a mouse. Don't you?

The fact is, today's economy offers us a Faustian bargain: it can give consumers deals largely because it hammers workers and communities."

Weekend Newspapers Round-up

A number of interesting articles and editorials on labor and employment related issues.  Here are some excerpts:

Six Figures? Not Enough! (by Alex Williams, NYT):

There was a time not long ago when earning six figures was a significant milestone among upwardly mobile professionals. If you were young and single in one of the nation's big cities, you could live in a building with a doorman, drive a European car, eat at fine restaurants and vacation in Jackson Hole. For married people it meant a suburban home and college savings accounts for the children.

Beyond the lifestyle, $100,000 was a psychic achievement; it meant joining the meritocratic elite. The prospect of "six figures" kept white-collar workers toiling for 20 years, confident that hard work would be rewarded and that the American social contract was securely in place.

Certainly $100,000, which is more than twice the national median household income of $43,527, is still a princely wage in most of the country, placing you in the top 5.2 percent of American wage earners with full-time jobs, according to the 2000 census. Even in New York City, only 7.5 percent of full-time workers make that much. But $100,000 isn't what it used to be. It has been devalued, in the practical sense by inflation and psychologically because it is now a relatively common salary for newcomers in fields like law and banking. For today's executive strivers in the more affluent cities, there is a new grail: $200,000

St. Louis Orchestra Reaches Pact After 2-Month Dispute (by Daniel J. Wakin, NYT):

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra musicians and management appear to have ended a labor dispute that cost two months of the season.

The two sides reached agreement on a contract on Thursday night, and it is likely to be ratified on Tuesday. If the musicians accept the pact, rehearsals will begin on Thursday for concerts next weekend.

Maternal Wall: Moms Find Roadblocks to Jobs, Advancements (by Amanda Cuda, The Connecticut Post)

"Just as the glass ceiling once kept women out of desirable jobs based on gender, there are invisible obstacles keeping mothers from these same positions, or causing them to lose the positions they already hold. This phenomenon has been dubbed the maternal wall by many, including Joan Williams, law professor and director of Program on WorkLife Law at American University, in Washington, D.C.

AT LUNCH WITH: Warren Farrell - Are Women Responsible for Their Own Low Pay? (by Claudia H. Deutsch, NYT)

"Do you think that Lawrence H. Summers, Harvard's president, stirred up a hornets' nest by suggesting that women's brains are not genetically wired for math or science? Wait until you hear Warren Farrell on the subject of women's pay.

Sure, Dr. Farrell accepts that women, as a group, are paid less than men. But the way he sees it, using pay statistics to prove sex discrimination is akin to using the horizon to prove that the world is flat.

Women, he believes, methodically engineer their own paltry pay. They choose psychically fulfilling jobs, like librarian or art historian, that attract enough applicants for the law of supply and demand to kick in and depress pay. They avoid well-paid but presumably risky work - hence, the paucity of women flying planes. And they tend to put in fewer hours than men - no small point, he says, because people who work 44 hours a week make almost twice as much as those who work 34 and are more likely to be promoted."

The program is a research and advocacy center that seeks to eliminate employment discrimination against caregivers, such as parents. It recently released a report, co-authored by Williams, about ending discrimination against caregivers in the workplace. Much of the report discusses the bias faced by mothers in the workplace. Williams said the point of the report was to determine how rampant this kind of prejudice is. She said that WorkLife Law has documented 170 cases where people have taken successful legal action against companies for caregiver discrimination."

NLRB Recent Developments

Weekly Summary of NLRB Decisions for week ending February 25, 2005.  The following decisions are summarized:

Big Sky Locators, Inc. (28‑CA‑17698; 344 NLRB No. 15) Las Vegas, NV, Feb. 14, 2005.  In affirming the administrative law judge’s findings, the Board held that the Respondent violated Section 8(a)(1) and (5) of the Act by withdrawing recognition from Electrical Workers IBEW Local 396 as the recognized collective-bargaining representative of the Respondent’s employees in the appropriate unit; failing to continue in effect terms and conditions of employment as set forth in the parties’ collective-bargaining agreement; failing to make Line Construction Benefit Fund health insurance premium payments and thereby failing to continue in effect employees’ coverage; and unilaterally placing into effect an alternative health care plan and imposing premium costs on employees.

Center for the Disabled (3‑RC‑11255; 344 NLRB No. 21) Albany, NY Feb. 16, 2005.  The Board adopted the hearing officer’s conclusion that the Employer established a valid business justification with respect to both the grant of the wage increases and the timing of their announcement and, overruled the Petitioner’s (Needletrades Employees) Objection 1, and certified the results of the rerun mail ballot election conducted from May 13 through 28, 2004.  In the absence of exceptions, it also adopted the hearing officer’s recommendation that the Petitioner’s Objection 3 be overruled.  The tally of ballots showed 285 for and 381 against, the Petitioner, with 83 challenged ballots, an insufficient number to affect the results of the election.

Electric By Miller, Inc. (17‑CA‑22667; 344 NLRB No. 20) Grove, OK, Feb. 16, 2005.  The Board adopted the recommendations of the administrative law judge and found that the Respondent violated Section 8(a)(1) of the Act by threatening its employees with closure of the business if they selected Electrical Workers IBEW Local 584 as their collective-bargaining representative and falsely announcing closure of the business in order to effectuate the discharge of a prounion employee, and violated Section 8(a)(1) and (3) by discharging John R. Carter because of his union activities.

International Transportation Service, Inc. (21‑CA‑34968; 344 NLRB No. 22) Long Beach, CA Feb. 18, 2005.  In agreement with the administrative law judge, the Board found that the Respondent violated Section 8(a)(1) of the Act by informing an employee that she was being discharged because she engaged in union and protected concerted activity, specifically picket line activity on behalf of Longshoremen Local 63 , and violated Section 8(a)(1) and (3) by terminating employee Deanna Tartaglia because she engaged in union and protected concerted activity, specifically picket line activity on behalf of the Union.

Cincinnati sponsors "Women Coming Together" Conference

Women Coming Together:
Claiming the Law for Social Change

presented by
The University of Cincinnati College of Law and the
Joint Degree Program in Law and Women's Studies

February 25 - 27, 2005
University of Cincinnati Tangeman Student Center

What is women coming together
At this two-day gathering, diverse women will articulate and activate an inclusive, progressive agenda for all women to help lead this nation in a positive direction. Women Coming Together will provide opportunities to develop new strategies, expand and enhance coalitions, and share ideas about how to “claim the law” as a vehicle for social change.

Our main focus will be women's health and well-being, taking a holistic approach to examining the many different factors affecting the ability of women to lead healthy lives. Among the issues we plan to address include: reproductive health, access to quality health care, media images, civil rights enforcement, immigration, and criminal

Please join us—activists, academics, advocates, people committed to social justice—at the University of Cincinnati for this exciting event.

Germs at work

Did you think that your job "made you sick"? Now you have prove.  The Sun Sentinel reports on a study by Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona.  Gerba,

"collected samples from office buildings in Atlanta, Chicago, New York City, San Francisco and Tucson, Ariz., last fall to determine how much human parainfluenza 1 virus was present. The virus is responsible for common respiratory infections, such as pneumonia and bronchiolitis.

The survey collected samples from common areas: telephone mouthpieces, computer mice, desktops, doorknobs and handles, conference rooms, light switches and office cubicles.

New York -- where half of all office surfaces contained the virus -- was the most virus-laden city, followed by Atlanta, San Francisco, Chicago and Tucson."

Scientists examine workplace germs

Blogging about Work

Management employment law firm provides some advice to employers on how to address issues regarding employee's blogging activities.

"Workers using Internet blogs and podcasts to talk about their employers are increasingly at risk of being fired, and their companies are more vulnerable to having confidential information leaked, according to Littler Mendelson, the nation's largest labor and employment law firm. ...

"Employees can have a false sense of security, when it comes to postings," said Christopher Cobey, senior counsel in Littler Mendelson's Silicon Valley office. "They mistakenly believe that if they shroud the blog or podcast with anonymity, they are immune from consequences. However, in most states, employment is at-will, meaning employers can fire an employee without cause. Learning that an employee is disloyal to the company may be all an employer will require to exercise its option to terminate the person."

Cobey suggests companies incorporate blogging and podcasting policies into their existing guidelines on confidential information, trade secrets and use of company electronic resources."

Bloggers and Podcasters Beware! Net Babble Can Cost You Your Job, Littler Mendelson Offers Tips to Workers and Bosses on Surviving Latest Web Trends

Rappers and Bloggers

Josh Levin from Slate.com writes about rappers and bloggers.  Rappers and Bloggers: Separated at Birth. Here is an excerpt:

"Essentially, blogging is sampling plus a new riff. Political bloggers take a story in the news, rip out a few chunks, and type out a few comments. Rap songs use the same recipe: Dig through a crate of records, slice out a high hat and a bass line, and lay a new vocal track on top. Of course, the molecular structure of dead-tree journalism and classic rock is filthy with other people's research and other people's chord progressions. But in newspaper writing and rock music, the end goal is the appearance of originality—to make the product look seamless by hiding your many small thefts. For rappers and bloggers, each theft is worth celebrating, another loose item to slap onto the collage.

Rap music and blogging are populist, low-cost-of-entry communication forms that reward self-obsessed types who love writing in first person. Maybe that's why both won so many converts so quickly. If you want to become MC I'm Good at Rapping, all you have to do is rustle up a microphone and a sampler. If you want to blog as AngryVeganCatholicGOPMom, bring a computer, an Internet connection, a working knowledge of Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V, and a whole lot of spare time."

I never thought of myself as a rapper (although perhaps I am not a blogger either)!

FMLA Recent Developments

"Employer's Granting of FMLA Leave May Preclude Subsequent Challenge to Employee's Entitlement Leave" By Jon Allison (Dinsmore & Shohl)

Employers should be aware that the unconditional granting of FMLA leave to employees without challenge may prevent employers from later challenging employees' entitlement to the leave.

In Sorrell v. Rinker Materials Corp., 6th Cir. No. 03-4359, 1/14/05, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that an employer's unconditional approval of an employee's request for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act to care for his ill wife may prevent it from contesting the employee's leave entitlement.  Read more here.

NLRB Recent Developments

Weekly Summary of NLRB Decisions for the week ending February 18, 2005.  The summary includes discussion of:

Atlantic Structures Corp.

The Board granted the General Counsel’s motion for summary judgment and held that the Respondent violated Section 8(a)(1) of the Act by statements made to employees; Section 8(a)(3) and (1) by discharging William Byer because he formed, joined and/or assisted Carpenters Local 613 and engaged in concerted activities; and Section 8(a)(5) and (1) by refusing to adhere to the terms and conditions of its collective-bargaining agreement with the Union and by bypassing the Union and dealing directly with unit employees regarding terms and conditions of employment.

Delta Brands Inc.

At issue is whether the Employer maintained an unlawful rule (Rule 31) in its employee policy manual that restricted workplace solicitation.  The hearing officer’s initial recommendation was to set aside the election based on Rule 31.  The Board thereafter remanded the case to the hearing officer to take additional evidence on the factual issue of whether Rule 31 had been disseminated to employees.  In her supplemental report, the hearing officer reaffirmed her finding that the Employer had engaged in objectionable conduct as to Rule 31, which prohibits “[v]ending, soliciting, or collecting contributions for any purpose unless authorized by management.”  Accordingly, the hearing officer recommended that one of the Union’s objections be sustained and that the election be set aside.  The majority maintained that the rule was not adopted in response to the union’s organizing campaign, but that it was part of a 36‑page handbook, and that only one employee

NLRB Makes Advice Memoranda More Accessible

The National Labor Relations Board has enhanced the way in which the public can search for documents posted on its Web site, particularly Advice Memoranda issued by the Office of the General Counsel. Details at Law Librarian Blog.

Of General Interest

Two (unrelated) yet very interesting columns in Slate.com posted today February 23.

Steven Landsburg, discusses the "real reason" justifying Social Security reform in Save and Save and Then Save Some More.  Here is an excerpt:

"The true crisis lies elsewhere. It has nothing to do with bankruptcy, nothing to do with definitions or accounting tricks, nothing to do with lockboxes or anything else about the way the system is structured. Instead, the crisis is completely defined by the fact that in the future (as in the present) there will be only a finite number of goods to go around, and in the future (unlike in the present) there will be a lot more old people clamoring for a share.

When it comes to issues like this, I always tell my students, "Don't follow the money; follow the goods." In 2020, there will be a certain amount of food, a certain amount of aspirin, a certain number of television sets. All that matters is who gets how much. And you can't change that with accounting tricks."

Dahlia Lithwick discusses yesterday's Supreme Court oral argument in the case of Kelo v. New London in Condemn-Nation: This land was your land, but now it's my land.  Here are the first couple of paragraphs:

"I've witnessed some weird moments at oral arguments over the years, but I'm thinking absolutely nothing could compare with the sight I beheld today: In the midst of argument in Kelo v. New London—a critically important case about the government's right to condemn private land and give it to private developers—the lawyer for the city of New London, Conn., pulls out an actual prop. In response to a query from Sandra Day O'Connor as to whether there's a concrete development plan for what would replace the handful of homes being condemned, Wesley W. Horton hauls out a big poster board with the whole proposed community laid out. Condos here, marina here, yank out this crappy little Victorian house and the health club will go there, he enthuses.

My heart begins to pound. I want in on this deal. And O'Connor looks like she does, too."

Labor Joke of the Week

From BigLabor.com, here is the "Labor Joke of the Week"

Listen Carefully

A young woman was looking for work and found herself at Megacorp’s human resources office.  She completed a written test, then found herself face-to-face with an interviewer.

The interviewer said, “You choose: answer either ten easy questions or one very difficult one.”

The young woman thought for awhile and said, “I choose one very difficult question.”

“Well, good luck, you have made your own choice.” said the man. “Tell me, what comes first, day or night?”

The young woman waited for awhile and said, “It’s the day, sir.”

“How?” the interviewer demanded triumphantly.

.... (for the punch line click here).

Symposium on Grutter and Affirmative Action

Affirmative Action In Twenty-Five Years?

Moritz College of Law/Kirwan Institute to hold symposium February 24-25

February 11, 2005

What: Symposium on Affirmative Action
When: February 24-25, 2005
Where: Saxbe Auditorium, Moritz College of Law, 55 West 12th Avenue

Columbus, Ohio - Many of the nation's preeminent scholars will gather later this month at Ohio State's Moritz College of Law to discuss the challenge set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger, which suggested that in another 25 years, affirmative action may not be necessary to achieve diversity in higher education.

The symposium, co-sponsored by the Ohio State Law Journal , the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, and the Center for Interdisciplinary Law and Policy Studies (formerly Center for Law, Policy, and Social Science), will be held Thursday and Friday, February 24-25, 2005 at the Moritz College of Law, 55 W. 12th Avenue.

Charles Ogletree, professor of law at Harvard University and outspoken civil rights attorney, will present the keynote address on Friday, February 25. In addition, nearly 20 preeminent scholars, attorneys, and education professionals will speak on various panels throughout the two-day symposium. Panel topics include "The Current State of Affirmative Action," "The Practicality and Legitimacy of the Challenge," "New and Emerging Education Reform Trends," and "Implementing Change to Meet Our Goals."

The Supreme Court of Ohio has approved the program for up to seven continuing legal education (CLE) hours. For more information or to register to attend, please contact the Ohio State Law Journal at 614-292-6829. Click here to see the program and registration information.

The symposium will be webcast live at no charge, and will be accessible here.  Online participation by both individuals and groups such as classrooms is encouraged. Please contact the Ohio State Law Journal at 614-292-6829 to register for online participation. Each on-line participant will receive an e-mail address which can be used to direct questions to the panelists during the event.

Blogs and the Workplace

From LinuxInsider.com some thoughts about the various issues confronting employees who blog about work:

"When it comes to bloggers and the law, the question is whether we can apply standard legal guidelines. If not, do we need to look at blogging from another legal perspective? In the realm of intellectual property law, while the law generally lags behind new technological innovations, it does a good job of catching up when it needs to. However, do we need to move even faster to deal with the legal ramifications of blogging? Is blogging so different that is requires us to create a new set of laws?"

Bloggers' Bill of Rights Has No Legs (by Philip H. Albert)

AFL-CIO's Future

Steven Greenhouse, (The New York Times) reports on some of the issues likely to confront delegates to the AFL-CIO convention in early March (Union Support Plan to Cut AFL-CIO Contributions).  According to Greenhouse,

"Many of the nation's largest labor unions, including the Teamsters and Service Employees International Union, are pushing a plan to cut in half most unions' contributions to the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and instead devote the money to organizing workers, several labor leaders said yesterday."

Delegates will also have to consider the future of current president, John J. Sweeney,

"Union officials say Mr. Stern [Service Employees Union] and Mr. Raynor [UNITE HERE] have told other labor leaders that while they believe Mr. Sweeney is doing the best he can to reverse labor's decline, it is time for new, more forceful leadership. Mr. Sweeney is viewed as a consensus builder, who acknowledges that he has not succeeded in persuading many unions to increase their organizing as much as he had hoped."

The article also features comments by one of our own, Prof. Charles Craver (George Washington University).

""What we're seeing is a little what we saw before, when some labor leaders thought it was time to get rid of Lane Kirkland," said Charles Craver, a labor relations expert at George Washington University, referring to Mr. Sweeney's predecessor. "There's a feeling that the organization has not been moving forward. John Sweeney has tried very hard to turn things around, but if you look at the bottom line, there is no significant change. The decline has continued unabated.""

Kudos to Prof. Craver!

Selmi visits at Harvard

Professor Michael Selmi (George Washington Law Center) is visiting at Harvard Law School this semester (Spring 05).  While at Harvard, Professor Selmi is teaching Employment Law and a seminar in Employment Discrimination.

Professor Selmi has written extensively in the areas of employment discrimination, employment law, and constitutional law, and his work often includes empirical analyses of litigation. His articles have appeared in many law journals including Stanford Law Review, Texas Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, UCLA Law Review, and Virginia Law Review.

Professor Selmi also has a forthcoming book entitled Work Law.  The book, coauthored with Marion Crain (West Virginia) and Pauline Kim (Washington Univ. St. Louis) in intended for use in Employment Law courses and will be available for adoption next Fall 2005.

EPI Report on the 2004 Labor Market

The Economic Policy Institute has issued its assessment of the 2004 labor market in The Lukewarm 2004 Labor Market - Despite Some Signs of Improvement, Wages Fell, Job Growth Lagged, and Unemployment Spells Remained Long by Sylvia Allegretto, Jared Bernstein, and Isaac Shapiro.

From the report's conclusion:

These problems of falling wages, inadequate job creation, long-term unemployment, and a safety net that’s failing to protect job losers have contributed to a recovery that is considerably unbalanced. The economic growth that has occurred has flowed to corporate profits to a degree unseen in the post-World War II period, leaving relatively little for compensation.8 These economic conditions stand in stark contrast to those that prevailed at the end of the last business cycle, where full employment ensured that the benefits of the growing economy lifted the living standards of working families the income scale.

The job market data presented above show that even though unemployment was at a
relatively low level in 2004 — 5.5 percent — substantial slack remains in the job market. As long as this slack remains, the negative 2004 wage trends documented above are unlikely to reverse course.

Thanks to Joe Hodnicki, editor of Law Librarian Blog for the tip.

Women Coming Together:
Claiming the Law for Social Change

presented by
The University of Cincinnati College of Law and the
Joint Degree Program in Law and Women's Studies

February 25 - 27, 2005
University of Cincinnati Tangeman Student Center

What is women coming together
At this two-day gathering, diverse women will articulate and activate an inclusive, progressive agenda for all women to help lead this nation in a positive direction. Women Coming Together will provide opportunities to develop new strategies, expand and enhance coalitions, and share ideas about how to “claim the law” as a vehicle for social change.

Living Wages Research

Industrial Relations presents a Special Issue on Living Wages in its January 2005 issue.  Here is the table of contents:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Impacts of Living Wage Policies: Introduction to the Special Issue
David Fairris, Michael Reich

Fighting for Other Folks' Wages: The Logic and Illogic of Living Wage Campaigns
Richard Freeman

The Role of Community Involvement in Implementing Living Wage Ordinances
Stephanie Luce

The Economic Impact of the Boston Living Wage Ordinance
Mark D.Brenner

The Impact of Living Wages on Employers: A Control Group Analysis of the Los Angeles Ordinance
David Fairris

Living Wage Policies at the San Francisco Airport: Impacts on Workers and Businesses
Michael Reich, Peter Hall, Ken Jacobs

Living Wages and Retention of Homecare Workers in San Francisco
Candace Howes

When Do Living Wages Bite?
Scott Adams, David Neumark

The ILO October Inquiry: Statistics on Occupational Wages and Hours of Work and on Retail Food Prices
M.-T.Dupré

Internet Resources
Selected by the Institute of Industrial Relations Library
Terence K.Huwe, Janice Kimball

Recent Publications
Selected by the Institute of Industrial Relations Library
Terence K.Huwe, Janice Kimball