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Since before the passage of the NLRA in 1935, employers have, in varying degrees, implemented measures to present unionization. In the United States, unions can present limited benefits to employers. Labor organizations, for example, can leverage their position to assist in securing certain government contracts or assistance. General contractors seeking labor peace on projects may favor subcontractors with established union relationships, and contracts with no strike clauses. However, by and large, unions bring no value to employers. To be fair, aside from unions that are willing to make significant contract concessions in return for collecting dues (commonly referred to as "sweetheart unions"), organized labor rarely markets itself as an asset for management. Unions exist, by definition of law and in practical application, to represent the interests of employees. Management, in turn, exists to represent the interests of ownership. The result of such union‐management relations can be complicated and divisive. Do they need to be? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines how U.S. President Donald Trump is helping the meat-processing company, Mountaire Corporation, leverage the pandemic to strip workers of protections. Topics discussed include a brief background of the company which is one of Trump's top donors and the conflict between the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation on a legal objection to a labor contract raised by labor Oscar Cruz Sosa.

Discusses battles between workers and employers over rising health-care costs in the U.S. Strike by union workers at General Electric (GE) because of their anger over rising health costs; Rising costs of health care in the U.S.; Strike by workers at Hershey Foods; Companies that are negotiating new labor contracts, including Verizon and Goodyear; Reasons why costs are increasing, including advances in medical technology Strikes in the 1980s and 1990s over health-care costs; Decision of employers to increase payroll contributions, co-pays and deductibles for doctor and hospital visits; Outlook for rising costs.

Colleges and universities across the United States are facing difficult financial challenges, including rising costs, severe political blowback from tuition hikes, and — in some cases — worsening debt‐to‐endowment metrics. Increasingly, parents and students are also questioning the costs and benefits of higher education, exploring alternative career paths and options. These and other factors are forcing many colleges and universities to reduce workforces, reduce academic offerings, and/or consolidate campuses or institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on the economic scenario prevailing in the U.S. Note on tax-based incentive schemes; Opinion that increase in interest rates and reduction in monetary growth will make way for another recession; Information that the current rate of inflation has more to do with cost-push pressures and external events than with excessive total demands for goods and services; View that a truly balanced federal budget would moderate inflation only slightly; Assumption that unless the cost of living is somehow controlled in the next few months, a series of 1979 labor contracts will be negotiated at highly inflationary rates.

This article presents information regarding farm labor law in the U.S. Agricultural Labor Relations Act (ALRA) had been in existence for eight years, and despite a rocky beginning, it was becoming an effective mechanism for resolving disputes between the growers and their workers. Given the present conservative mood in the state, it will be years before the farm labor law regains the pro-worker momentum it acquired after it was passed in 1975. For agribusinessmen, the huge Abatti settlement was a glaring example of the ALRB's pro-labor bias. They criticized it vehemently in interviews published in the Imperial Valley Press and other newspapers throughout Southern California.

Reports that Frank Fitzsimmons, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, negotiated a thirty-three-month contract with the over-the-road trucking firms in the U.S. Increase in pension fund contributions; Fitzsimmons' relationship with President Richard Nixon; Implications for unionism in the national contract and the pension fund.

The article reports that U.S. labor contracts will be negotiated for 4.5 million workers in 1976. The labor unions are talking of huge wage increases to make up for the income erosion since 1973. In the construction industry, where contracts covering some 500,000 workers will be up for renewal. Despite high unemployment, wage pressures remain strong.

Many executives consider the right to fire at will as the necessary basis of management authority. Although the prerogative is still widespread in the United States--in contrast to most other countries--there is a growing tendency for courts to recognize qualifications. David Ewing outlines here the implications for managers of this changing judicial environment. He points out the importance of verbal employment assurances, the motive for discharge, the disposition of particular courts in which a grievance could be heard, and the extent to which public issues are involved, such as state and federal statutes, public safety regulations, and judicial processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past two decades, the master labor contracts in the major unionized industries, such as steel, auto, rubber, and trucking, have created wage and benefit levels that other companies, both unionized and nonunionized, have copied in their wage agreements. As wages in the major unions rose with the CPI and inflation, so did most other wages, from those in small companies to those in universities. But the economic stagnation of the last half of the 1970s and the first years of the 1980s forced some companies and some unions to break away from the master contracts in their settlements. When faced with a shutdown or a cut in pay, more and more unions are reluctantly choosing the cut in pay. The authors of this article say that the breaks in pattern bargaining are still few but maintain that in the 1982-1983 round of bargaining the patterns should fragment. Then, they assert, a new openness between managers and unions will be necessary to reach a rational wage agreement at the company and plant levels that managers and labor can both work with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional arbitration has lost much of its reputation for quick and effective settlement of industrial disputes. With longer and longer waits for final settlement have come escalating costs and more rigid procedures. In addition, new laws have caused an increase in the number of cases for arbitration. The author of this article discusses these and other reasons for the declining status of traditional arbitration and shows how a new, streamlined system, now incorporated into some union contracts, is cutting down the backlog of grievance cases. Two important characteristics of this procedure are on-site hearings and minimal involvement of union and management hierarchy--aspects which help restore speed and efficiency to arbitration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the need for the steel industry to cut back its production gracefully in the U.S., as of March 1954. It says that after finishing the defense program contracts, the industry is left with 70 to 75 percent of capacity basis. According to the article, one theory calls for the trade to balance things by retiring obsolete capacity. The ways to deal with iron ore problems, the flexibility of the open-hearth furnace, and the union contracts of most companies in the steel producing industry are also discussed.

The article discusses the cost-of-living index (c-of-l) in the U.S. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) calculated and published an old and a new c-of-l index, both official. Firms whose wages are adjusted under union contracts to meet the changes in the c-of-l index, are faced with the problem of which index to use. The new index was released to correct the rent component, introduce new commodities, and revise effective weights. BLS will be producing a third index by late 1952.

Presents information regarding political development in the U.S. Debate over the passage of labor legislation Taft-Hartley Act in the U.S. Congress; Analysis over the passage of the first of the Fair Deal domestic measures, a long-range housing bill through Congress; Information regarding a Supreme Court decision related to cases to recover several billion dollars in wartime overcharges by the railroads in the U.S.; Action taken by the U.S. House Agriculture Committee which has acted with surprising speed in reporting out the Pace bill; Statistical information related to grimmer economic condition of Great Britain including shrinking gold reserves and vaporizing government bonds; Rumors regarding the devaluation of pound sterling.

This article focuses on the anti-strike bill passed by the U.S. Congress last year. In June 26, 1943 any one of a hundred Congressmen might have been seen to sit back and rub his hands in solid satisfaction. Over the President's veto the anti-strike bill had been made the law of the land, after ten years of overindulgence at the hands of New Deal labor, these statesmen thought, had been put in its place. They had voted-or so they believed-to arrest a trend, to check the political advances of the unions. They had made a good many wage-earners suddenly understand that henceforth their security would depend not only on the success of a union's dickerings with an employer but equally on the attitude of Presidents, Representatives, and Senators.

The article focuses on labor supply in the U.S. industries and discusses the problem of labor pirating. It states that there is no law in the U.S. to stop hiring of a skilled labor from other corporations without a government permission. It states that labor piracy is highest in California. It reports that the U.S. Office of Production Management (OPM) has proposed that an executive order issued under the emergency powers of the U.S. president could prohibit labor piracy.

Presents information on various political developments in several countries. Actions taken by British politician Winston Churchill to wreck the Round Table Conference for the independence of British India; Overview of the revolution against the regime of the King Alfonso XIII in Spain; Strikes called by cotton mill workers of Danville, Virginia; Opposition of the experts who are members of the American Economic Association, the American Statistical Association, the American Sociological Society and the American Association for Labor Legislation to the use of the yellow-dog contract in employer-employee relations.

Focuses on political developments all round the world. Information about Victory Liberty Loan drive in the U.S.; Changes in the League of Nations Covenant; Opinion of England regarding the political developments in Paris; Claims that three hundred French Deputies and a large number of Senators have signed a manifesto demanding that the full cost of the war be imposed upon Germany; Resolution of the National Assembly demanding a treaty based on the fourteen points, with no changes in territory in violation of that programme, in Germany; Threat of mutiny in American ranks; Result of starvation in Soviet Union; Comments on impression Bolsheviki make on American newspaper owner in Budapest; Report on the socialist government of Bavaria; Nullification of the twenty-one demands made by Japan in 1915; Recommendations in the report of the Committee on International Labor Legislation; Information about a national conference of employers and workers in England; Comments on the controversy over steel prices in the U.S.; Report on the Savings Bank Section of the Americans Bankers' Association; Policy of the U.S. government to retain its title to the ships and arrange for their operation by private or semi-public shipping corporations; Violation of Espionage act; Report that the minimum wage recommended for women by the Factory Investigation committee of New York State was $9; Increase in the wages granted by the Railway Administration in the U.S.

This article presents information regarding political and economic developments in the U.S. There was reason to hope, at one time during the last session of the New York Legislature, that the good fortune which justifies the optimism of Americans was about to be signally illustrated. The contract system is not restored, nor is its abolition to be regretted. Both the public-account and the piece-price systems are allowed. The wholesale removals of postmasters serving four years' terms having provoked severe criticism, the Department gave out the explanation that such removals were made upon "charges."

The article refers to the Wagner Act, collective bargaining, and industrial relations in the United States. Legislative or public rules restrict management when employers are required to "bargain in good faith" and often benefit outside pressure groups. The draft for a labor contract should include: a brief from the legal counsel that can be filed with the National War Labor Board; a report on the cost of each union proposal; a legal opinion on the probability of each proposal being adopted; written proposals from the employer that can be inserted in the contract; and criticism or suggestions for phraseology. The common law of rights concerning employment relation or collective bargaining is known as "industrial jurisprudence."

The article focuses on labor-management relations and labor-union strategy for entering companies in the United States. In the organizing campaign, union leaders arouse employees' emotions, disrupt relationships, and create hostility. This first stage in the transition to a unionized shop is an attempt to set up collective bargaining by appealing to workers' desire for higher wages and group affiliation. The second stage of negotiating a contract with professional unionists and a team of company executives is followed by the challenge of implementing a union agreement. Topics include the technical and emotional aspects of introducing a new contract and an example involving Commonwealth Edison Company of Chicago and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 1361.

This article relates first hand accounts by a steel worker's union organizer of successful and unsuccessful efforts at organization of the Steel Worker's Organizing Committee (SWOC). The author recounts both positive and negative experiences around union leaders engaged in collective bargaining and plant foreman facing their first union contract. Further discussion of the adjustment of employers to democratic ideas is illustrated. The author argues that labor-employer peace is achieved when employers recognize labor's right to organize and adopt democratic principles within industry management. The author pledges that until management makes a commitment to organized labor, unions will continue to exert their influence and power.

The article focuses on the common law status of anti-union contracts in the United States. The term "anti-union contract" refers to agreements signed by employees as a necessary condition for obtaining and retaining employment in production plants. A brief historical overview of legislative efforts to curb the right of employers to make non-membership in unions a condition of employment is presented. Several United States Supreme Court cases involving labor contracts are discussed, including "Adair v. United States." The legal consequences of the decisions for unions and employers are detailed.

The article discusses statutory law and the laws of business economics as they relate to government wage determinations. The article examines the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Adkins v. Children's Hospital of the District of Columbia that deemed the minimum wage law unconstitutional. The author argues that the decision reflects the court's recognition of economic laws of valuation in terms of wage determination and asserts the freedom of contract. The article examines the wage bargain in light of the court's decision, illustrating that the court was setting forth a fundamental economic law. The author suggests that, in light of the decision, a minimum wage law founded on prevailing wages of similar lines of work would be more in line with the Freedom of Contract doctrine.

The article focuses on the collaboration of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO) in the U.S. It leads to the formation of the Industrial Union Department (IUD) to house the industrial unions. The committees that made up the IUD are set up as centers to share information on labor contracts and work out concerted bargaining goals. The IUD considers itself as the protector of industrial union interests from the moment of its establishment.

During recent years both employers and employees have been asking questions about the employment contract. How valuable is it? Whom does it really protect--and when? Is it worth the time and effort of preparation? These questions have led in turn to another important question: Is there a good alternative to the employment contract? If so, when should it be used by management? All of these questions are answered in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article explains the "continuous contract," a labor-management agreement that stipulates discussion and negotiation to resolve industrial relations disputes. Features of the agreement--which is an alternative to traditional methods in collective bargaining--are collaboration, continuous adjustment, and an atmosphere that promotes understanding between opposing parties. Topics include intervention of a third party in big disputes that involve industry-wide negotiation, compensation formulas such as the "escalator clause," six basic principles of the General Motors/United Automobile Workers-CIO contract, and possible objections to the feasibility of the continuous contract principle.

The article is a check list for pension-plan administrators in the United States that is useful in collective bargaining. The objective is to prepare negotiators for their role in developing fair pension plans, avoiding conflict between the plan and the basic collective-bargaining agreement, and reducing the expense of collective bargaining. Information for negotiating this type of labor contracts includes: the prebargaining stage; provisions of the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947, Taft-Hartley Law, Wagner Act, and Internal Revenue Code; jurisdiction of federal courts; the bargaining factors such as providing money contributions to a fund or guaranteeing specific benefits; eligibility for retirement plans; vested rights; accrued employment service credits; and mandatory retirement.

The article discusses legal, economic, and actuarial aspects of pension plans in the United States. The funded unilateral company plan usually has no legal contractual obligations against the company and employee rights refer to the contributed funds in the plan. Negotiated plans might have legal employment contracts such as bilateral-company or bilateral-union plans. Pensions could be financed by current and future production if the plan is operated in perpetuity, the cost is constant, and future production is adequate to support the needs of current workers and the next generation. Topics include a history of the pension movement, definition of terms used in pension plans, examples of legal liability, unfunded retirement plans, and funding the federal social security system.

The article discusses how U.S. Labor Secretary George P. Shultz's efforts to keep the White House out of labor contract disputes and how he is dealing with the General Electric (G.E.) strike in 1969. According to the author, Shultz and the White House will have to deal with bigger and more critical bargaining problems in 1970. The author says that there is an increasing disaffection in organized labor with Shultz's statements and policies. INSET: Why the unions will be talking tough.

The article discusses arbitration as the most effective system developed in the U.S. for stabilizing labor relations. The arbitration deals with the interpretation of an existing contract where an arbitrator clarifies its provisions. It cites a series of Arbitration Insitutes for union officials where the growth of arbitration cases in importance and complexity and the development of expertise by unionists stood out. It indicates awareness by labor and management of the nature of arbitration where both parties fight to win but avoid inflicting wounds.

The article discusses an effort by the People's Parity Project group of Harvard Law School students to convince law firms to stop requiring staff members and attorneys to sign arbitration agreements as a condition of employment, and it mentions several law firms such as Munger Tolles & Olson LLP and DLA Piper LLP. America's Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act legislative bill is examined, along with the phrase alternative dispute resolution.

Presents letters to the editor related to American labor laws. Actions taken by politician Alexander Cockburn; Description of several labor unions; Implication of being neo-Stalinist.

Assesses the contract settlement between the United Automobile Workers and the United States automotive company General Motors Corp. Provisions of the settlement; Political issues that influenced the negotiation between the company and the trade-union; Establishment of a job bank by the company in relation to the job security provision of the agreement.

Focuses on issues pertaining to the announcement made by the General Motors Corp. in December 1981, on the need for its hourly and salaried employees to reduce or eliminate their unrealistic expectations about economic gains in the upcoming labor contract negotiations. Problems related to the argument made by the company that the industry is performing poorly in the U.S.; Problems related to management strategies used.

The article offers information related to contract labor-bargaining outlook for various industries in the U.S. in 1976. It mentions that almost 4.5 million workers are covered in the major contracts that would expire or would be available for reopening in various industries including electric equipment, construction, and rubber. Meanwhile, nearly 3,200 construction contracts will be negotiated to reflect local economic status and members of United Auto Workers have uncapped cost of living adjustment (COLA) wherein their president Leonard Woodcock will pursue on job security. Moreover, contracts of 115,000 employees of General Electric Co. will expire in June. According to U.S. Secretary of Labor W.J Usery Jr., they are expecting strikes in some industries.

The article deals with recruitment of corporate executives in the U.S. as of April 1977. The author discusses the amount of executives' salaries and bonuses, their compensation packages, and employment contracts. Special attention is paid to how a manager is attracted to a company including executives Joseph B. Flavin, Robert J. Suslow, and Robert C. Wilson.

The article reports that the tentative contract agreed by United Airlines Inc. and negotiators for its 5,000 pilots on July 30, 1981 will be the first step toward a significant restructuring of union wages and work rules in the U.S. airline industry. It notes that the new pact will enable the industry to compete more effectively with nonunion carriers. It also mentions that under the new contract, United Airlines agreed to a one-time pay increase of 2.4% to reflect the loss of shift premiums.

The article offers information on the status of the open warfare between J.P. Stevens & Co. and the Amalgamated Clothing & Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) in the U.S. On October 19, 1980, both companies end their 17 years of war by signing an agreement that assures 21/2 years of labor force. As part of its pact, the company ratifies the contract terms of its rank-and-file workers, while ACTWU agrees to stop its consumer boycott.

The article focuses on the anticipated move of the United Auto Workers (UAW) to settle without a strike at several U.S.-based automakers when its existing contracts expire on September 14, 1976. The bargaining with the automobile companies including General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., and Chrysler Corp. is considered as the biggest one in the year. It is anticipated that the settlement will influence wage trends in the metal industries in the country.

The article examines the possibility of a nationwide mine strike in 1974 in the U.S. It cites the lack of chance of soft coal miners to remain employed even if contract settlement negotiations succeeded. It mentions that a lack of settlement agreement could lead to mine closure lasting for almost two to three weeks.

The article discusses noncompetition agreements in the United States. The purpose of noncompetition agreements is to restrict an employee's right to work for a rival company during a specified period of time or in a specific geographic area. The practice of American courts regarding noncompetition covenants is to only enforce one if it legitimately protects the employer's business interests. Topics include nondisclosure agreements, nonsolicitation agreements, liquidated damages provisions, forfeiture of deferred compensation, forgiveness of advances, and termination of benefits.

Focuses on the court decisions made in the Schechter Poultry Corp. trial. Comments on the decisions on policy that the Court's opinion necessarily embodies. Information on a policy regarding delegation of its power by the Congress; Disapproval of the policy on the ground of economic welfare of workers and farmers; Comment on a policy that prohibits federal government to legislate about wages, hours, prices, production or other practices of industry, so far as these practices do not directly affect interstate commerce; Proposals to curb the power of the Court to invalidate laws upon constitutional grounds; Belief that there should be a governmental agency entrusted with hammering out long-time policy.

The article presents an outlook for the steel industry in the U.S. as of February 15, 1962. After a period of low operating rates and profits, steel furnaces and mills are starting to recover. 2.4 million ingot tons of steel have been produced by the industry in a week. However, the labor contract between the United Steelworkers of America and the industry will expire on June 30. After that date, the union could launch a strike that may affect steel-melting and finishing operations.

The article presents an overview of several political and social issues. An uncommonly large proportion of the States voted upon constitutional questions of the first importance on Tuesday. The people of New Hampshire, Delaware, and South Carolina decided whether to call conventions to frame new constitutions. That the Republicans would carry the Northern elections this year was generally expected, but the extent of the victory was not anticipated. The great Howard ease has been disgraceful to everybody concerned from the beginning, and has ended ludiciously. There never was, from the beginning, any doubt that Howard was a domestic servant, and therefore not within the contract-labor act.

The article reports on the competition between the right-wing International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers and the left-wing United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers. The unions are fighting in courts for the control of union finances and existing contracts with employers and are also competing to win the support of rank-and-file workers and recognition of employers and government officials. The status of each union in major cities such as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Dayton, Ohio are discussed.