APSA LABOR PROJECT

NEWSLETTER

Vol 2. No. 1

Spring 2008

Check out our website! www.apsanet.org/~new/laborproject.htm

Table of Contents:

—APSA 2008 Meeting: Panels and Working Group

—Revamped website!

—Call for new co-chair and secretary

—By-laws: coming soon

—Best Paper Award for APSA 2007: call for nominees

—No-sweat annual meeting bags update

—Political Science in Action

2008 MEETING:

We are pleased to announce that the LP will be co-sponsoring one panel and one roundtable at the 2008 meeting. Thank you to New Political Science and to Comparative Politics for their co-sponsorship.

PANEL co-sponsored with Comparative Politics

Labor Relations and the Effects of Globalization on Inequality-Addressing Institutions

Chair: Christopher Candland (Wellesley)

Panelists:

Jose Aleman (Fordham): Industrial Relations and Welfare Expenditures in Less Developed Countries (LDCs): A Cross National Analysis

Scott B. Martin (Columbia): Limited Convergence: The Evolution of Labor Regimes in North America under Globalization and Regionalization (Mexico, United States, and Canada in Comparative Perspective)

Andra Olivia Maciuceanu (Berkeley): Labor Relations Lessons from the Automotive Industry

Gay Seidman (Wisconsin at Madison): Facing the Future: Organized Labor in an Integrated World

Sebastian Karcher (Northwestern): "But It Does Move" - Changes in Strategy and Outlook of German Unionism at the Beginning of the 21st Century

Discussants: Teri Caraway (U of Minnesota) & Mark Anner (Penn State)

ROUNDTABLE co-sponsored with New Political Science:

End of a Nightmare?: The 2008 Elections and the Prospects for Progressive Politics

Chair: John Ehrenberg (Long Island University)

Participants:

Frances Fox Piven (CUNY Grad Center)

Stephen Eric Bronner (Rutgers)

Craig Steven Wilder (Dartmouth)

Peter L. Francia (East Carolina University)

WORKING GROUP at the 2008 meeting:

Join the LP’s co-chair Peter Francia (East Carolina University) and Susan Orr (SUNY Brockport) for intellectual exchange about what is happening with organized labor and politics. APSA offers us scheduled meeting space during the annual meeting. This is an opportunity to discuss conference papers, panels, and recent developments on issues related to organized labor, work, and politics. You can sign up in advance or just show up. (Please note that the LP membership meeting is less about intellectual exchange and more about business, but these obviously overlap.)

We will keep you updated about the times for the working group meetings and the membership meeting.

REVAMPED WEBSITE!

Co-chair Peter Francia recently revamped and updated our website. We now have more relevant information and links, including to labor syllabi, labor news, and APSA’s media list for labor scholars. A big THANK YOU to Peter. Thank you also to Bruce Wright, webmaster for NPS who has continued to help us with our website.

Visit us at www.apsanet.org/~new/laborproject.htm

CALL FOR NEW CO-CHAIR & SECRETARY

We’re going to need a new co-chair as Maggie is stepping down. We also need a secretary. Please consider nominating yourself or someone else. We’ll put out a call for nominations in a few months.

PROPOSED BY-LAWS:

At the 2007 meeting we discussed the need for by-laws, particularly since we are growing. Thank you to member Bill Mello who drafted our by-laws. We are putting the finishing touches on them and will be sending them to you in early May for a vote.

BEST PAPER AWARD FOR PAPERS PRESENTED AT APSA 2007:

Call for Nominations:

The APSA Labor Project harnesses the efforts of a working group of political scientists to encourage the study and research of labor issues and to promote labor research to the public at large particularly in relation to pressing policy issues. To that end, we announce the first annual Best Paper Award related to labor, work, unions, and employment.  The Labor Project promotes diverse perspectives on these topics from any range of academic specialties including, but not limited to human rights, political economy, public policy, interest groups and social movements, comparative politics, state politics, immigration, theory, gender, race, ethnicity, history, and law. Self-nomination is also encouraged. Please send nominations to the chair of the Best Paper committee, Melissa Mason at melissa.d.mason@yale.edu.

NO-SWEAT BAGS COMMITTEE:

APSA conference bags have been made in China and the LP is concerned about the labor conditions of those who make the bags. At the 2007 membership meeting we decided to approach APSA institutional about moving to ethically-made bags (that is understandably a vague term). We’ve been in touch with Rob Hauck, Deputy Director of APSA, and learned that the bags are donated by CQ Press. Rob explained our concern to the press and reported back to the committee that CQ press was looking to move away from production in China. Our strategy at present is to see what we can accomplish going directly through Rob, who runs the annual meeting. We are in the process of contacting manufacturers in the U.S. and abroad to propose reasonable alternatives. We are holding off on collective action such as a petition or sign-on letter, for now.

POLITICAL SCIENCE IN ACTION

The Labor and Labor Movement Section of the American Sociological Association newsletter, “In Critical Solidarity,” included reference to the work of some of our members. A December 2007 article “It’s Time for Labor-Oriented Sociologists to Step Up to the Plate!” by Bruce Nissen is a call for sociologists to be involved in supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. He writes that scholars from other disciplines—including political science—have been involved. (www.laborstudies.wayne.edu/ASA/Docs/Newsletter/newsletter.html)

This is a brief reference, but an important one for recognizing the work of Gordon Lafer who has written a white paper for American Rights at Work and testified before Congress. Gordon and Dorian Warren are part of a circle of researchers who are on a monthly conference call with AFL-CIO strategists to plot out research needs in advance of 2009 Congressional hearings on labor law reform. Dorian is also engaged (with Kate Bronfenbrenner) in a huge research project studying employer behavior in union organizing campaigns, and the data is expected to support the EFCA.

APSA LABOR PROJECT LEADERSHIP

Advisory Committee

Mark Anner, Penn State University

David Cingranelli, SUNY Binghamton

Mike Goldfield, Wayne State University

Maggie Gray, Adelphi University

Christine Kelly, William Paterson University

Gordon Lafer, University of Oregon

Margaret Levi, University Washington

Melissa Mason, Yale University

Manny Ness, Brooklyn College

Adolph Reed, University of Pennsylvania

Co-Chairs

Maggie Gray, Adelphi University maggiegray3@gmail.com

Peter Francia, East Carolina University FRANCIAP@ecu.edu

Editor’s note: As always please feel free to contact your co-chairs with any questions, suggestions, or offers of help.