Doctoral Dissertation Research: Collective Bargaining and Decision-making Processes

在过去的50年里，虽然私营部门工会的会员人数急剧下降，但公立K-12教师的工会会员率是所有美国工人中最高的。这种突出也带来了反对。仅在2011年，就有20个州的立法机构对限制集体谈判和公立学校教师终身教职保护的法案进行了投票。面对这些类似的行动，教师工会组织了各种各样的回应，包括各种规模的集会、游说、司法和立法挑战。研究者将研究为什么工会对类似的立法行动有不同的反应。审视工会做出的战略选择，将有助于了解劳工和非劳工活动人士如何努力实现社会和立法变革。这项研究为社会运动文献中的一个重要争论带来了重要的见解：活动家在决定策略时考虑哪些因素？以前的学术研究提供了许多可能的答案，例如威胁的性质、现有法律、组织结构和意识形态。本研究考察了威斯康星州、俄亥俄州、田纳西州和爱达荷州四个州教师工会的战略选择，以及他们选择特定战略的过程。田纳西和爱达荷这两个州是实行工作权的州；另外两个州，威斯康辛州和俄亥俄州，都不是工作权州。计划中的分析将确定对教师工会最重要的因果条件。战略决策过程；解释这些条件如何影响战略选择并导致对类似立法的广泛不同反应的机制；并比较四个州的工会成员在选择策略时是如何考虑这些因果因素的。更广泛的影响本研究的结果将向学术界和公众传播。这些研究结果将在各种会议上发表，最终将被改编成一本书，让对工会感兴趣的公众也能轻松阅读。本研究结果对社会运动策略学者、工会、公益团体等类似组织具有借鉴意义。此外，这项研究将有助于公众对社会运动和教育中的有组织劳工和现代美国劳动力的认识和论述。

SES-1303680David MeyerAmanda PullumUniversity of California-IrvineWhile private sector unions have been experiencing a precipitous decline in membership for the past 50 years, public K-12 teachers have the highest union membership rates of any American workers. With this prominence has come opposition. In 2011 alone, twenty state legislatures held floor votes on bills restricting collective bargaining and tenure protections for public schoolteachers. Faced with these similar actions, teachers unions mounted a variety of responses, including rallies of all sizes, lobbying, and judicial and legislative challenges. The researcher will study why unions responded differently to similar legislative action. Examining the strategic choices made by unions will shed new light on how both labor and non-labor activists work to bring about social and legislative change.This study brings important insights to an important debate in the literature on social movements: what factors do activists consider when deciding upon strategy? Previous scholarship has offered many possible answers, such as the nature of the threat, existing laws, organizational structure, and ideology. This research examines strategic choices of teachers unions and the process through which particular strategies were chosen in four states-- Wisconsin, Ohio, Tennessee, and Idaho. Two of the states, Tennessee and Idaho are right-to-work states; and two, Wisconsin and Ohio, are not right-to-work states. The planned analysis will identify the causal conditions most important to teachers unions? strategic decision-making processes; explain the mechanisms by which these conditions influenced strategic choice and resulted in widely varying responses to similar legislation; and compare how union members in the four states considered these causal factors when choosing strategies. Broader ImpactsResults of this study will be disseminated to both academic and public audiences. The findings will be presented at a wide variety of conferences, and ultimately, the dissertation will be transformed into a book, which will be easily accessible to members of the public with an interest in labor unions. The findings of this study will be of use to scholars of social movement strategy, labor unions, and similar organizations such as public interest groups. In addition, this study will contribute to public knowledge and discourse on social movements and organized labor in education and the modern American workforce.