Ph.D position attached to Global Production and Labour Standards Research Project 
A project involving teams from UNSW (Australia), Freie U (Germany), U Gothenburg (Sweden), LSE (UK), and BRAC (Bangladesh) will be conducting a study whose title is ‘Changes in the Governance of Garment Global Production Networks: Lead Firm, Supplier and Institutional Responses to the Rana Plaza Disaster.’The  project will analyze changes in lead firm policies and practices in selected developed countries and changes in actual labor and environmental standards in Bangladeshi factories that supply garments to lead firms in these countries. 

A Ph.D position will be funded by  the project for 3 years with the possibility of extension until completion of the degree. The Ph.D topic will be aligned with the project and will be undertaken within UNSW Business School in Sydney under the supervision of Prof. Steve Frenkel. An annual stipend of approximately AUD $25,000 (depending on exchange rates) will be paid. The position is available from January, 2016. 

Candidates should have an excellent undergraduate and/or Masters’ record and evidence of research capability. 

Candidates should submit an expression of interest (maximum one page) and a curriculum vita to s.frenkel@unsw.edu.au by 15 Sept., 2015. Names and contact details of two referees should be included.  

Colleagues 

The latest issue of the ILR Review is now available at the link below, with free downloads.  It features a special cluster of articles on skill shortages and skill gaps in the US and abroad and their contribution to unemployment and economic recovery.

Sincerely
Rose Batt and Larry Kahn, Editors

 

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ILR Review
March 2015; Vol. 68, No. 2



Articles
Skill Shortages, Mismatches, and Structural Unemployment: A Symposium
Lawrence M. Kahn

Skill Gaps, Skill Shortages, and Skill Mismatches: Evidence and Arguments for the United States
Peter H. Cappelli

Is Skill Mismatch Impeding U.S. Economic Recovery?
Katharine G. Abraham

A Road Map to Vocational Education and Training in Industrialized Countries
Werner Eichhorst, Núria Rodríguez-Planas, Ricarda Schmidl, and Klaus F. Zimmermann

Internal Labor Markets Under External Market Pressures
Jeong-Yeon Lee

How Institutional and Organizational Characteristics Explain the Growth of Contingent Work in China
Xiangmin Liu

Efficiency in Employee-Owned Enterprises: An Econometric Case Study of Mondragon
Saioa Arando, Monica Gago, Derek C. Jones, and Takao Kato

High-Performance Work Practices and Core Employee Wages: Evidence from Italian Manufacturing Plants
Francesca Sgobbi and Gian Carlo Cainarca


Book Reviews
Book Review: Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism
Robert Boyer

Book Review: The Great Transformation of Japanese Capitalism
Mari Sako

Book Review: The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies
James B. Rebitzer

Book Review: Unequal Time: Gender, Class, and Family in Employment Schedules
Matthew M. Piszczek

Call for Papers


Hello students,

The ASA Student Forum Advisory Board (SFAB) would like to invite students to submit their papers for participation in the 2015 Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL. Papers are peer reviewed and up to five papers will be selected to present in one of two paper sessions. Those who are not selected will be considered for round table session. This year the theme of the conference is Sexualities and we encourage student to submit on the topic theme (though it is not necessary).

Each year the SFAB also selects a paper award winner out of the collection of papers we receive. The winner receives a $100 award upon notification and a $225 Student Forum travel award to help defray travel expenses to the Annual Meeting.

The online paper submission portal is now open and will be until the January 7, 2015 (3 PM EST) deadline. For more information about the award, submissions, and funding available to students please visit our webpage:http://www.asanet.org/students/forum.cfm


Call for Reviewers

The ASA SFAB team would like to invite students and faculty members to volunteer as reviewers for this year’s student paper submissions. Papers are peer reviewed and each year up to five papers are selected to be in one of two paper sessions. Those who are not selected will be considered for round table session. This year the theme of the conference is Sexualities, and we encourage students to submit on the topic theme (though it is not necessary).

Each year the SFAB also selects a paper award winner, based on reviewer input, out of the collection of papers we receive. The winner receives a $100 award upon notification and a $225 Student Forum travel to help defray travel expenses to the Annual Meeting.

The 2015 online paper submission portal is now open and will remain open until the deadline on January 7, 2015 at 3pm EST. Reviewers will need to be available between mid-January and the end of February for the process. New this year is an invitation to faculty members that would also like to volunteer their time to review. This was added in order to make our internal review process more rigorous and provide additional support to those students who wish to publish in the future. 

If you are interested please see the attached form and peer review document and return to Nicole MacInnis no later than January 15, 2015. For more information about the award, submissions, peer review, paper processes, and funding available to students please visit our webpage http://www.asanet.org/students/forum.cfm.

Please feel free to pass the call for papers and call for reviewers to anyone interested, both students and faculty members. If you have any questions please feel free to contact Nicole.

Enjoy your winter break,
The Student Forum Advisory Panel

 

Hi Labor Section folks,

Korean colleagues have asked for pressure on the South Korean government to end their brutal repression against the rail strike there.  More information below, or go straight to the online petition athttp://www.ipetitions.com/petition/support-striking-korean-railroad-workers-and-the

If you are not based in the US, there is also a global version of the petition; link at the bottom of this email.

Best,

Chris Tilly

UCLA

 

PLEASE SUPPORT STRIKING KOREAN RAILROAD WORKERS AND THE BROADER KOREAN LABOR MOVEMENT AGAINST ANTI-DEMOCRATIC REPRESSION

 

On December 22, 2013 a force of 5,000 South Korean police, without a warrant, attacked the headquarters of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), the larger and more progressive of Korea’s two union federations, and arrested 135 persons who attempted to block their entry.  The background is that the South Korean government of Park Gyeun-He recently announced a unilateral decision to privatize part of the Korean railway system, KORAIL.  Despite widespread opposition, KORAIL refused to engage in social dialogue about the decision.  In response, the Korean Railway Workers’ Union (KRWU) went on strike December 9.  The government immediately fired 8,565 workers, declared the strike illegal, and issued arrest warrants for 194 KRWU members, including the leaders.  They believed KRWU leaders to be hiding in the KCTU headquarters, and despite not being issued a warrant by a judge, sent police to enter the building by force.  (No KRWU leaders were found.)

 

More details on the events can be found in a PDF document sent by South Korea’s People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, a mass democratic coalition in the Republic of Korea, to the UN Human Rights Office.  The document can be accessed in a Dropbox at:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lsj7dg37r5kb5av/rWggJOukIV

 

Although there was a similar railway strike in 2009, this is the first raid on the KCTU office since its establishment in 1995, and it is an extremely serious attack on democracy and freedom of association in the Republic of Korea. 

 

We therefore call on United States-based supporters of labor rights to:

(1) Sign the petition found below and online athttp://www.ipetitions.com/petition/support-striking-korean-railroad-workers-and-the , condemning the attack and calling for dialogue, to be sent to President Park Gyeun-He and KORAIL executives with a copy to People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy.

(2) Through your organization, organize further statements or actions taking a similar stand.

 

Stop harsh attacks on the Korea Rail Union and other unions, open a social dialogue on rail privatization

To:

Republic of Korea President Park Gyeun-Hee

Executives of Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL)

 

Dear President Park and leaders of Korea Railroad Corporation:

We are labor scholars, trade union officials and members, community and labor activists, and other concerned individuals from the United States.  It has come to our attention that the government of the Republic of Korea has unilaterally announced a decision to privative part of the Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL), rejecting widespread calls for social dialogue.  When the Korea n Railway Workers’ Union (KRWU) responded by going on strike, KORAIL fired over 8500 workers and the government issued arrest warrants for 194 KRWU members.  On December 22, 2013, a large group of police violently attacked the headquarters of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and arrested 135 people, without a judge’s warrant to enter the property.  This is a deeply disturbing violation of labor rights and human rights, and a blow against democracy in Republic of Korea.

 

We call on the government of the Republic of Korea to recognize the railway workers’ right to strike, to free those arrested, to desist from further violent action against Korean trade unions, and to open an investigation of human rights and civil rights abuses during the attack on the KCTU headquarters.  We call on KORAIL to negotiate in good faith with the KRWU, and we call on KORAIL and the government of the Republic of Korea to initiate a broad social dialogue on the issue of privatization of rail service.

 

SIGN ONLINE AThttp://www.ipetitions.com/petition/support-striking-korean-railroad-workers-and-the

 

Global version of the petition at:http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/support-striking-korean-railroad-workers-and-the-2

 

 

Hi all,

I was asked by several members who received this email to send it to the entire section list.  The Labor Research and Action Network is a great organization and I encourage you all to get involved.  Here's a link to learn more: http://lranetwork.org/

In solidarity,

Steve McKay
Associate Professor of Sociology
Director, UCSC Center for Labor Studies
University of California, Santa Cruz
--------
You are one of 240 academics in the Labor Research Action Network, a significant number for an organization less than four years old.  But we need greater participation of academics to achieve LRAN’s goals. 

The LRAN outreach committee has been discussing increasing the participation of academics in LRAN by contacting potential members through academic associations.  Are you involved in an academic association with members who might be interested in LRAN?  Would you be willing to encourage participation in LRAN by sending an email to association members, posting information on the website, or scheduling a panel discussion at the association’s next meeting?

We hope you will also consider informing students with relevant interests about how they can join the LRAN network.  

We welcome your input.  Please don’t hesitate to contact any us with your thoughts about how to increase the participation of academics in LRAN. 

Thanks and hope to hear from you.

Fred Feinstein, University of Maryland (Co-Chair)

Matthew Mayers, AFSCME (Co-chair)

Adam Kader, Arise Chicago

Catherine Fisk, UC Irvine

Mikhail Romanov, UFCW

Naomi R Williams, University of Wisconsin

Goetz Wolff, UCLA










Below are possible talking points: 







Talking Points

What LRAN offers academics interested in the labor movement

- LRAN creates opportunities for academics to be more a part of what’s going on in the labor movement.



-Promotes better understanding of the issues and concerns facing organizedlabor and others who organize and advocate on behalf of workers. 

- Helps in gaining access to timely information about what is happening on the ground to better inform research.

- Promotes opportunities for input about what needs to be done and how to accomplish strategic goals.

- Facilitates possibilities for collaboration with researchers from different academic disciplines with an interest in labor issues.

- Could be helpful in developing research projects and internships for students with an interest in labor. 

I am pleased to announce that Shannon Gleeson (UC Santa Cruz) will be our Chair-Elect next year and serve as Chair in 2014-15.  

I'm also delighted to announce that Paul Almeida (UC Merced) will be Secretary Treasurer for a 3-year term beginning in August.

Last but not least, Marcos Lopez will join the Section Council, also for a three-year-term.  

Thanks to all those who ran - we had a terrific slate of candidates!

Thanks also to the Nominations Committee, chaired by Past Section Chair Chris Tilly, and including Steve McKay and Claire Hammonds.

Regards,

STEVE

Steve Lopez
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology
The Ohio State University
Chair, ASA Section on Labor and Labor Movements

Dear Section Members, 

We are putting the Fall 2012 issue of In Critical Solidarity together. If you have any information on awards, call for papers, conferences, fellowship opportunities, labor news, labor actions members should know about, or other announcements that should be included in the newsletter please send them our way! The editors are also very interested in short essays relevant to labor and labor movements and potential topics for future newsletter symposia.

Please send them to Michael A. McCarthy, mam726@gmail.com.   

Steve Lopez
Associate Professor and Interim Director of Graduate Studies
Department of Sociology
The Ohio State University
Chair, ASA Section on Labor and Labor Movements

(Please also see the appended message below this one.)

Dear Labor Section,
I hope you are all having a great summer. As we prepare for ASA in Denver we are already thinking about our goal of reaching 400 members by Sept 30, 2012.

We have had an exciting year. The new website is up and running, the Facebook page is active, and we are busy setting up our graduate student mentoring program for Denver.  We have funding for a first-ever exchange program with our counterpart organization of Chinese sociologists, starting with a small delegation of US sociologists to China in December, and following up with a Chinese delegation to the 2013 meetings in New York, with a mini-conference around global labor issues.

In the meantime, Denver promises to be exciting, with sessions on Labor and Transnational Capital and US Labor and Politics, along with a great lineup of thematic Real Utopias sessions, many of which touch on labor and workplace themes.  Unfortunately, our membership is at 329, short of the 400 we need to go beyond 2 sessions.

In order to reach 400 we need your help. We did extensive outreach to lapsed members in March, and brought back dozens of members.  Now we need YOU to reach out to graduate students and colleagues who could benefit from participating in the labor section. If each of you can contact 5-10 people individually, we will definitely hit the target.  We have pasted a suggested wording below, but of course personalization makes outreach more effective (some faculty members have been known to offer to cover the $5 membership fee for students).  We attaching the list of recently lapsed members (2 tabs, one is people who left the section but stayed in ASA, the other is people who also left ASA; please check these lists first to see if you know anybody!) _and_ the most up-to-date membership roster, if you want to check whether a colleague _not_ on the recently lapsed list is already a member.  (The list is not attached here, you can email the webmaster at pjmorgan@uci.edu for a copy.)

We are trying to reach our goal of 400 well before the September 30 deadline, ideally in time for ASA in August so that we can plan for an expanded 2013 program at our business meeting! Please reach out. Thanks.

The Membership Committee and the Section Council

SUGGESTED WORDING

Dear XXX,
I'm writing to urge you to join the ASA Labor and Labor Movements Section.  It's an exciting time for the Labor section.  Denver will feature Friday sessions on Labor and Transnational Capital and US Labor and Politics, as well as a kaleidoscopic set of roundtables.  As we often do, we are holding a reception offsite featuring local labor activists (last year's reception with the Culinary Workers who have led grassroots organizing efforts among multi-ethnic casino workers was inspiring).  One great feature of the Labor Section is that we maintain close ties with the labor and community movements that are taking up workplace issues.

We also have funding for a first-ever exchange program with our counterpart organization of Chinese sociologists, starting with a small delegation of US sociologists to China in December, and following up with a Chinese delegation to the 2013 meetings in New York, with a mini-conference around global labor issues.  For graduate students, we have a mentoring program that matches up students with senior scholars at the meetings to get research and career advice.

Joining the section is a bargain, still only $10 for faculty and $5 for students (you must be a member of ASA).  Just log in to ASA, and under Join/Renew, click on Join a Section.

I find the Labor and Labor Movements Section a valuable space for discussion of labor and workplace issues.  I hope you will join!

Best,
Chris
------

Hi Labor Section members,

In my earlier email, I forgot to mention that the ASA's Member-Get-a-Member promotion means that you can get $10 reductions in your dues for each full-freight member you sign up _for ASA_ (i.e. not just for the section).  (Plus they will enter you in a drawing for a Kindle Fire.)  Details pasted below.

I have been finding that a number of people have responded that they will join, or rejoin, once the new fiscal year starts on July 1.  So it actually seems like a particularly good time to contact people.
Thanks,
Chris