Doctoral Dissertation Research: Collective Bargaining and Decision-making Processes

虽然在过去的50年里，私营部门工会的会员人数急剧下降，但公立K-12教师的工会会员人数是美国工人中最高的。 随着这种突出性而来的是反对。 仅在2011年，就有20个州立法机构就限制公立学校教师集体谈判和任期保护的法案进行了现场投票。面对这些类似的行动，教师工会采取了各种应对措施，包括各种规模的集会、游说以及司法和立法挑战。 研究人员将研究为什么工会对类似的立法行动作出不同的反应。 研究工会所作的战略选择将揭示新的光如何劳动和非劳动积极分子的工作，以实现社会和立法的changes.This研究带来了重要的见解，一个重要的辩论在文学上的社会运动：什么因素做活动家考虑时，决定在战略上？ 以前的学术界提供了许多可能的答案，如威胁的性质，现有的法律，组织结构和意识形态。 本研究探讨教师工会的策略选择和过程中，通过特定的策略选择在四个州-威斯康星州，俄亥俄州，田纳西州和爱达荷州。 其中两个州，田纳西州和爱达荷州是工作权州;两个州，威斯康星州和俄亥俄州，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;解释这些条件影响战略选择并导致对类似立法的反应大相径庭的机制;比较四个州的工会成员在选择战略时如何考虑这些因果因素。更广泛的影响这项研究的结果将向学术界和公众传播。 研究结果将在各种会议上发表，最终，论文将被转化为一本书，这将很容易被对工会感兴趣的公众所获得。 本研究之发现，对于社会运动策略学者、工会、公益团体等类似组织，将有所助益。 此外，这项研究将有助于公众知识和社会运动和教育和现代美国劳动力有组织的劳动话语。

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.