An Introduction to U.S. Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations

This comprehensive textbook provides an introduction to collective bargaining and labor relations with a focus on developments in the United States. It is appropriate for students, policy analysts, and labor relations professionals including unionists, managers, and neutrals. A three-tiered strategic choice framework unifies the text, and the authors’ thorough grounding in labor history and labor law assists students in learning the basics. In addition to traditional labor relations, the authors address emerging forms of collective representation and movements that address income inequality in novel ways.

Harry C. Katz, Thomas A. Kochan, and Alexander J. S. Colvin provide numerous contemporary illustrations of business and union strategies. They consider the processes of contract negotiation and contract administration with frequent comparisons to nonunion practices and developments, and a full chapter is devoted to special aspects of the public sector. An Introduction to U.S. Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations has an international scope, covering labor rights issues associated with the global supply chain as well as the growing influence of NGOs and cross-national unionism. The authors also compare how labor relations systems in Germany, Japan, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa compare to practices in the United States.

The textbook is supplemented by a website (ilr.cornell.edu/scheinman-institute/research/introduction-us-collective-bargaining-and-labor-relations) that features an extensive Instructor’s Manual with a test bank, PowerPoint chapter outlines, mock bargaining exercises, organizing cases, grievance cases, and classroom-ready current events materials.

Harry C. Katz is Jack Sheinkman Professor and Director of the Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution at the ILR School, Cornell University. He is coauthor of The Transformation of American Industrial Relations and Converging Divergences and coeditor of Rekindling the Movement, all from Cornell, among many other books. Thomas A. Kochan is the George Maverick Bunker Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Co-Director of the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research. He is coauthor of Healing Together, Up in the Air, and The Transformation of American Industrial Relations, all from Cornell, and author or editor of many other books. Alexander J. S. Colvin is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Diversity, and Faculty Development and the Martin F. Scheinman Professor of Conflict Resolution at the ILR School, Cornell University.

For a continental European academic, this text not only offers a thorough and wellbalanced introduction into the US system of collective bargaining and industrial relations but also into the superstructure and the theoretical framework that underpins it. And it is actually a pleasure to read and therefore comes highly recommended.

What struck me most about this work is that it steers clear of the case-method approach common in many legal textbooks. Instead, the authors offer a more explanatory review of the topics discussed, using case studies throughout to illustrate concepts of particular interest. The result is a work that is highly substantive, yet accessible to a wide audience. This book works equally well as a reference tool for those familiar with labor relations and an introduction for the uninitiated.

Paul F. Clark, author of Building More Effective Unions:

I have used a number of different labor relations and collective bargaining textbooks over the years, and the Katz, Kochan, and Colvin text stands out for its clarity and insight.

Greg Bamber, Monash University and Newcastle University, and coeditor, International & Comparative Employment Relations:

The leading experts have revised and improved the best book in the field. It is essential reading, particularly for its coherent analytical framework. Its discussion of relevant legal systems is especially valuable. Students, professors, and practitioners will appreciate its pathfinding analysis of management and union strategies, including in the public sector. They will welcome the astute analyses of global pressures, including multinational enterprises and nongovernmental organization,s and of the future of labor relations.