Current Issue:  JANUARY 2012 (Vol. 65, No. 1)

The Human Rights Movement at U.S. Workplaces: Challenges and Changes. By James A.  Gross 

Abstract: The concept of workers’ rights as human rights has only recently begun to influence the formation and implementation of labor policy in the United States. In the workplace, the growing human rights movement challenges long-held beliefs and practices in labor relations. The author explores this issue and its implications for U.S. labor policy and practice, focusing specifically on individual versus collective rights, exclusive representation, coverage of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), employer resistance to workers’ freedom of association, the right to strike, the statutory purposes of the NLRA, and the underpinnings of the traditional U.S. industrial relations system. These challenges also affect U.S. legal isolationism, the role of labor unions, the status and implementation of economic as well as civil and political rights, and for the U.S. labor and employment relations research agenda.

Unions and Privatization: Opening the “Black Box.” By Patrice Jalette and Robert Hebdon

Abstract: Using a survey of Canadian city managers during the period 2002 –2003 modeled on the U.S. International Cities and Counties Management Association surveys, the authors examine a range of union responses to proposals to privatize city services. When confronted with possible member losses, unions adopted a number of strategies: a) they reacted not at all or they supported the proposal; b) they engaged in collective action; c) they attempted arbitration and litigation; d) they negotiated to reduce adverse effects; or e) they suggested alternatives to privatization. Though unionized cities attracted a greater number of new privatization proposals, unions effectively rejected them, the most successful strategy being to suggest alternatives. Conversely, initiating strikes and other industrial actions were not as effective. Cities in which multiple strategies were adopted had lower long-term privatization rates. These results support a pragmatic view of union-management relations illustrating how unions and city managers found mutually acceptable alternatives to privatization or adjustment policies.

Employee Involvement, Technology and Evolution in Job Skills: A Task-Based Analysis. By Francis Green.

Abstract:  The author investigates the evolution of job skill distribution in an era of highly technologized  labor markets. Using job skill data derived from the U.K. Skills Surveys of 1997, 2001, and 2006, and the 1992 Employment Survey in Britain, he determines the extent to which computer technologies, as well as employee involvement in the workplace, not only affect organizational change but also promote the use of higher order cognitive skills such as problem-solving, self-planning, and communication skills, particularly literacy. He finds that jobs involving the use of computers privilege more skilled workers and are linked to higher pay, and that the cognitive skills associated with these jobs have become more frequently used in the workplace. In contrast, computers have become less important for lower-order and more repetitive, physical job tasks. The findings indicate a strong connection between the rising use of more academic skills and the education level required for entry into the labor market.

Organizational and Individual Learning and Forgetting. By Morris Kleiner, Jerry Nickelsburg, and Adam Pilarski

Abstract:  Researchers of industrial relations issues in manufacturing have long recognized that analysis of production has significant implications for labor productivity. Recent theory and analysis has shown the large influence of organizational forgetting. The authors of this research note demonstrate that forgetting by workers in an establishment or line of production as a substantive characteristic of actual production processes is overstated and that alternative, simpler theoretical and empirical explanations have at least as good explanatory power.  Using inside-the-firm analysis, they find that the omitted-variable bias in other studies due to data limitations has the potential for spurious estimates of large forgetting rates by lines of work. Further, they find that forgetting, although important and interesting, is not as influential as previous work for labor productivity has suggested.  Further analysis of the production function and the role of organizational forgetting needs to be fully specified in a model to include internal production and labor relations characteristics, like those in this study, to be a plausible model of the production process within manufacturing establishments.

Do Anonymous Job Application Procedures Level the Playing Field? By Olof Aslund and Oskar Nordstrom Skans

Abstract: Despite anti-discrimination legislation and the potential for hefty fines, labor market discrimination remains an issue for ethnic minorities and women, particularly in the recruitment and screening process. The apparent failure of legal and voluntary interventions has created a call for anonymous application procedures (AAP), in which key identifying data is hidden from recruiters in the initial recruiting process. Using unusually rich Swedish data on actual applications and recruitments, the authors show that AAP increased the chances of both women and individuals of non-Western origin of advancing to the interview stage. In addition, results show that women experienced an increased probability of being offered a job under AAP. However, applicants belonging to ethnic minorities were equally disadvantaged in terms of job offers under conventional and anonymous hiring procedures, suggesting that racial and ethnic discrimination may be harder to circumvent than gender discrimination.

Consequences of Seniority Wages on the Employment Structure. By Thomas Zwick

Abstract: The author examines seniority wage profiles in German establishments to discern hiring patterns with respect to age and sex. Using the country’s linked employer­-employee dataset (LIAB) over the period 1997–2004 and calculating establishment seniority wage profiles directly from individual seniority wages, he finds that establishments with steeper seniority wage profiles than the average establishment in their sector can keep their employees longer but hire fewer older employees. In addition, these firms prefer to hire employees with little experience in other firms and young men instead of young women. These findings imply at least two things: first, that establishments with internal labor markets use deferred payment as an incentive and give positions requiring long tenure to internal candidates and second, that such establishments offer fewer opportunities for unemployed or establishment switchers as well as young females and those with long previous experience in other firms.

Relative Wage Positions and Quit Behavior: New Evidence from Linked Employer-Employee Data” by Christian Pfeifer and Stefan Schneck

Abstract: The authors analyze the importance of relative wage positions within West German firms in the context of individual quit decisions as an inverse measure of job satisfaction. Using a linked employer-employee data set (LIAB) for the years 1996-2005 whose sample consists of full-time male prime-age workers in West Germany without college degrees, they ascertain whether workers find status or signal effects stronger motivators for quit decisions. They find that (a) workers with higher relative wage positions within their firms are, on average, more likely to quit their jobs than those with lower relative wage positions; (b) better relative wage conditions signal fewer opportunities for career advancement; and (c) workers who experience a loss in their relative wage positions are also more likely to accept a wage cut associated with their job transition. Overall, results suggest that a signal effect is, on average, stronger than a status effect.

Does It Matter Who Responded to the Survey? Trends in the U.S. Gender Earnings Gap Revisited. By Jungmin Lee and Sokbae  Lee

Abstract: Studies have shown a decreasing trend in the U.S. gender earnings gap since the 1980s. The authors work with a framework established by Blau and Kahn (1997 JOLE; 2006 ILRR), who used the Michigan Panel of Income Dynamics (PSID) to decompose that gap into observable and unobservable components in order to determine which contributing factors are gender-specific and which to the wage structure. They extend the Blau and Kahn framework to consider measurement error due to the use of proxy/representative respondents of the survey’s earnings variable. First, they find a trend toward more females in the gender composition of the household respondents, and second, they estimate the impact of that change on Blau and Kahn’s decomposition. They determine that some of the changes in the gender earnings gap could actually be attributed to whether the surverys were self- or proxy-responded. That is, the actual reduction in the gender pay gap may be smaller than what the estimates—without taking into account the measurement error—might indicate. The authors suggest the need for a careful validation study to ascertain the extent of the spurious measurement error effects.

The Importance of Anti-Discrimination and Workers’ Compensation Laws on the Provision of Workplace Accommodations Following the Onset of a Disability.  By Richard V. Burkhauser, Maximilian D. Schmeiser, and Robert R. Weathers, II

Abstract: The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) was the first federal disability-based anti-discrimination law that applied to a broad range of workers. Whereas some studies have focused on its impact on workplace accommodation, this is the first to do so while accounting for previous state anti-discrimination and Workers’ Compensation laws. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, the authors find that prior to the implementation of the ADA, employers were more likely to accommodate workers if their disability onset was work-related and hence likely to be covered by Workers’ Compensation laws. State anti-discrimination laws significantly increased accommodations to workers whose disabilities were not work-related, effectively bringing their accommodation rates in line with workers whose disabilities were. Though implementation of the ADA increased accommodation for all workers, the authors point out that failure to account for pre-existing state anti-discrimination and Workers’ Compensation laws will underestimate its effect.

Book Reviews

Freelancing Expertise: Contract Professionals in the New Economy. By Debra Osnowitz. Reviewed by Matthew Bidwell.

AFSCME’s Philadelphia Story: Municipal Workers and Urban Power in the Twentieth Century. By Francis Ryan. Reviewed by Jane Berger.

Social Commitments in a Depersonalized World. By Edward J. Lawler, Shane R. Thye, and Jeongkoo Yoon.  Reviewed by Linda Molm.

Managing the Margins: Gender, Citizenship, and the International Regulation of Precarious Employment. By Leah F. Vosko. Reviewed by Karen A. Shire.