James A. Gross

Conflicting Statutory Purposes: Another Look at Fifty Years of NLRB Law Making

The author describes how in 1947 Congress incorporated two conflicting statements of purpose in Taft-Hartley: a restatement of the Wagner Acts policy of encouraging collective bargaining, and a new statement stressing the rights of individual employees and making no mention of collective bargaining. As a result, the author argues, both liberal and conservative Boards can justify their policies by choosing between the Taft-Hartley Acts inconsistent statements of intent. The authors analysis draws on the language and histories of the Wagner and Taft-Hartley Acts, the comments of seven former chairmen of the NLRB who attended a conference at Cornell commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Board and the Wagner Act, interviews with several of those chairmen, and writings by former chairmen.

Value Judgments in the Decisions of Labor Arbitrators

Discusses the influence of values or predilections on the decisions of labor arbitrators. Discussion of the arbitrators image; Association between power and legal right; Faith limitations that arbitrators have placed upon managements authority to subcontract. (Abstract copyright EBSCO.)

Applying human rights standards to employment rights in the USA: The Human Rights Watch Report 2000

This essay reviews the international human rights standards that the Human Rights Watch Report uses as standards for judgment, summarises with some commentary the Reports major findings and recommendations, comments more fully on certain findings and recommendations, and, in conclusion, raises several issues that need to be addressed given the state of freedom of association and other related human rights in the USA.

Has Labor Law Failed? An Examination of Congressional Oversight and Legislative Proposals (1968-1990).

in San Jose and concessions women won at Yale University (also after a strike). In her concluding chapter, Riccucci states that additional research on public sector unions and female and minority employment is needed. I agree. We need research on what unions are actually doing. Although court cases are instructive, they tell only part of the story-often the negative part. For example, with respect to the construction trades on which Riccucci focuses a great deal of attention, the Carpenters, Steamfitters, Operating Engineers, and Sheetmetal unions in New York City are cooperating with the New York State Department of Labor to provide unemployed or underemployed economically disadvantaged persons, especially minorities and women, with a specially designed pre-apprenticeship training program to prepare them to enter regular apprenticeship programs. The Carpenters have agreed to indenture at least one-half of the successful graduates. Similarly, the Carpenters Union, which represents the carpenters employed by the New York City Housing Authority, has suggested to the Housing Authority that it set up an apprentice program for Housing Authority residents, who are often black or Latino. Finally, looking at both women and minorities in one book, as Riccucci attempts here, is too great a task. We need to look at each group separately. Barriers for women, white or black, Asian or Latina, are different from those for men. In addition, discrimination has different faces, depending on the race of the minority. Accordingly, Riccucci correctly concludes that more research is needed on these groups (as well as on older workers and the disabled) and how public sector unions respond to their various needs. Given what we know about the diversity of the work force now and its expected composition by the year 2000, such research is vital for employees, unions, employers, and policy makers.