This is a required course available for matriculated Labor Policy students only. The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the study of labor and policy. First, it will introduce students to some of the fundamental characteristics of the American working class and unions. Secondly, it will introduce students to a variety of labor problems that have arisen in the past twenty years due to the global economy, new technology and other developments. Thirdly, the course will develop the students’ skills in writing at the graduate level, in doing academic book reviews, and in doing policy analyses.

This is a required course available for matriculated Labor Policy students only. This course is designed to familiarize students with the political institutions, processes, and values of the American political system. More specifically, it will use contemporary issues and policies to demonstrate and explore the relationship between the American labor movement, political parties, the electorate, and the national government. The course is also designed to give students experience in researching the formation, implementation and impact of federal labor policy. This course was previously LAB-630542.

How is labor dealing with the new challenges it faces in organizing, bargaining, servicing members, and acting politically? Among the challenges are those posed by increasing numbers of immigrants, women, and young workers in the workforce. At the bargaining table, the challenges include demands for wage cuts, two-tiered wages and benefits, cuts in healthcare and other benefits. There are new demands from employers and employees for family care and flex-time. There are bargaining partners who face bankruptcy and government and union-sponsored bailouts. The labor movement and its partners thus face a range of new and emerging issues. This is a required course and available for matriculated Labor Policy students only.

This course explores the development and context of collective bargaining and labor-management relations in the United States. This includes the historical development of the labor relations process, the participants in the process, the legal framework for collective bargaining, and dispute resolution. This course also focuses on the social and economic impact of labor-management relations. This course was previously LAB-630545.

The course will provide the student with an overview of some of the main topics associated with the social organization of work.  We will begin by exploring the historical foundations of the contemporary workplace and draw on the theories of Karl Marx, Max Weber, Frederick Taylor and Harry Braverman, who will provide a conceptual understanding of workplace relations. In the second part of the study, we will look at the question of social class and how this structures one's opportunities in the workplace and outside it. We will also explore the question of the global economy, types of work and the routinization of work. In the third part of the course, we will then turn our attention to exploring contemporary research on the workplace as it affects family life, and think about the ways in which inequality is perpetuated through contemporary arrangements of paid and unpaid labor, as well as more generally, the question of balancing work and family life. A guiding question throughout the course will be to ask what is the impact of work on human relationships, and in particular, how forms of social inequality are produced and perpetuated in the workplace and how human relations are structured in these workplace settings. This course was previously LAB-630507.

This course examines the rise of business and free market capital in the United States from the time of European colonization to the twenty-first century. It covers key themes including the role of the US Constitution in shaping private property rights, the role of slavery in American capitalism, expansion from the Atlantic to Pacific oceans, the development of management, the shift from artisan to industrial productions methods, the creation of consumer culture, and the ongoing relationship between capital and the state. The course will also reveal how those themes were further shaped by gender, race, class, and ethnicity.

This course considers the history and principles of federal labor relations law and its relevance to both private and public sector labor relations. The text is prepared by the Labor Law Section of the American Bar Association and is the standard authority in the field. We will gain an overview of the labor law and the parameters of decision making, as established legislatively, and by the National Labor Relations Board and the Courts, which have guided the course of labor law in the United States. This course was previously LAB-630534.

This course is designed to provide an overview of bargaining in the public sector. It deals with major policy issues related to public sector bargaining, with the environmental factors influencing public sector bargaining, with bargaining techniques, and with dispute resolution in the public sector. This course is required for the Work & Public Policy Advanced Certificate program.

For the past decade, unions have faced difficult times: declining memberships, corporate re-structuring, demands for concessions, hostile government policies, failures of labor law, open union busting, foreign competition, new technology, and growing numbers of women, minority, and part-time workers. The purpose of this course is to examine some of the recent problems faced by union policy makers and some of the new policies that they are developing to deal with these problems. This course was previously LAB-630503.

This course explores current and emerging personnel management issues in the public sector. This includes issues like the public sector budget process, generational change, differences within the public sector workforce, and training and workforce development issues. This course was previously SOC-620572.

In this course we will examine a wide variety of theories that attempt to explain why labor unions have arisen, why they take the form they do, why they behave the way they do, and what role they have under capitalism. We will consider such theorists as Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin, John Dunlop, Selig Perlman, Thorstein Veblen and Pope Leo XIII. This course was previously LAB-630539.

This is an elective course which studies the place of labor within the international economy and the history, development, and formation of that economy since 1945. We will examine the historical development and then look at the consequences for labor of economic development especially as this involves the place of manufacturing in national economics and global investing, especially the current expansion of foreign investment within the United States. This course was previously LAB-630522.

Students have the opportunity to develop individualized studies with their mentor/advisor in Labor (LABR). Please contact your mentor/advisor for more details.

As the concluding study in this Master of Arts program, the student will complete a culminating project, in which he/she engages in a sustained examination of a critical question or issue related to this program. The final project will take the form of a policy memorandum. This course is designed to guide the student through the implementation of a policy memorandum. Policy Memorandums are not published in the ProQuest/UMI service. In order to enroll in this course you must have earned full credit in Final Project Design PPOL-7005, i.e., a grade of B or better. Note: Registration of this course must be done through your mentor.

As the concluding study in the masters' program, students will complete a culminating independent research project in the form of an academic thesis, in which they engage in a sustained examination of a critical question or issue related to their program. In a thesis, the student is expected to make a contribution to the current body of knowledge in a scholarly field. To do that, students may conduct an original investigation or develop an original interpretation of existing research and/or literature. A thesis is a scholarly piece of work that systematically and analytically explores a specific topic or question. It is an in-depth investigation that contributes new knowledge to a field, and can be either theoretical or empirical. Writers of theses make appropriate inferences based on a deep analysis of the chosen topic or question. The thesis is the best choice of final project for students with plans to continue their studies toward a doctorate. Completion of the thesis requires an oral defense. All theses are published in the ProQuest/UMI service. Pre-Requisite: LABR 6005 and LABR 7005

Students have the opportunity to develop individualized studies with their mentor/advisor in Labor (LABR). Please contact your mentor/advisor for more details.