Exploring new Paradigm of the Collective Determination System for Working Conditions : focused on the new labor-management committee system

Improving working conditions in agriculture is of great concern throughout the world. Just as in other industries, many young farm workers prefer to work as salaried employees, which has brought attention to non-family farms as providers of employment opportunities. However, in the presence of a strong need to flexibly respond to weather, there is still difficulty regarding whether workplaces without overworking can exist. This study is based on in-depth surveys of non-family rice farms in Fukui Prefecture, Japan. Our findings suggest that even in non-family farms, holiday-setting is done flexibly to account for weather, and systems that allow for harvesting at appropriate times are in place. During the busy farming period, in joint-stock farms, where multiple farmers invest together, full-time employees work overtime. In contrast, in community farms, many community residents take turns for working, which allows work to be done on time. A closer analysis of work records shows that, in either organizational structure, specific members need to overwork. Reasons behind this include issues with sunk costs in the form of monthly wages, lack of skills among part-time employees, and the communication costs of coordinating with many part-time employees.

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Initiating Local Action to Meet the Global Economic, Challenge: A Case Study of a University-Assisted Effort to Develop an Area Labor-Management Committee

Community Development Society Journal ◽

10.1080/15575338809490006 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 73-92 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Robert W. Miller ◽

Frederick A. Zeller

Keyword(s):

Local Action ◽

Labor Management ◽

Management Committee

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Labor and the Tobacco Institute's Labor Management Committee in New York State: The Rise and Fall of a Political Coalition

NEW SOLUTIONS A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy ◽

10.2190/9c0m-07md-egx1-md08 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 135-152 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Charles Levenstein ◽

Gregory F. DeLaurier ◽

Safi Ahmed ◽

Edith D. Balbach

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Tobacco Control ◽

Public Awareness ◽

New York State ◽

Labor Management ◽

Management Committee ◽

Tobacco Policies ◽

Public Sector Unions ◽

Workplace Smoking ◽

Tobacco Workers

In 1984 the Tobacco Institute and the Bakery, Confectionary and Tobacco Workers Union formed a Labor Management Committee. From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, this LMC worked to elicit labor support in New York by framing issues in terms that made them salient to unions: tobacco excise taxes as regressive taxation, workplace smoking restrictions as an intrusion into collective bargaining. By the late 1990s, however, most of labor in New York had shifted to support for anti-tobacco policies. The reasons for this shift include the growing size and influence of public-sector unions, and their generally favorable stances on tobacco control issues; the policy-making autonomy of the unions; the growing body of scientific knowledge concerning the dangers of tobacco use; and the rise in public awareness of such dangers. Nevertheless, for two decades, the LMC contributed to mutual suspicion between labor and tobacco control advocates that prevented collaboration between them.

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