Small Membership Research Articles

Bargaining Representation and Union Membership in the Federal Sector: A Free Rider's Paradise

The federal government is extensively organized in terms of the number of employees belonging to exclusively recognized bargaining units. Yet, the largest federal-employee union is in serious financial trouble because of its relatively small membership. This article examines bargaining representation and union membership data among the three principal federal-employee unions during the 1981–1987 period. It finds that 1) each union faces a sizable free rider problem, and 2) the magnitude of the problem differs substantially across unions. The article discusses the financial implications of this problem and offers insights as to future directions in federal-sector unionism.

Gender and number in Bayso

Bayso is an East Cushitic language with complex systems of gender and number. Nouns mark four categories of number (unit reference, singulative reference, paucal reference and multiple reference). Agreeing elements have only three distinct forms, showing the considerable syncretism typical of Cushitic. The agreement class approach of Zaliznjak establishes that there are eight classes of nouns in Bayso. However, it is demonstrated that only two genders should be recognised in Bayso (contrary to earlier work) and that remaining classes have small membership and should be handled by features indicating irregularity in number agreement. These small groups of irregular nouns prove valuable for comparison with related languages, notably Dasenech, Elmolo, Arbore, Rendille and Boni. It is shown how various changes in Bayso have conspired to produce a system which, for all its apparent complexity, is simpler than that of related languages. of special note is the fact that it has adopted a particular multiple reference suffix for use as a paucal reference form; this suffix consistently takes plural agreements, while regular multiple reference forms take masculine agreements.

On the labor-managed firm in a competitive environment

A risk-neutral median voter in a labor-managed firm (LMF) facing an increase in the demand for its product will prefer to maintain employment and secure his job to the prospect of a higher dividend accompanied by the risk of unemployment. It is argued that LMFs with fixed employment and output will lose out in competition with flexible-output profit maximizing firms. Partnerships with a small membership in high-human-capital industries will be most likely to survive in a competitive environment.

The Social Democratic Federation and Popular Agitation amongst the Unemployed in Edwardian Manchester

The Social Democratic Federation is usually regarded by historians as of only marginal importance to the working-class movement of the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. To support this view reference is often made to its naive and mechanistic interpretations of Marxist theory, its small membership and sectarian nature, and the futility of its concentration upon political activity amongst the unemployed at the expense of support for the industrial action of trade unionists and the Parliamentary representation of labour. The stereotype of a narrow, doctrinaire sect with incompetent leadership contains more than a grain of truth, but like most stereotypes conveys only a partial verity. Too often it is used as an excuse for neglecting the SDF on the precept that it was irrelevant and “misguided” in its conception of the right path for the working-class movement. The comparative failure of the SDF, however, owed at least as much to the deeply engrained reformist and trade-unionist tradition amongst the English working class as it did to the inadequacies of the SDF itself.

The New South Wales Ship Painters and Dockers 1900-1914: A Small Union and the Institutionalisation of Industrial Relations

As an initial generalisation the small organisations placed constraints on the development of a centralised labour movement with a concerted industrial and political policy. In addition, a small membership has had various other implications. Limited financial resources meant that small unions could not draw on reserve funds to support sustained industrial action or large scale re cruitment drives. Financial constraints also affected the level of

The Comintern, South Africa and the Black Diaspora

In late 1927 the Communist Party of South Africa learned with surprise and shock that the Communist International (Comintern) in Moscow had drafted a radical new policy for its distant affiliate in southernmost Africa, the only communist party south of the Sahara. The new policy, focused upon the slogan, “an independent native South African republic, as a stage towards a workers' and peasants' government with full, equal rights for all races, black, colored, and white” seemed to a majority of the small multiracial membership of the South African party to be directly counter to the old policy which, after a difficult process of internal disagreements and tactical reorientation, was bringing its first significant wave of recruits and support among the black majority of the country. The slogan proposed from Moscow, quenching dreams of socialism, generated widespread opposition within the party, but an unhearing Comintern decreed in October, 1928, that the South Africans must accept the new line. The consequences of the imposition of the new slogan and the subsequent bolshevization of the party shook the Communist Party of South Africa to its roots.

Economic and Social Council

The seventh session of the Economic and Social Council was held in Geneva from July 19 to August 29, 1948, with the President of the Council, Charles Malik of Lebanon, presiding. The Council originally had an agenda of some 50 items before it for consideration, but following the report of the Council's Agenda Committee eleven of these topics were postponed until the eighth session. To deal with its work the Council created three committees of the whole, on economic and social matters and on human rights, and two committees of smaller membership, on procedures and organization and on matters relating to coordination.