Hugh D. Hindman

Cross-Cultural Ethics and the Child Labor Problem

This paper examines the issue of global child labor. The treatment is grounded in the classical economics of Adam smith and the more recent writings of human capital theorists. Using this framework, the universal problem of child labor in newly industrializing countries is investigated. Child labor is placed in its historical context with a brief review of practices in the United States and Great Britain at the time those countries were industrializing. Then, child labor is examined in its contemporary global context. We argue that, as countries industrialize, they tend to follow predictable patterns of development – including use of and eventual abandonment of child labor. We argue that this convergence under the logic of industrial capitalism supports a universalist approach to human rights (that would condemn child labor) over a more tolerant cultural relativist approach.

Correlates of union membership and joining intentions in a unit of federal employees

Correlates of membership and joining intentions in the federal sector, where union representation is broadly available but membership is relatively low, are examined. Key independent variables — attitude toward joining, normative influence, perceived instrumentality of joining, union activism, and satisfaction with the union — are all positively correlated with both membership and joining intentions. In regression analyses, attitude toward joining predicted both membership and intentions. Union satisfaction and activism predicted membership, but normative influence and instrumentality did not; and normative influence and instrumentality predicted joining intentions, but union satisfaction and activism did not. Other important variables include: general attitude toward unions, which predicted both membership and intentions; membership in the previous union, which predicted intentions, but not membership; race, which predicted intentions, but not membership; satisfaction with pay, which predicted (negatively) joining intentions, but not membership; and satisfaction with fellow workers, which predicted membership, but not intentions. We attempt to explain why determinants of membership might differ from determinants of joining intentions.

The model employment termination act: Provisions and discussion

Recently, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws completed a drafting of the Model Employment Termination Act (META). The goal of this suggested state legislation is to end the patchwork of state-defined protections offered to employees who are terminated in at-will work environments. If META provisions are adopted there will be a substantial change in both the protection offered employees and the litigation of wrongful discharge claims within the adopting state. This article presents the changes proposed by META and discusses these changes and their potential implications for employers and employees.

Children Bound to Labor: The Pauper Apprentice System in Early America, edited by Ruth Wallis Herndon and John E. Murray

employment. Indeed, Phillips creates the image of a rancho workforce composed exclusively of free laborers. Omitted entirely is any discussion of Indian workers bound to the rancheros as debt peons or enslaved captives. This glaring oversight extends to Phillips’ portrayal of rancho labor following the American conquest. For the next 20 years, white–Native labor relations on the ranchos took shape in accordance with the 1850 Act for the Government and Protection of Indians. Remarkably, Phillips provides only brief and scattered references to this key statute, which effectively legalized the binding of Native Americans as indentured servants, debt peons, and leased convicts. Without a careful accounting of these callously exploited workers, the story of Indian labor in Southern California remains misleadingly incomplete.