Richard N. Block

Are training subsidies for firms effective? The Michigan experience

This paper explores the effects of a state-financed training grant program for manufacturing firms in Michigan. Using a three-year panel of data from a unique survey of firms that applied for these grants, the authors estimate the effects of receipt of a grant on total hours of training in the firm and the product scrap rate. They find that receipt of these grants is associated with a large and significant, though one-time, increase in training hours, and with a more lasting reduction in scrap rates.

An Interindustry Analysis of Bargaining Outcomes: Preliminary Evidence from Two-Digit Industries

An industrial relations paradigm, 433.—Industry outcomes, 435.—Determinants of outcomes, 435.—Correlation results, 440.—Regression results, 445.—Summary, 447.—Appendix A: Classification of contract provisions, 448.—Appendix B: Data sources, 450.

THE IMPACT OF ATTORNEYS AND ARBITRATORS ON ARBITRATION AWARDS

This paper analyzes the impact of attorney representation and the identity of the arbitrator on a sample of grievance arbitration awards in cases involving discharge for just cause. The results indicate that, as compared to cases in which neither side is represented by an attorney, each party has more favorable arbitration awards when it has attorney representation and the other party does not. When both sides have attorney representation, however, the awards do not differ from those given when neither side has attorney representation. The results also indicate that the awards of several of the arbitrators studied were consistently more favorable to one of the parties than the other.

Models of International Labor Standards

This article examines existing models of the regulation of international labor standards in the context of international trade. The article first focuses on conceptual and theoretical notions of the international regulation of labor standards. Four existing models of international labor regulations are then examined: the legislative model, the trade sanctions model, the multilateral enforcement model, and the voluntary standards model. The theoretical issues raised and the characteristics of the four models are then used to develop a suggested structure for the international regulation of labor standards in a world of free trade.

Union Organizing and the Allocation of Union Resources

This study examines the propensity of unions to allocate resources to organizing activity. The author hypothesizes that as a union increases its extent of organization, the need of its members for organizing services declines relative to their need for representation services and also the costs of organizing are more likely to exceed its benefits. Consequently, the percentage of a unions resources devoted to organizing is expected to vary inversely with the extent to which the union has organized its primary jurisdiction. Data limitations prevent a direct test of this hypothesis, but a model based on this reasoning is used to predict differences across labor unions in the number of NLRB representation elections per 1000 union members. An analysis of relevant data for 1972–78 tends to support the model.

The Impact of Seniority Provisions on the Manufacturing Quit Rate

Examination of how the strength and coverage of union-negotiated seniority provisions in two-digit manufacturing industries affect the quit rate. Measurement of union-negotiated provisions; Assumptions of the method; Determination of the variables; Results and conclusions. (Abstract copyright EBSCO.)

U.S. industrial relations, 1950-1980 : a critical assessment

The Political, Economic, and Labor Climate in India contains no original contribution and not even any fresh insights. Most of the content in the book is not only familiar territory to students of Indian economy and labor relations, but it has been treated more analytically in other publications, such as A. Fonsecas Wage Issues in a Developing Economy-The Indian Experience (1975) and Charles Myers and Subbiah Kannappans Industrial Relations in India (1970). Neither of these works, nor my 1980 volume, Industrial Relations System in India, is cited in the volume under review. Still, The Political, Economic, and Labor Climate in India has the general properties to serve as a primer on the Indian economic and labor relations scene. The seven appendices at the end of the text contain useful excerpts from official industrial policy statements and labor laws. Since student access to these documents in U.S. libraries is not always assured, this volume could serve as a useful source of information.

Rethinking the National Labor Relations Act and Zero-Sum Labor Law: An Industrial Relations View

This article argues that the industrial relations legal and policy-making systems in the United States have developed zero-sum attributes that have made it extremely difficult to effectuate changes in the National Labor Relations Act to address the legitimate concerns of labor and management. Any proposals to amend the NLRA are viewed as a loss for one of the parties. At the same time, these attributes have increased political conflict between labor and management over Board nominees and operations. The paper also points out that there is no vehicle for analyzing statutory controversies that arise under the NLRA in a neutral manner that facilitates compromise The article then proposes fundamental changes that would make the current labor law system tripartite (labor, management, neutral) in character, in contrast to its current public nature. These proposals are based on the United States War Labor Board and Canadian experiences. Thus they have proven workable in the United States and in a country that is quite similar to the United States in many industrial relations attributes. INTRODUCTION ....................................................... 31 I. REFORM PROPOSALS SINCE 1977: ANALYSIS AND