William B. Gould

Labor relations in professional sports

For all the billions of dollars the sports industry generates, its labor laws and negotiations are still relatively new, and their impact is only beginning to be felt. Labor Relations in Professional Sports offers a step-by-step examination of how these new management-player relationships have come about and what they may portend for the future. In an engaging style that is rich in sports history and anecdotes, the authors examine the background of the major team sports--baseball, football, basketball, and hockey--and analyze how business and legal considerations have affected each sports development. They also probe current unresolved issues and predictable future problems, such as the relationships of broadcast networks and sports leagues. Surprisingly, this book with so formidable a title is not only readable but even difficult to put down. Explanations of complex legal decisions are reduced to brief, lucid passages. Extensive footnotes are provided in each chapter for readers who wish greater detail. Choice ...a comprehensive treatment of labor relations in sports...Overall, the book is a slam-dunk success. Journal of Law and Commerce

Public policy toward life saving: should consumer preferences rule?

Needless to say, people who face risks that entail a high probability of death are willing to pay extraordinarily large sums to reduce the probability. Those that face low risks are typically unwilling to pay anything at all to reduce those risks. Accordingly, a public policy that would allocate funds to maximize the number of lives saved conflicts sharply with the willingness-to-pay criterion. Information about their survival probabilities always increases willingness of individuals to pay for life saving. Risk-averse individuals may reject insurance for the treatment of fatal diseases that is fairly priced, even if they plan to pay for the treatment if they get sick; this result has implications regarding the choice of treatment or prevention. If the objective of public policy is to save the largest number of lives, then the allocation of funds must be made before individuals are affected by life-threatening risks.

Black Power in the Unions: The Impact Upon Collective Bargaining Relationships

[Industrial peace] would hardly be attained if a substantial minority of the craft were denied the right to have their interests considered at the conference table and if the final result of the bargaining process were to be the sacrifice of the interests of the minority by the action of a representative chosen by the majority. The only recourse of the minority would be to strike, with the attendant interruption of commerce, which the [Railway Labor] Act seeks to avoid. -Chief Justice Stone in Steele v. Louisville & N. R. Co. 2

Labored Relations: Law, Politics, and the NLRB. A Memoir

From 1994 to 1998, William B. Gould IV served as Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board. One of only three NLRB Chairmen to come from an academic background, he quickly realized that he was an outsider in a very political world. In this compelling memoir, Gould describes the tribulations of trying to assure impartial administration of federal labor laws while faced with a hostile, Republican Congress. He describes his difficult confirmation process and wrenching Congressional hearings, particularly the one over Proposition 226, a ballot initiative that required unions to get explicit authorization from all represented workers prior to expending dues for political purposes. He tells how the behavior of both Board members and members of Congress, guided by self-interest and rigid ideology, contributed to the Boards problems. He also recounts the positive strides the NLRB made during his tenure, despite the turmoil. The book provides an insiders view of what goes on behind the closed doors in our nations capital, including discussions with members of Congress, the White House, and President Bill Clinton.

Strikes, Dispute Procedures, and Arbitration: Essays on Labor Law.

This penetrating essay collection focuses on the development of dispute procedures in the United States and the legal rules surrounding them. Considered are such enduring matters as unauthorized and wildcat strikes, enforcement of the no-strike obligation, and strikes involving government and industries with an emergency potential. Many of the problems that have perplexed the Supreme Court in recent years, such as sympathy and political strikes, are also examined. Other issues that have not yet been fully confronted by the Supreme Court are also discussed, including the right of labor organizations to limit a union members right to resign during strikes or other economic conflict. Throughout the volume, the author embraces the fundamental right of the individual to withhold labor and engage in economic pressure. At the same time, he stresses the importance of developing peaceful negotiating procedures, alternatives to the strike, and law which is supportive of such policies.