Friday, December 12, 2003

HEERA Pocket Guide for higher education employees, employers, and unions          The California Public Employee Relations Program, at the University of California at Berkeley, announces publication of the first edition of the Pocket Guide to the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act, prepared by CPER Director Carol Vendrillo, Ritu Ahuja, and Carolyn Leary. The Guide is a handy resource to the act passed more than two decades ago that has governed collective bargaining at the University of California and the California State University systems. Included is the full text of the act, an easy-to-read explanation of how the law works, its history, and how it fits in with other labor relations laws. The Guide explains the enforcement procedures of the Public Employment Relations Board; analyzes all important PERB decisions and court cases (by topic) that interpret and apply the law; and contains a useful index, glossary of terms, and table of cases. Copies are $15 each, and a substantial discount is available for bulk orders. Order through the University of California Press Journals, 2000 Center St., Ste. 303, Berkeley, CA 94704-1223; fax 510/642-9917; email jorders@ucpress.ucop.edu; or visit the CPER website at http://cper.berkeley.edu. The California Public Employee Relations Program, established in 1969, is a community service of the Institute of Industrial Relations, at U.C. Berkeley. Its purpose is to provide non-adversarial, accurate information on a regular basis to all persons involved in employment relations at all levels of government in California. CPER is the only source of comprehensive data in the field. In addition to its Pocket Guide Series, CPER publishes the bimonthly journal, CPER. Other publications in the Pocket Guide Series include: Pocket Guide to the Basics of Labor Relations; Pocket Guide to the Family and Medical Leave Acts; Pocket Guide to Unfair Practices: California Public Sector; Pocket Guide to Workplace Rights of Public Employees; Pocket Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act; Pocket Guide to Public Sector Arbitration: California; Pocket Guide to the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act; Pocket Guide to the Educational Employment Relations Act; Pocket Guide to the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act; and Pocket Guide to the Ralph C. Dills Act. 2:53:24 PM    comment []

A strike that's struck a chord nationwide Los Angeles grocery walkout taps into labor solidarity and woes of a shrinking middle class. Christian Science Monitor http://search.csmonitor.com/2003/1211/p02s02-usec.htm By Daniel B. Wood | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor December 11, 2003 Los Angeles - Placard-toting demonstrators remain a common sight at supermarkets here as a strike and lockout of 70,000 southern California grocery workers begins its ninth week with no end in sight. Management and unions are still hunkered down; negotiations could trickle into next year. And the fight has become emblematic of a larger national anxiety over tradeoffs between consumer prices and decent-paying jobs. On one level, it's a tussle between management - which says it must cut costs to compete with bulk discount houses - and workers who want to preserve health benefits. But there's also a more universal question, analysts say: As manufacturing jobs disappear here - and across the Midwest and South - what alternatives remain for the working middle class?... "The public support that has helped keep this strike going longer than most thought it would is the latest example of how corporate America is getting out of sync with working people," says Kate Bronfenbrenner, a labor specialist at Cornell University. "They are standing up to say, 'Hey, wait a minute: This is against the public interest and it's not fair.' "... "Union solidarity hasn't been seen on this scale for quite a while," writes HARLEY SHAIKEN, A UC BERKELEY PROFESSOR specializing in labor and the global economy....   Source: UC Berkeley in the News 12:07:12 PM    comment []

Copyright 2004 Lincoln Cushing