Task discretion has held a central place in theories of work organization and the employment relationship. However, there have been sharply differing views about both the factors that determine it ...and the principal trends over time. Using evidence from three national surveys, this article shows that there has been a decline in task discretion since the early 1990s. This contrasts with an increase in other forms of employee involvement such as direct participation and consultative involvement. Many of the arguments in the literature about the factors that favour higher task discretion are supported by our evidence — in particular those emphasizing the importance of skill levels and the broader organizational ethos with respect to employee involvement. However, such factors do not account for the decline in task discretion, implying that existing theories fail to address some of the crucial determinants. It is tentatively suggested that it may be necessary also to take account of macro factors such as competitive pressure, public sector reform programmes and the growth of accountability structures.
Structural changes in the economy that contributed to high unemployment have combined with global wage competition to destroy the contract-making and contract-enforcement powers of unions. Supporters ...of labor uniformly insist on defining the role of unions as contractual, and condemn the Supreme Court's Pyett decision that permits unions to take control of their members' legal claims. Yet unions' contractual powers have dwindled under the National Labor Relations Act, thereby leaving workers vulnerable to the bargaining demands of their employers. This article shows how Pyett can renew the importance of unions. The Article argues that read appropriately, Pyett is positively transformative in the same way as the Steelworkers Trilogy. Although the Pyett decision did not offer a compelling justification for its conclusion that unions are authorized to bargain about antidiscrimination rights, unions' effective advocacy for their members' antidiscrimination claims may be a practical necessity today. The Article focuses on Pyett's potential to transform the workplace by eliminating the line between contract and legal disputes. Using the Trilogy as a backdrop, and antidiscrimination rights as an example, the article addresses the theoretical and practical concerns cited as obstacles to Pyett's viability. It provides original answers to the questions Pyett left open and provides a roadmap on how the decision may be implemented contractually to advance employers' and workers' interests.
Cross-section time-series analysis of nine Canadian jurisdictions over nineteen years is used to identify the effect of mandatory votes/card check on certification success. The results indicate that ...mandatory votes reduce certification success rates by approximately 9 percentage points below what they would have been under card check. This result is robust across specifications and significant at above the 99% confidence level.
Thanks to Joseph McCartin for advancing this debate with an insightful critique of the workers'-rights-as-human-rights framework and for his generous treatment of the series of Human Rights Watch ...reports in which I had a hand. McCartin so fairly presents the human rights case, even while disagreeing with it, that it's hard to respond without simply borrowing from his framing of my own views. But I'll try.
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