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Information Highway
July 2006
A selection of recent articles, studies, books and internet resources compiled by the AFSCME Information Center.
Supervisor in Name Only: Union rights of Eight Million Workers at Stake in Labor Board Ruling
By Ross Eisenbrey and Lawrence Mishel
Economic Policy Institute, 2006
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will soon decide three cases, known collectively as the Kentucky River cases, which could change the basic rights of workers in America. If the NLRB accedes to the demands the employers are making in these cases to significantly broaden the definition of “supervisor,” hundreds
of thousands of employees could be stripped of their contract protections and millions more across the economy could be denied the right to form unions or engage in collective bargaining.
The Personal Assistance Workforce: Trends In Supply And Demand
By H. Stephen Kaye, Susan Chapman, Robert J. Newcomer and Charlene Harrington
Health Affairs, Vol. 25, no. 4, 2006
The workforce providing non-institutional personal assistance and home health services tripled between 1989 and 2004, according to U.S. survey data, growing at a much faster rate than the population needing such services. During the same period, Medicaid spending for such services increased dramatically, while both workforce size and spending for similar services in institutional settings remained relatively stable. Low wage levels for personal assistance workers, which have fallen behind those of comparable occupations; scarce health benefits; and high job turnover rates highlight the need for greater attention to ensuring a stable and well-trained workforce to meet growing demand.
The Challenging Business of Long-Term Public-Private Partnerships: Reflections on Local Experience
By Pamela Bloomfield.
Public Administration Review, March/April 2006
Public-private partnerships, often taking the form of long-term legal contracts, are mostly sold to the public on the basis of promised cost savings. This empirical analysis of recent municipal partnering experiences challenges the old logic of “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” Protracted arrangements with attractive up-front benefits often expose public entities to unforeseen liabilities and market dislocations that are difficult to forecast. The bottom line is that such contracts require specialized expertise, effective management, and strong institutional structures to perform effectively.
Young Workers Are the Future of Organized Labor
By Kristen Kuriga
New Labor Forum, Summer 2006
As the labor movement’s membership dwindles and youth face increasingly exploitative work conditions, what is the labor movement’s youth strategy? Excited by the recent debate about the revitalization of the labor movement, I flew to Chicago to the AFL-CIO 50th anniversary convention to interview youth delegates and to hear from the federation about their youth strategy in organizing workers. I scoured the convention floor, of over 800 delegates from internation unions, state federations, and central labor councils, for someone who might fit into my loose definition of youth—anyone under the age of thirty. In my search, the reaction I received from delegates, was often a chuckle, and more commonly “what youth?” I finally found two youth on the floor, Eric Lehto, 29, organizing director of AFSCME Minnesota Council 5, and his colleague, Rusell Hess, 33, an Organizer fro the Laborer’s Union and president of the Minnesota Southeast Central Labor Council.
A Healthy Mind for a Healthy Population
By Mary Jane England and Ann E. K. Page
Issues in Science and Technology, Summer 2006
Clearly, the United States has failed to recognize the magnitude of mental problems and substance-use conditions and to deliver adequate health care to people in need. Overall, the system often is ineffective, untimely, inefficient, inequitable, and not patient-centered. At times, it is even unsafe. As is true of general health care, mental problems and substance use health care requires fundamental redesign. In redesigning the system, the guiding principle must be that mental illnesses, substance-use illnesses, and general illnesses are highly interrelated, especially with respect to chronic illness and injury. Improving care delivery and health outcomes for any one of the three depends on improving care delivery and outcomes for the others.
Gompersonian Organizational Principles: The Summer of Labor Discontent
By Clarence R. Deitsch and David A. Dilts
Labor Law Journal, Summer 2006
Simply put, the AFL-CIO has abandoned two of Samuel Gompers’ bedrock organizational principles: “bread and butter unionism,” that is, the avoidance of utopian or reformist schemes; and “politicalization of the trade union movement,” that is the avoidance of permanent alliances with existing political parties. The AFL-CIO has been an unwitting contributor to its own organizational difficulties through its monetary and non-monetary support of politicians, who upon election, author and/or support legislation that provides many of the same social welfare benefits that have traditionally been provided by unions.
Neutrality Agreements Take Center Stage at the National Labor Relations Board
By Craig Becker, James J. Brudney, Charles I. Cohen and Joan Flynn
Labor Law Journal, Summer 2006
When a union and an employer agree to forego a secret ballot election by executing a neutrality and card check agreement under which employees will decide whether to be represented by a union, how far may they go in the agreement? If the parties go beyond agreement on the process for demonstrating majority support, can they specify what they’d like to see in any future collective bargaining agreement once the union demonstrates majority support and the employer extends recognition? Can they do that through aspirational language? Can they sketch the broad outlines of an agreement, or agree to specific terms? One way or another, it appears the National Labor Relations Board is finally poised to address the relatively recent shift away from NLRB-supervised secret ballot elections in favor of voluntary recognition through the use of neutrality and card check agreements.
Federalism at a Crossroads
By William T. Pound
State Legislatures, June 2006
The U.S. federal system is the most vibrant and effective federal system in the world. It is always dynamic, always evolving. In large part, the success of federalism is a result of the creativity and innovation of the states. Yet the federal balance today is placing enormous strain on state budgets as the national government enacts initiatives and tells the states to pay for them. From the No Child Left Behind Act, to Medicaid reform, clean air and water, the federal government is asking states to do more—and come up with the money to do it.
Ominous Outlook: America’s fiscal future—with unprecedented liabilities and unfunded commitments—is grim indeed
By Nicole Casal Moore
State Legislatures, June 2006
The outlook for America’s fiscal future is grim, says U.S. Comptroller General David Walker. And there are three big reasons: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The federal government has made grand promises without solid plans for how it can keep solvent as baby boomers reach retirement age, and that means big trouble for states.
The Economic Importance of Child Care for Community Development
Special Issue: Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society
Edited by Mildred E. Warner
Vol. 27, No. 2, Summer 2006
The Cornell Linking Economic Development and Child Care project has used the symbol of the three petals of a trillium flower to represent the three most distinctive dimensions of the economic importance of child care: its implications for child development, parental labor force mobilization, and regional economic development. Child development researchers are concerned with the impact of early care and education on long-term cognitive and social skills. Labor researchers are concerned with the labor mobilization and labor productivity of parents afforded by quality child care. Regional economists are concerned with the employment and output contributions to the regional economy of the child care sector and the strength of economic linkages between child care and other sectors. Work in these three arenas has rarely intersected. However, the impacts on children cannot be segregated from the welfare of parents, the impacts on parents cannot be divorced from the health of the economy in which they live; and the health and sustainability of the economy cannot be separated from the prospects for its children. The papers in this issue collectively sketch out a more comprehensive and integrated perspective of the importance of child care in our economy, and its implications for community development.
Big Dollars, Little Sense: Rising Medicare Prescription Drug Prices
Families USA
June 2006
The report asks two key questions: 1) What has happened to Part D prices for the most frequently prescribed drugs from November 2005 to April 2006?; and 2) How do Part D drug prices now compare to the prices secured by the VA? The answers to these questions are both clear and disappointing: 1) Virtually all of the Part D plans raised their prices for the majority of the top 20 drugs in this study. From November 2005 to April 2006, the median price increase among Part D plans for the top 20 drugs prescribed to seniors was 3.7 percent. 2) For all of the top 20 drugs prescribed to seniors, VA prices in April were lower than the lowest prices charged by Part D plans. The median price difference was 46 percent. In other words, for half of the 20 drugs, the lowest price charged by any Part D plan was at least 46 percent higher than the lowest price secured by the VA.
Making History: Maryland’s Fair Share Health Care Law
Families USA
June 2006
On January, 12th, 2006, Maryland’s much-anticipated Fair Share Health Care (FSHC) bill became law. That was the day that the Maryland legislature voted overwhelmingly to override the governor’s May 2005 veto of the legislation. Maryland thus became the only state—with the exception of Hawaii and Massachusetts—to require large employers to either pay a share of their payroll toward their employees’ health insurance or pay into a state fund to expand coverage.
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AFSCME Information Center
Department of Research and Collective Bargaining Services American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
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