Unlike other labor law and management books, Blackard's comprehensive new work not only examines legal, strategic human resources management, change management, and related labor/management relations issues, but also offers easily grasped and applied methods for addressing all of these issues. Labor relations should be a fully integrated part of a systemic approach to human resource management, argues Blackard. He challenges the feasibility of ad hoc programs and labor/management partnerships, but encourages collaboration within the context of both parties' interests and roles. His book provides a philosophy and set of practices to manage change and improve the labor/management relationship in the unionized workplace. Companies with poor union relationships rarely have union problems; they have management problems. The crux is that managing change is a special challenge. To help executives address the challenge, Blackard first reviews the state of labor relations and discusses key differences between managing change in union and non-union settings. He presents a philosophy based on collaboration of countervailing interests and an integrated model for change management that is uniquely applicable in unionized workplaces. He then discusses the application of management practices based on such concepts as organizational learning, systems theory, trust, power, mutual gains negotiations, and supplemental teams that support the countervailing collaboration concept. By seeing labor relations as part of a broader human resource management system, one can identify and better understand many of the questions that inevitably rise when faced with the need for rapid and often drastic change.

Advises trade unions on how to stay influential in a changing workplace.

As a manager or supervisor in a unionized company, you have a unique job. Besides your normal day-to-day responsibilities, you also must know about unions and basic labor law. You can be the best manager in the world, but without a solid knowledge of the rules and responsibilities in a union shop you can get yourself, and your company, into a lot of trouble. That is the purpose of this book - to give you the background you need to be an effective manager in a unionized environment.This book walks you through some of the major things you'll need to know about unions to be a good manager or supervisor. By the way, from now on I will refer to management or supervisory employees generically as "managers." No matter what your actual title, all of you share the same job: to manage labor relations in a way that lets your company accomplish its goals with a minimum of trouble from the union.You'll notice that this isn't like most books you've seen on how to be a good manager. First, it looks like a labor contract! For years most contracts have been published as small books, designed to fit in a union steward's shirt pocket. Why? Not just to make it hard to read - although sometimes the fine print can be tough to decipher. No, the reason it is small is so it is portable. Stewards want the contract with them at all times, in case they need it to dispute something that pops up.We've designed this book the same way - you can put it in your pocket and carry it with you. It even has some blank pages in the back so you can use it to take notes. The idea is not for this book to be read once and then thrown in a desk, never to see the light of day. It is a book you can actually use.

Although there is great debate about how work is changing, there is a clear consensus that changes are fundamental and ongoing. The Changing Nature of Work examines the evidence for change in the world of work. The committee provides a clearly illustrated framework for understanding changes in work and these implications for analyzing the structure of occupations in both the civilian and military sectors. This volume explores the increasing demographic diversity of the workforce, the fluidity of boundaries between lines of work, the interdependent choices for how work is structured-and ultimately, the need for an integrated systematic approach to understanding how work is changing. The book offers a rich array of data and highlighted examples on: Markets, technology, and many other external conditions affecting the nature of work. Research findings on American workers and how they feel about work. Downsizing and the trend toward flatter organizational hierarchies. Autonomy, complexity, and other aspects of work structure. The committee reviews the evolution of occupational analysis and examines the effectiveness of the latest systems in characterizing current and projected changes in civilian and military work. The occupational structure and changing work requirements in the Army are presented as a case study.

This book studies a «best-practices» example of what is known as the organizing local approach to union renewal. Several unions in the US, the UK, and other countries have embraced this model of unionism as a formula for labor revitalization. Organizing locals aim to strengthen unions by redeploying resources and mobilizing workers around the goal of member recruitment. The union local under study stands out as an exceptional case within the US context. Against the backdrop of a languishing labor movement, this local has succeeded at recruiting workers and keeping its members engaged. The book seeks to unpack this success and examine closely what works, what does not, and how things work. The research design relies on participant observation and in-depth interviews to examine how formal systems of representation and macro-organizing strategies and platforms get translated into micro-level processes, experiences, and relationships. By adopting a micro-social approach, the author reveals what drives union activism in an organizing local, beyond the rhetoric of union officials. Further, the findings identify the conditions for successful union reform, and show formal and informal mechanisms for accommodating opposite orientations in union work, attending to members' expectations of union «help», and changing the status quo through organizing.

The very fate of unions in this country may depend on their ability to deal effectively with the challenge of workplace restructuring. UNIONS AND WORKPLACE REORGANIZATION addresses many of the most important issues currently facing the U.S. labor movement.

Presents a workplace transformation process model and six case studies which examine how unions and management can work together during a workplace transformation project. Describes the nature of the changes and how they were implemented, and evaluates the effects of the changes on production performance and worker/union issues. Draws lessons from the cases and the model.