Michelle Kaminski

Teaching Leadership to Union Women: The Use of Stories

LABOR STUDIES JOURNAL, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Summer 2003): 67-77. Published for the United Association for Labor Education by the West Virginia University Press, P.O. Box 6295, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506. © 2003, West Virginia University Press. Union leadership classes can be the catch-all of labor education. Such programs may include theories about effective leadership, personal assessment of leadership styles, updates on current &dquo;hot topics,&dquo; or skills training. In this article, I describe a different approach to teaching union leadership-one that is based on stories. Why use stories? Good stories are powerful-people relate to them and remember them. But in addition, part of what union activists who

How Michigan Became a Right to Work State The Role of Money and Politics

The passage of Right to Work (RTW) legislation in Michigan was a surprise to many, given its relatively high unionization rate. Previous studies that examine state RTW status and the process of passing RTW legislation are not a good fit for the events in Michigan. Instead, single-party Republican control of state government and a wealthy donor who prioritized RTW combined to introduce legislation, pass it, and sign it into law in a one-week period. Contextual factors helped create an opportunity for this campaign to succeed. The Michigan experience raises questions about long-term strategies for labor in similar environments in the era of big-money donors.

It Isn’t Always Rational The Psychology of Voting and Lessons for Labor

Although labor studies research has commonly looked to sociology, history, and economics for new perspectives, behavioral psychology has largely been underutilized. This article provides a popular psychological model of behavior and examples of its application in issues of interest to labor, specifically the Employee Free Choice Act and the auto industry “rescue.” It is the authors’ belief that considering such models will provide a different viewpoint through which to analyze labor issues and promote further integration of psychology and labor studies.

Book Review: Black and Blue: African Americans, the Labor Movement, and the Decline of the Democratic Party. By Paul Frymer. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008. 202 pp.

comparative international study and a productive methodology for tackling pressing national question about U.S. labor history. What ultimately was possible in late-nineteenth-century America will certainly inspire other authors to ask the beguiling question, “Why no labor party?” It is not a mere academic exercise to debate the answer. Labor choices made in the past have had consequences for labor’s fortunes. Archer imagines America if a different path was perceived as possible: “If a labor party had been established, it is highly likely that business interests would have had less influence over public policy, that income and wealth would have been more equally distributed, that trade unions would have been stronger, and that a more comprehensive welfare state would have developed” (p. 1). Maybe it’s not too late?