增强高校工会思想政治工作实效性的思考

高校工会思想政治工作是教职工思想政治工作的重要组成部分.高校工会的思想政治工作除了具有思想政治工作的一般特征之外,还具有自己独特的"个性",有其独特的优势,即更能够紧密结合实际,从而更能取得实效.增强工会思想政治工作的实效性,应该做到"五个融入",即在学校改革中融入思想政治工作、在民主管理中融入思想政治工作、在师德师风建设活动中融入思想政治工作、在校园文化活动中融入思想政治工作、在建"家"活动中融入思想政治工作.     

论《劳动争议调解仲裁法》构建的裁审体制及与劳动监察的关系

<劳动争议调解仲裁法>所构建的一般案件"一裁两审"、特殊案件"一裁终局"的裁审体制是对我国原有制度的重大修改,该法确立的分类处理机制以及对仲裁机构资源的整合必将对我国劳动争议处理实践产生重大影响.同时,如何在受案范围以及程序衔接上理顺劳动监察与裁审体制的关系,也是在理论及制度上必须面临和解决的重要问题.     

《社会保险法(草案)》存在问题研究

《社会保险法(草案)》存在一些亟需解决的重要问题:立法宗旨和基本原则不清晰,适用范围较窄,政府作用不具体,工会作用不突出和立法技术不科学等。在完善社会保险立法的过程中,应坚持公平正义、互助共济、安全稳定的社会保险立法理念,充分发挥工会在社会保险立法中的优势作用,加快社会保险立法一体化,促进我国社会保险法与国际接轨。     

劳动争议处理之我见

近年来,我国的劳动争议案件逐年增多,且呈现复杂化、群体化、涉外化等趋势.我国政府为了实现社会公正,走上了通过扩大劳动者个人的权利来解决劳动争议的路子,致使劳动者、企业单位、工会、行政权力以及法院在处理劳动争议过程中的职能、地位发生扭曲.所以必须关注并完善劳资双方的信用关系、工会的职能与地位、行政权力在劳动争议处理中的地位和权威、法院最后的司法救济,从深层次解决原来的处理体制"用其所短"的弊端,实现劳资关系的和谐.     

从中国与新西兰《劳动合作谅解备忘录》看国际贸易与国际劳工标准问题

随着全球化与贸易自由化的发展,全球地区与双边自由贸易协议中附带劳工标准的协议内容在逐渐增加.中国加入世界贸易组织前后反对将贸易与劳工标准挂钩,但在中国与新西兰2008年4月签署的双边自由贸易协定中却附加了<劳动合作谅解备忘录>,由此表明中国在面对人世后市场经济地位、劳工权益保护等问题都不可能避开劳工标准的问题,寻找共同的基点和解决方案是今后相当长的时间内各国普遍关注的问题.     

中国养老保险统筹层次的改革路径与发展方向探讨

从国外经验出发,养老保险立法先行、确立时间表,通过合适的基金运作模式,各级政府的财政责任分担机制,养老保险的垂直管理和基金预算管理制度,以及历史债务和做实个人账户机制,用"三步走"的方式,先实现省级统筹,然后建立全国统一预算,分省余缺调剂的方式,逐步过渡到全国统收统支的模式,这是适合目前中国现状和社会保障未来战略发展的选择。     

Labor radicalism and the local politics of Chinese exclusion: Mayor Jacob Weisbach and the Tacoma Chinese expulsion of 1885

ABSTRACT

The 1885 Chinese expulsion from Tacoma, Washington Territory highlights the importance of local political economy in shaping how a wider anti-Chinese movement played out in a particular community. Tacoma was a newly emerging city where white residents felt the threat of corporate domination in the form of the Northern Pacific Railroad. In this context, the city’s German immigrant mayor, Jacob Weisbach, could draw upon his longstanding labor radicalism to mobilize a broad anti-Chinese coalition that blurred the divide between white workers and the local business class. The result was the forceful removal of Chinese residents following a year-long campaign that culminated in mob action and became known as the ‘Tacoma Method’. This local violence in turn fed into ongoing national efforts to secure Chinese exclusion. Tacoma’s Chinese expulsion illustrates how radical labor traditions could be turned, under particular conditions, to the politics of racial repression even as the proponents of expulsion framed their efforts in terms of an egalitarian and democratic agenda. The participation of the Knights of Labor and other labor radicals in a politics exemplified by the Tacoma Method was accordingly tied to the larger racialized American state-building project as it unfolded in the late 19th Century.     

Divergent fates: company unions and employee involvement committees under the railway labor and national labor relations acts

Well known is that the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA, 1935) in the United States places a largely per se ban on nonunion employee representation (ER) groups which deal with employers over a term or condition of employment. Much less well known is that America’s other labor law, the Railway Labor Act (RLA, 1926), takes a different approach and permits employers to operate such councils and committees as long as they do not perform a collective bargaining function or interfere with workers’ free choice of a bargaining agent. Thus, under the RLA Delta Air Lines is able to operate what is today the closest living approximation to a 1920s-style ER plan while hundreds of other companies (e.g. Polaroid) under the jurisdiction of the NLRA have been forced over the years to disband similar groups on grounds they are a proscribed company union. No study to date has explored the history behind the RLA and NLRA’s divergent treatment of nonunion ER groups so this article takes a first look. The main part of the story covers the 1920–1935 period and examines the events, people, and experiences associated with company unions and ER in, respectively, the rail and manufacturing industries and why the legislative outcome in the former was a permissive stance on nonunion committees but prohibitive in the latter. The last part of the paper fast-forwards the RLA-NLRA story from the 1930s to contemporary law and practice in order to demonstrate how “history matters” when it comes to what employers can and cannot do with nonunion representation groups, such as works councils, participation and involvement committees, and dispute resolution forums.     

Look at Detroit: The United Auto Workers and the Battle to Organize Volkswagen in Chattanooga

ABSTRACT

On February 14, 2014, workers at Volkswagen’s new plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, voted 712 to 626 against being represented by the United Automobile Workers of America (UAW). The result capped one of the most high-profile organizing campaigns of recent years, with most media accounts anticipating a UAW victory, especially as VW had declared that it would not oppose the union. The VW election is also now attracting scholarly interest, with accounts stressing the role of external opposition – especially from conservative politicians and lobby groups – along with the UAW’s over-reliance on partnerships with German actors. Providing a detailed analysis of the campaign, this article recognizes the importance of these factors, but also argues that an important role was played by the UAW’s strong association with the domestic automakers, and especially with Detroit, their historic base. Citing the fact that foreign automakers had expanded since the 1980s while the domestics had contracted, opponents effectively linked the UAW with economic decline. These arguments swayed many workers. Placing the VW story within the broader struggle of the UAW to organize a foreign-owned auto plant, the article also stresses structural obstacles, especially the location of Greenfield plants in areas of low union density.     

The role of universities in the promotion of worker protection: UCLA labor occupational health and safety program as a model for countries with developing economies

ABSTRACT

Protection of the workers’ health in countries with developing economies is increasingly important because of the adverse effects of globalization, along with changing industrial relations, the rise of precarious work and outsourcing, and the decline in unionization. In this study, I examine whether the institutes created by universities might serve as an interface between workers, academia, and state agencies, and provide assistance for both improving workplace conditions and enforcing occupational health and safety rules. I describe the history of one such effort: The Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program (LOSH) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Using a review of written sources along with participatory observation and interviews as methods, I found that the challenges faced by LOSH historically have important parallels in countries with developing economies today. Ultimately, university-based occupational health programs like LOSH need to be followed in other parts of the world and be supported by governments if the mission to reduce workplace injuries and diseases is going to be realized in the United States and in other countries.