Coercion, Contract, and Free Labor in the Nineteenth Century

Coercion, Contract, and Free Labor in the Nineteenth Century
Author: Robert J. Steinfeld
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2001-02-05
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780521774000

This book presents a fundamental reassessment of the nature of wage labor in the nineteenth century, focusing on the common use of penal sanctions in England to enforce wage labor agreements. Professor Steinfeld argues that wage workers were not employees at will but were often bound to their employment by enforceable labor agreements, which employers used whenever available to manage their labor costs and supply. In the northern United States, where employers normally could not use penal sanctions, the common law made other contract remedies available, also placing employers in a position to enforce labor agreements. Modern free wage labor only came into being late in the nineteenth century, as a result of reform legislation that restricted the contract remedies employers could legally use.

Rehabilitating Lochner

Rehabilitating Lochner
Author: David E. Bernstein
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2011-05-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0226043533

In this timely reevaluation of an infamous Supreme Court decision, David E. Bernstein provides a compelling survey of the history and background of Lochner v. New York. This 1905 decision invalidated state laws limiting work hours and became the leading case contending that novel economic regulations were unconstitutional. Sure to be controversial, Rehabilitating Lochner argues that the decision was well grounded in precedent—and that modern constitutional jurisprudence owes at least as much to the limited-government ideas of Lochner proponents as to the more expansive vision of its Progressive opponents. Tracing the influence of this decision through subsequent battles over segregation laws, sex discrimination, civil liberties, and more, Rehabilitating Lochner argues not only that the court acted reasonably in Lochner, but that Lochner and like-minded cases have been widely misunderstood and unfairly maligned ever since.

The Fissured Workplace

The Fissured Workplace
Author: David Weil
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 421
Release: 2014-02-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 067472612X

In the twentieth century, large companies employing many workers formed the bedrock of the U.S. economy. Today, on the list of big business's priorities, sustaining the employer-worker relationship ranks far below building a devoted customer base and delivering value to investors. As David Weil's groundbreaking analysis shows, large corporations have shed their role as direct employers of the people responsible for their products, in favor of outsourcing work to small companies that compete fiercely with one another. The result has been declining wages, eroding benefits, inadequate health and safety protections, and ever-widening income inequality. From the perspectives of CEOs and investors, fissuring--splitting off functions that were once managed internally--has been phenomenally successful. Despite giving up direct control to subcontractors and franchises, these large companies have figured out how to maintain the quality of brand-name products and services, without the cost of maintaining an expensive workforce. But from the perspective of workers, this strategy has meant stagnation in wages and benefits and a lower standard of living. Weil proposes ways to modernize regulatory policies so that employers can meet their obligations to workers while allowing companies to keep the beneficial aspects of this business strategy.

Lochner V. New York

Lochner V. New York
Author: Paul Kens
Publisher:
Total Pages: 240
Release: 1998
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

On the case of Joseph Lochner, a baker in Utica, N.Y., charged in 1901 with violating the New York Bakeshop Act of 1895 by requiring an employee to work more than 60 hours in one week.

In the Name of Liberty

In the Name of Liberty
Author: Mark R. Reiff
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 431
Release: 2020-04-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108853137

For years now, unionization has been under vigorous attack. Membership has been steadily declining, and with it union bargaining power. As a result, unions may soon lose their ability to protect workers from economic and personal abuse, as well as their significance as a political force. In the Name of Liberty responds to this worrying state of affairs by presenting a new argument for unionization, one that derives an argument for universal unionization in both the private and public sector from concepts of liberty that we already accept. In short, In the Name of Liberty reclaims the argument for liberty from the political right, and shows how liberty not only requires the unionization of every workplace as a matter of background justice, but also supports a wide variety of other progressive policies.

What Workers Want

What Workers Want
Author: Richard Barry Freeman
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 1999
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780801485633

How would a typical American workplace be structured if the employees could design it? According to Richard B. Freeman and Joel Rogers, it would be an organization run jointly by employees and their supervisors, one where disputes between labor and management would be resolved through independent arbitration. Their groundbreaking book--based on the most extensive workplace survey of the last twenty years--provides a comprehensive account of employees? attitudes about participation, representation, and regulation on the job. More than anything, the authors find, workers want their voices to be heard. They desire a greater role in the workplace (but doubt management's willingness to share power), and have strong ideas about how their involvement could improve not just their lot but also their companies? fortunes. Many nonunion workers favor the formation of unions, and virtually all union workers strongly support their union. Most employees support the creation of labor-management committees--to which workers would elect their representatives--to run the organization and settle conflicts. And, contrary to commonly held assumptions, workers (including those in unions and those wishing to be) do not like dissension with their supervisors; they overwhelmingly prefer cooperative relations. The authors also report on the views of the supervisors, who confirm their wish to retain exclusive authority to make decisions, but demonstrate a willingness to listen more actively to labor's concerns by giving employees a more substantial voice on advisory committees. Freeman and Rogers present their findings within a broader picture of the evolving structure of labor and management in the United States. Their detailed description of their survey--how it was constructed and conducted--provides a model for workplace research in our time. And the results allow the voices of employees to be heard on matters profoundly affecting their jobs, their lives, and, ultimately, the state of the American economy.