Labor Studies | Contemporary Labor Problems
L205 | 11452 | Mello, William
This section is a web-based course offered through OnCourse.
3 cr hrs., Class Number 11452. While the President has declared the
economy is strong, all is not rosy for American workers or the labor
movement. Hundred of thousands of factory jobs – and now white-
collar jobs – are exported abroad every year. The gap between rich
and poor in the U.S. is wider than ever before. The labor movement
has declined to under 13% of the workforce, and employers forcefully
combat workers’ right to form a union through legal and illegal
means. The course will discuss and debate some of these major
contemporary economic and political problems confronting workers,
organized labor, and society as a whole. Topics we will discuss
include: globalization and the global justice movement; plant
closings; sweatshops; lean production; evolving labor-management
cooperation programs; union democracy; issues of race and gender;
electoral politics; and responses to the decline of organized labor.
Instructor: William Mello, DLS, IUK.