Charles R. Perry

Teacher Bargaining: The Experience in Nine Systems.

Analyzes teacher bargaining processes in public school systems in the United States. Patterns in the overall conflict record of the systems; Role of the budgetary cycle in imposing discipline on the bargaining process; Kinds of wage increases that teachers receive. (Abstract copyright EBSCO.)

The coal industry and its industrial relations. Some union/nonunion comparisons

This book addresses the following questions: how do product markets and labor markets interact in a labor intensive industry; how can a union whose members once mined 90 percent of the coal and now mines 40 percent, still dominate the industrial relations system of the industry, bargaining for member, nonmember, miners and management; how did a union which came into being to take wages out of competition eventually come to shield prices from competition as well and what is causing the erosion of that power; how can the environmental threats of an industry be compromised with its essential resource role; with all of its traditional markets dead or dying, how coal has survived through electric power generation; and what is the future of the industry.

Book Review: Labor-Management Relations: Union Rule in the SchoolsUnion Rule in the Schools. By GrimshawWilliam J., Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, D.C. Heath and Co., 1979. xv, 157 pp.

a greater impact on compensation levels than is commonly reported. Certainly if more of those who have studied this subject had used timeseries rather than cross-section analysis, empirical data might more readily support Mitchells conclusion, which also reinforces and coincides with that of most experienced negotiators. Thomas Kochan, in examining the dynamics of public sector dispute resolution, summarizes over fifty significant research efforts on his subject. Kochans conclusion-that the dispute resolution procedures we commonly use in the United States seem to have come almost full circle-suggests that no optimal device for resolving collective bargaining disputes exists. Shirley Goldenbergs chapter on public sector labor relationships in Canada is instructive. She particularly emphasizes the variety of legislative and judicial approaches used in bargaining impasses by our northern neighbors. If scholars can persuade legislators to look at foreign experience, we may yet find new perspectives and better approaches to dispute resolution. In summary, the IRRA has once again persuaded certain of its highly qualified members to analyze and summarize the current state of research in their field. In addition to those noted above, the editors, James Stern, Joseph Grodin, and Benjamin Aaron, have each contributed chapters. Grodin and Betty Schneider each deal with aspects of public sector labor law, while Stern and Milton Derber have each contributed chapters dealing with union and management structures in public employment labor relations. This volume, coming when it does, is not likely to provide new insights for policy makers. Rather it emphasizes what has been found and, less directly, the many areas that remain to be studied. Charles M. Rehmus Co-Director, Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations The University of MichiganWayne State University