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Gordon Pavy Set to Lead LERA in 2011

LERA Executive Board Election Now Underway

Vote Today! E-Ballot now open through August 1 for Election of 5 New Executive Board Members and President Elect

The 2009 LERA Nominating Committee, chaired by Hoyt Wheeler, University of South Carolina, presented its slate of candidates to the 2010 LERA Executive Board in January. The final slate, approved by the Board, is presented in the official ballot whose link is being emailed to all active LERA members. Members without email addresses are being mailed paper ballots, which must be postmarked by August 1, 2010. All active LERA members are encouraged to cast their votes; all votes are confidential.

Nominees were determined from a list of nominations received from the general membership and from those brought forward by the committee themselves. Other members of the 2009 Nominating Committee included past president Anthony T. Oliver, Jr, Parker, Milliken, Clark, O’Hara and Samuelian; Paul Almeida, AFL-CIO, Washington, D.C. ; Bob Bruno, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, IL; Teresa Ghilarducci, New School for Social Research, New York, NY; Lavonne Ritter, FMCS, Las Vegas, NV; and Art Schwartz (ret), General Motors, Ann Arbor, MI

The electronic ballot shows 10 candidates running for 5 open seats on the Board. Terms for the newly elected Board members are for three years, and will begin following the Denver 63rd Annual Meeting on January 9, 2011. Those elected will fill seats left by outgoing board members Ellen Dannin, John Godard, Christian Weller, Beth Almeida, and Robert Chiaravalli.

Members who wish to read about the candidates biographical information can follow the link below. NOTE: This is not the official ballot; that will be sent to active members with instructions.

http://www.leraweb.org/election/10CandidateBios.pdf

Members are also asked to submit names of nominees for the 2010 Nominating Committee to consider for next year’s election. They can do so by writing their names and affiliations on the enclosed ballot in the space provided, or by faxing or emailing nominations to the National Office or any 2010 Nominating Committee members. Nominees must be current LERA members. Self nominations are also encouraged.

Three Honored for Lifetime Achievements

LERA Receives Rockefeller Grant

The Rockefeller Foundation has notified the LERA they will be providing a project support grant to build the Employment Policy Research Network (EPRN). The new EPRN website will host a network of labor and employment scholars dedicated to creating a central clearinghouse of employment policy research and fostering greater dialog between the labor and employment research community and policy makers.

Thomas A. Kochan, MIT Sloan School of Management is the principal investigator for the grant project and initial chair of the Steering Committee. He pointed out that the Network is meant to fill a void in policy analysis left by the lack of analytical capacity and the narrow framing of labor and employment policy in the government today. “Presently there is no single source or set of experts to whom policy makers can turn for timely analysis, nor a single site that catalogs the relevant academic research on these topics. The purpose is to serve as the one place the best academic/analytical research on the broad range of topics that should be brought to bear on work, labor and the employment policy making process,” Kochan said.

The grant will be for the one-year period of May 2010-April 2011. The new website is scheduled to launch in November, 2010. In addition to Kochan, other Steering Committee members are: Eileen Appelbaum, Rutgers University; Larry Katz, Harvard University; Lisa Lynch, Brandeis University; David Lewin, UCLA; and Andrew Sum, Northeastern University. The Committee will provide advice on the design, working paper content, and blogging features of the new website and be active in organizing several small network conferences, or offering commentaries on policy issues as they arise, or in organizing responses to questions in their specific areas of expertise.

The Network of Employment Relations scholars includes more than 60 confirmed participants representing 22 universities. It is expected the Network list will expand as the project is launched. They are researchers from diverse disciplines (economics, industrial relations, political science, law, management, sociology, etc.) with diverse views on employment policy issues.

Across the Network, there is deep expertise in a broad range of policy issues including: employment and unemployment, labor-management relations, labor policy, community and state level economic development, industry specific strategies for building high performance work organizations, health care economics and information technology, low wage labor markets, immigration, pension systems, global supply chains and international labor standards, enforcement of employment standards, wages determination, income inequality, executive compensation, technological change, alternative dispute resolution, work/life balance, and other issues. Working papers and previously published works will be cataloged on the EPRN site and will be continually updated.

Kochan also noted the Network itself will not take or endorse specific policy proposals. “We hope to be viewed as a non-partisan and highly credible source of information, ideas and discussion of the issues. We see this as an especially important contribution at this moment in history, given the highly polarized and often ideologically driven or stalemated debates that dominate so many aspects of work, labor market, and employment policy.”

Day to day management of the Network will be carried out by the LERA staff, including a new half-time professional, who will be assigned responsibility for managing the website-building project and related administrative duties. The Rockefeller Foundation’s financial support for the project is $150,900.

62nd annual meeting sets high bar for LERA

President's Column

by Eileen Appelbaum

LERA’s 62nd annual meeting in Atlanta, organized under the leadership of Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld and marked by sessions that were lively and intellectually stimulating, set a high bar for our Association. Thanks to Joel and everyone who made this a great success.

Thanks to this year’s Program Committee for its hard work creating an exciting program for the 63rd annual meeting, to be held in Denver on January 6-9, 2011. Plan to be there a day early on January 5 for all the exciting pre-conference activities. New this year, from 8:45 to 4 pm on January 5, we will hold a series of sessions – research presentations, round tables, discussions – to examine “Labor Across the Boundaries” – which will present perspectives on labor from three disciplines. This is a new collaboration of academics from Labor and Employment Relations, Political Economy, and Labor and Working Class History.

LERA’s focus on Employment Relations for Economic Recovery and Sustainable Growth at the 2011 meetings is of central importance as the nation continues to confront the dual challenges of (1) replacing the more than 8 million jobs lost since December 2007 with high quality employment opportunities and (2) positioning U.S. employers to emerge from the recession poised to succeed in the new, more competitive environment. Despite evidence that a recovery is underway, employment has been slow to recover. At this writing, nearly one in ten workers is unemployed, and the numbers are even higher if a broader definition of who wants and needs a job is used. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that the unemployment rate will be above 9.5% in 2011 and won’t drop below 9% before 2012. LERA stands out as a key organization where all of the stakeholders with an interest in restoring the growth of good quality jobs can meet to put research and experience to work in the service of policy and practice. In this vein, I am very pleased to report that submissions of symposia and workshops for the Denver LERA meeting that address these challenges have been of extraordinary quality – watch for the announcement of the Denver conference program on the LERA website.

LERA is undertaking three exciting initiatives this year. The organization continues to make significant progress with the certification initiative that began last year. Employers, unions and government officials have articulated a need for people skilled in negotiating collective bargaining agreements, operating labor-management committees, and building constructive labor-management relations. Led by Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Gordon Pavy and Robert Chiaravalli and others, committees representing our organization’s diverse membership have been formed to develop skill standards and design the certification process. LERA’s goal is to coordinate training and skill certification in labor and employment relations to fill that gap.

David Lewin is heading up the reexamination of LERA’s meeting architecture. The goal of this undertaking is to make LERA’s annual meeting the premier “go-to” event for everyone concerned with work or employment – academics from the many disciplines that focus on employment, labor process, work organization, and management practices; employers; managers; union leaders and members; labor and employment lawyers; mediators and arbitrators; policy makers; and practitioners of all types. We want to increase the number of hands-on sessions that impart knowledge and skills that can be used immediately by practitioners, to enhance the number and diversity of the academic fields of research presented in symposia; and to bring together policy makers, practitioners, and academics for meaningful dialogue about the challenging labor market issues confronting the nation.

The third project is to increase LERA’s membership by reaching out to the local LERA chapters and encouraging more of their members to join the national organization. Key to that will be the change in meeting architecture which will open up additional slots for sessions designed specifically to meet the needs of this LERA constituency. This will mean a greater emphasis on policy questions important at the state as well as the national level, and parallel sessions that specifically address the interests of the practitioner community. Look for exciting sessions at the Denver meeting of broad interest to the LERA community. Rose Batt and I will also be reaching out to LERA’s many active members to invite you to become contributing members. LERA is very close to resolving its structural budget issues, and this support can make the critical difference.

I look forward to continue working with all of you to strengthen LERA and to help the organization meet the needs of all of its constituents. Please feel free to contact me or the LERA office to share your ideas and suggestions.

2011 LERA Policy Forum Scheduled

The LERA Executive Board has identified the dates for the 2011 LERA National Policy Forum as June 6-7, 2011 and encourages LERA members and friend to please mark the date in their calendars. The day-and-a-half conference will kick off on Monday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. and feature distingushed panels and speakers addressing topics of interest, a reception, luncheon and networking opportunities for practitioners and academics. The meeting will conclude on Tuesday afternoon, June 7, 2011 at 4:30 p.m. It will be held at George Washington Univeristy’s Cafritz Center in the Marvin Building in Washington DC.

LERA President Elect Gordon Pavy will chair the meeting and NPF Program Committee and will announce the meeting theme and program later this fall. Members interested in providing input to the Program Committee should contact the LERA office for information.

LERA Newsletter

The LERA Newsletter is published electronically three to four times a year by the Labor and Employment Relations Association and distributed to LERA members. News and announcements from members or others with information of interest to members are welcome. “Positions Available” and advertising of publications and meetings will be charged at the rate of $50 per column inch. Potential advertisers may contact the office at 217/333-1485 for further information.

Newsletter editor: Paula Wells, email: pdwells@illinois.edu. Chapter editor: Emily Smith email: eesmith@illinois.edu.

Organizational Members

Thank You for Your Support

Information about LERA Organizational Membership
Join the LERA as an Organizational Member

The LERA gratefully acknowledges the continuing support of its annual organizational members.

ANNUAL MEMBERS 2010

AFL-CIO
American Federation of School Administrators
American Federation of Teachers
American Rights at Work
BlueCross BlueShield Association, National Labor Office (Sustaining Sponsor)
Bongelihle Employment Relations Agency
Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (Sustaining Sponsor)
California Labor Federation
Communication Workers of America Local #1034
Cornell University, Scheinman Institute of Conflict Resolution
Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations
Detroit LERA Chapter
Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Strategic Resources
Indiana University of Pennsylvania, PA Center for the Study of Labor Relations
Harvard University, Office of Labor Relations
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management
Merrimack Films
National Labor College
New Jersey LERA Chapter
New York State Nurses Association, Economic & General Welfare Program
Paratransit Services
Parker, Milliken, Clark, O’Hara, Samuelian
Penn State University, Labor Studies and Employment Relations
Rollins College, Master of Human Resources Program
Rutgers University, School of Management and Labor Relations
Saint Joseph’s University, Haub School of Business
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
Tennessee Employment Relations Research Association
United Steelworkers
United Food and Commercial Workers, Local #1776
University of California at Los Angeles, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment
University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Labor Center
University of Minnesota, Carlson Industrial Relations Center
University of Toronto, Center for Industrial Relations and Human Resources
West Virginia University, Department of Industrial Relations and Management

Welcome New Members

New to the LERA

We welcome the following new members to the Labor and Employment Relations Association.
Susan Annunziata, Newsday Inc., Melville, NY
Allison Beck, Washington, DC
Michael Campolo, Fox Entertainment Group Inc., Topanga, CA
Joel Cobb, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Sanjeeve DeSoyza, Bond Schoeneck & King PLLC, Albany, NY
Kevin Dolan, Manchester, MA
Joseph Fine, Montclair, NJ
Gina Fraternali, Goldstein & Gragel LLC, Cleveland, OH
Leslie Goldman, BNA, Inc., Arlington, VA
D’ Alexzander Gonzalez, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Camuy, PUERTO RICO
Frank Koller, Ottawa, CANADA
Richard Kropp, Caritas Christi Health, Boston, MA
Mike Lee, Tennessee Education Association, Morristown, TN
Meeta Bass Lyons, Steubenville, OH
Al Mance, Tennessee Education Association, Morristown, TN
Timothy Martin, Newsday Inc., Melville, NY
Rose McCaffrey, Phoenix, AZ
Boniface Michael, California State University-Sacramento,Folsom, CA
John Meno, Unified Grocers Inc., Commerce, CA
Michelle Meyer, Newsday Inc., Melville, NY
A Alfonso Neal, Neal Labor Mediation Consulting LLC, Phoenix, AZ
Robert Nishi, County of Sacramento, Sacramento, CA
Chikako Oka, Paris, FRANCE
Joo-Young Park, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Laura Schmidt, Central Co-op, Seattle, WA
Cathleen Slater, Ohio Nurses Association, Columbus, OH
Matt Sottong, BNA, Inc., Arlington, VA
Reese Thomas, Citterio, Hazle Twp., PA
Gayle Wintjen, Oak Hill Legal, Hartford, CT

New Books Received

LERA has received Notice of Publication of:

The Glass House Boys of Pittsburgh—By James L. Flannery. By the turn of the century, most states had enacted laws banning children from working at night and, coupled with compulsory education requirements, had greatly reduced the use of children in industry. In western Pennsylvania, however, child labor was deeply entrenched, and Pennsylvania lawmakers lagged far behind the rest of the nation. In The Glass House Boys of Pittsburgh, James L. Flannery presents an original and compelling examination of legislative clashes over the singular issue of the glass house boys. He reveals the many societal, economic, and political factors at work that allowed for the perpetuation of child labor in this industry and region. 248 pages. Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-8229-4377-8/10:0-8229-4377-8. Price $35.00. University of Pittsburgh Press. www.upress.pitt.edu.

Fundamentals of Labour Administration—By Giuseppe Casale and A. Sivananthiran. This volume spells out the main principles of labour administration, and the challenges facing it in implementing the Decent Work Agenda. It describes ways in which these challenges can be met through policy, organization, coordination and management and identifies some best practices in selected countries. 92 pages. Softcover ISBN: 978-92-2-122999-5. Price $28.00. International Labour Organization. www.ilo.org/publns.

Human Resource Economics and Public Policy—By Charles J. Whalen. This new book from the W.E. Upjohn Institute, Human Resource Economics and Public Policy: Essays in Honor of Vernon Briggs Jr., Charles J. Whalen, editor, pays tribute to Briggs and his enduring mark on the study of human resources. The chapters, by his students and colleagues, explore and extend Briggs’s work on employment, education and training, immigration, and local labor markets. His unwavering emphasis on institutional reality, public policy, and economic dynamics animates the entire collection. 305 pages. Softcover ISBN: 978-88099-359-3. Price $20.00. W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. www.upjohninst.org.

Employment Regulation in the Workplace—By Robert K. Robinson, Geralyn McClure Franklin, and Robert F. Wayland. This book endeavors to present a comprehensive, but practical, view of the regulatory environment under which practicing managers must operate. The material in this textbook is presented from the viewpoint that the HR professional is the employer’s representative and is, therefore, responsible for protecting the employer’s exposure to litigation through monitoring activities and viable employee policies. 448 pages. Paperback ISBN: 978-0-7656-2350-8. Price $99.95. M.E. Sharpe Inc. www.mesharpe.com.

Changing Poverty, Changing Policies—By Maria Cancian and Sheldon Danziger. This book documents how economic, social, demographic, and public policy changes since the early 1970s have altered who is poor and where antipoverty initiatives have kept pace or fallen behind. The authors’ focus on pragmatic measures that have real possibilities of being implemented in the United States not only provides vital knowledge about what works but real hope for change. 384 pages. Softcover ISBN: 978-0-87154-310-0. Price $42.50. Russell Sage Foundation. www.russellsage.org.

Workers and Welfare—By Michelle L. Dion. By focusing on organized labor and its powerful role in effecting institutional change, Workers and Welfare chronicles the development and evolution of Mexican social insurance institutions in the twentieth century. Michelle L. Dion’s study shows how the labor movement, up until the 1990s, was instrumental in expanding welfare programs, but has since become largely ineffective. Dion investigates the causes of the recent retrenchment in social benefits and the government’s focus on poverty alleviation. 328 pages. Softcover ISBN: 978-0-8229-6045-4. Price $27.95. University of Pittsburgh Press. www.upress.pitt.edu.

Spark—By Frank Koller. While factories in the Midwest are shutting their doors, Lincoln Electric remains a rare success story. The company has survived two World Wars, the Great Depression, and the recent credit crash. In this insightful and spirited investigation , journalist Frank Koller digs deep into Lincoln Electric’s inner workings—revealing surprising lessons about what happens when managers view their employees as valued assets rather than costs. 272 pages. Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-58648-795-9. Price $25.95. PublicAffairs. www.publicaffairsbooks.com.

Go to the Worker: America’s Labor Apostles—By Kimball Baker. Go to the Worker: America’s Labor Apostles is a popular history of the Catholic social-action movement, a group of priests and laypeople who, in the 1930s and 1940s, helped workers organize as part of the group’s pursuit of spiritual and social justice. This ecumenical movement fought for labor-employer cooperation, with the support of many labor-management professionals, and its worker-empowerment message is as timely as today’s newspaper. 276 pages. Paperback ISBN: 978-0-87462-749-7. Price $30.00. Marquette University Press. http://www.marquette.edu/mupress/.

Also in this Issue

Chapter Awards Nominations Due

Has your local chapter held excellent meetings, been involved it the community, established communication outlets with its members and/or worked with the National LERA to increase awareness of your local programs and members? If so, then nominate your chapter for a 2010 LERA Chapter award.

Awards to be handed out at the 2011 LERA Annual Meeting in Denver include:

The Chapter Merit Awards presented to chapters that meet the criteria in one or more of the following categories during a chapter year:

Chapter Turnaround or Startup
Outstanding Programming, such as co-sponsorship of events or awards with other chapters or groups or overall programming excellence
Member “Innovation,” such as creative student program, outstanding growth, creative recruitment methods, constituency or membership development
Community Involvement, such as promotion of scholarship
Chapters Helping Other Chapters
Consistent Chapter Excellence through: a) active governance (administration), b) stability (strong secretariat), c) programming over the years, d) diverse membership base, e) other
Chapter Communications, such as brochure design, web site, newsletters, membership directory, etc.
Chapter to National Relations and Support, such as support of national meetings, communications, fees)

The Outstanding Chapter Award, presented to chapters that receive at least 4 of the 8 merit awards in 5 consecutive years

The Chapter Star Award, presented to chapters that receive at least 6 of the 8 merit awards in 5 consecutive years, and thereafter, they may accrue merit awards again starting at zero.

Refer to the Chapter Award Nomination Form, complete and return to the LERA Office by October 15, 2010. Chapters may self-nominate OR be nominated by another chapter, NCAC committee through outreach discussion with chapters, or by LERA staff. Each Merit Award category need not be awarded each year. There may be multiple awards given in a category.

Alabama LERA, Northwest Seattle LERA, Long Island LERA, Washington DC LERA and the Gateway Chapter of St Louis received Outstanding Chapter Awards last year.

Election Underway

The election is underway for incoming Board members and LERA’s next President Elect. All LERA members will receive their electronic ballot via email, or via regular mail. Cast your vote by midnight on August 1, and remember to include your nominations for 2012 as well. LERA has enjoyed a long history of talented leaders, and your nominations for the best and brightest is important to our future. If you are a LERA member, and have not yet received your ballot and voting instructions, please contact LERAoffice@illinois.edu.

David Lewin is the candidate for the 2011 President Elect, and the board nominees are:

Academic Candidates

Francoise Carre
Paul Clark
Susan Schurman
Anil Verma

Management Candidates

Dennis Dabney
James Pruitt

Neutral Candidates

Suzanne Clement
Sergio DelGado

Labor Candidates

Owen Herrnstadt
Lisa Jordan

63rd Annual Meeting, Denver, CO – Program Now Live!

The online program is now available for LERA’s 63rd Annual Meeting! Please save the dates of January 6-9, 2011 and plan to attend. The meeting will be held in Denver, CO at the Westin Hotel, and registration will begin in September.

Employment Relations for Economic Recovery and Sustained Growth is the theme , and more than 60 sessions and events will fill the four-day meeting–it’s a great way to network with academic and practitioner colleagues. If you are interested, there are still ways to be part of the program–visit Call for Papers and Posters for further details. Deadlines run from April 1- October 1st, 2010.

Bookmark the LERA 63rd Annual Meeting page as more information will be posted here in the coming months, including registration, hotel accommodations, packet pickup forms, and more. All LERA members will receive notification of online registration as soon as it is available online, and this year early sign-up will be more important than ever, with a shortage of hotel rooms expected in Denver.

Call for Proposals for 2013 LERA Research Volume—Due November 1, 2010

The LERA Editorial Committee would like to encourage members to submit research volume proposals for the 2013 research volume by November 1, 2010. The Editorial Committee will review proposals and present a recommendation to the Executive Board in January 2011 for approval. Visit www.leraweb.org under “Publications/Research Volume” for submission requirements.

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