Unionism in a Right-to-Work Environment: United Faculty of Florida from Stagnation to Crisis Mobilization to Power Building

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 370-393
Author(s):  
Bruce Nissen ◽  
Candi Churchill
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Work Environment ◽  
Work Conditions ◽  
Legal Decision ◽  
Public Sector Union ◽  
Recent Success ◽  
Right To Work ◽  
Public Sector Unions ◽  
Past Experiences ◽  
Union Contract

The Janus vs. AFSCME District 31 legal decision forced all U.S. public-sector unions to operate under “right-to-work” conditions: any union fees for those covered by a union contract are now optional. Past experiences of successful public-sector unions operating in right-to-work states should offer lessons to all public-sector unions on how to succeed. This article examines the history and recent success of the United Faculty of Florida, a statewide higher education public-sector union. Critical turning points, crises, and lessons from that history are included.

scholarly journals Renewal in Canadian Public Sector Unions

2007 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 282-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Camfield
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Sector Reform ◽  
Public Sector Union ◽  
Union Activity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Social Movement Unionism ◽  
Limited Success ◽  
Public Sector Unions ◽  
Union Renewal

Challenges from employers and governments and the limited success of public sector union responses suggest the need for renewal in Canadian public sector unions. This article engages with discussions of union renewal by way of theoretically conceptualizing the modes of union praxis relevant to Canadian unions. It then examines the nature of neoliberal public sector reform and assesses the experiences of Canadian public sector unions under neoliberalism. In this difficult context, unions that are able to make progress in the interconnected development of greater democracy and power will be more capable of channelling workers’ concerns into union activity. This, along with international and Canadian evidence, highlights the significance of the praxis of social movement unionism to union renewal in the public sector.

Why Public Sector Union Members Support Their Unions: Survey and Experimental Evidence

Social Forces ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Hertel-Fernandez ◽  
Ethan Porter
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Public Sector Union ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sector Union ◽  
Teachers Union ◽  
Public Sector Unions ◽  
To Receive

Abstract Despite their decline, unions, and especially public sector unions, remain important civic and economic associations. Yet, we lack an understanding of why public sector union members voluntarily support unions. We report on a field experiment conducted during a 2017 Iowa teachers union recertification election. We randomly assigned union members to receive emails describing union benefits and measured effects on turnout effort (N = 10,461). Members were more likely to try to vote when reminded of the unions’ professional benefits and community—but not legal protections or political representation. A follow-up survey identified the specific aspects of professional identity and benefits that members most valued and why. In a context where union membership and support is voluntary among professionalized workers, our findings emphasize the possibility of training for fostering shared identities and encouraging support for public sector unions. Our results have broader implications for understanding the public sector labor movement in a context of legal retrenchment.

scholarly journals Public-sector Unions and Government Policy

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 454-485
Author(s):  
George R. Crowley ◽  
Scott A. Beaulier
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Public Employment ◽  
Political Contributions ◽  
Public Sector Union ◽  
Public Sector Unions ◽  
State And Local ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Shed Light

Recent events, including the failed recall of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the Chicago teachers strike, have shed light on the relationship between state fiscal policy and public-sector union power. While a literature has developed focusing on various aspects of the link between public-sector unions and government policy, scholars have yet to reach consensus. In most cases, public-sector unions have multiple tools they can use to influence policy. We find that union political contributions and collective bargaining are associated with higher incomes for state and local employees and with higher public employment, both across state and local governments overall as well as within the education sector. We also find relatively little evidence that union activity influences total spending.

scholarly journals Self-tracking of/and time: From technological to biographical and political temporalities of work and sitting

2020 ◽  
pp. 146144482098332
Author(s):  
Paula Saukko ◽  
Amie Weedon
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Work Conditions ◽  
Free Time ◽  
Office Workers ◽  
Sitting Time ◽  
User Experiences ◽  
Tracking Devices

Self-tracking devices have been observed to accelerate time, be used sporadically and busyness being a barrier to use at work. Drawing on notion of multiple temporalities, this article expands the focus on temporalities of users’ engagement with technologies to analysing them within broader biographical, institutional and political times. The argument is grounded in interviews with UK public sector office workers self-tracking sitting time that featured the following three themes: (1) the participants related their sitting to deteriorated work conditions after government austerity politics and redundancies, (2) the pressurised rhythm of work made it difficult to reduce sitting time and fostered a sense of discontent and powerlessness and (3) the workers did not self-track in their free time, defined as free from monitoring. We suggest that the analytical lens of multiple temporalities expands understanding of user experiences as well as illuminates lived contemporary political and institutional times, characterised by both discontent and powerlessness.

scholarly journals The Psychosocial Work Environment and Perceived Stress among Seniors with Physically Demanding Jobs: The SeniorWorkingLife Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (14) ◽  
pp. 7437
Author(s):  
Jonas Vinstrup ◽  
Annette Meng ◽  
Emil Sundstrup ◽  
Lars L. Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Work Environment ◽  
Perceived Stress ◽  
High Stress ◽  
Organizational Factors ◽  
Work Conditions ◽  
Psychosocial Work Environment ◽  
Psychosocial Work ◽  
Decision Latitude ◽  
Collegial Support ◽  
Increased Risk

Background: Poor psychosocial work conditions are known to foster negative health consequences. While the existing literature on this topic focus mainly on white-collar workers, the influence of different aspects of the psychosocial work environment in physically demanding jobs remain understudied. Likewise, senior workers represent a population of the workforce at increased risk of adverse health outcomes and premature exit from the labour market. This study investigates the association between psychosocial work factors and perceived stress among the senior work force. Methods: Utilizing cross-sectional findings, this study reports associations between psychosocial factors (organizational justice, cooperation and collegial support, decision latitude, clarity of tasks, and quality of leadership) and the outcome of perceived stress quantified by Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale (CPSS). Currently employed senior workers with physically demanding jobs were included in the analyses (n = 3386). Associations were modeled using general linear models with weights to make the estimates representative. Results: For all individually adjusted psychosocial variables, the category of “good” was consistently associated with lower stress scores compared to the categories of both “moderate” and “poor” (all p < 0.0001). Likewise, in the mutually adjusted analysis, the category of “good” was statistically different from “poor” for all included variables, while the category of “moderate” remained different from “poor” for “clarity of tasks”, “cooperation and collegial support”, and “decision latitude”. Conclusions: Among senior workers with physically demanding jobs, poor ratings of organizational factors related to the psychosocial work environment are consistently associated with high stress scores. Blue-collar occupations focusing primarily on physical risk factors are recommended to increase awareness on psychosocial aspects that may be relevant to the local work environment.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document