Special emphasis will be given to the unionized private sector. Topics range from the origins of the modern labor movement and the emergence of collective bargaining to what lies ahead for industrial relations in the new millennium. The course work will consist of readings, responses to model National Labor Relations Board and arbitration cases, a term paper, and a final examination. Ideally, the industrial relations system in the United States is directed to minimizing conflict between labor and management.
Conflict is an outgrowth of the sometimes divergent aims, goals, and values of workers and managers.
As we move along in the course, it will rapidly become clear that you have biases of your own which will effect both your sympathies towards one side or the other and your assessment of different topics. No one can escape these biases. The rational person, however, becomes fully conscious of these biases and works hard to not let these biases interfere with his or her ability to make a reasoned, cogent, and substantive argument. Ultimately, I will be applying the standards of rational argument in assessing your performance in this class. Schoen, Sterling and Raymond Hilgert.