Times Of Economic Decline Research Articles

Unions and Industrial Relations Legislation: The Past and the Future

Over 100 trade unionists, labour activists and labour historians gathered at the Terminus Hotel, Brisbane 12 March 2005 to discuss the Federal Government's anticipated industrial relations legislation once it gains control of the Senate in July. The event was organised by Greg Mallory and the executive of the Brisbane Labour History Association. The day began with a welcome to country by Bob Anderson, who reflected on the role of Aboriginal people as both workers and unionists in Australia. Then Margaret Lee, labour lawyer, gave a lucid outline of the anticipated reform agenda, based on her reading of the 40 bills rejected by the Senate since 1998 as well as recent public statements by the Howard Government. The prospect of even greater stripping back of awards, further restrictions on industrial action and the involvement of unions in bargaining and a unitary system of arbitration in place of the existing Federal-State systems adds up to a challenging time ahead for Australia's unionists and workers. Indeed, it was generally agreed that the Howard Government was about to launch the greatest assault on the union movement since the suppression of the great strikes of the 1890s. The next speaker was the legendary Jack Mundey, veteran of the Green Bans campaigns of the 1970s. Although still recovering from surgery, Jack gave an inspiring speech, reminding the audience of the victories that are possible for unions when they widen their agenda to include concerns beyond the narrowly economic: the environment and civil liberties, for instance. When unions have done this in the past, he argued, they have been able to secure valuable allies for workers outside the union movement. He also reminded the audience of the need for solidarity in the face of the coming challenges. In response, Andrew Vickers, representing the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Engineering Unions (CFMEU), also struck a positive note, pointing out that employers only launch anti-labour offensives in times of economic decline, so the current relatively comfortable economic climate may blunt the zeal for implementing the new legislation. I attended the conference as the President of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History. After lunch, I spoke, offering my thoughts on the role that labour history can play in the future of the labour movement. I stressed the importance of alliances between academics and unionists in researching and disseminating labour history, both amongst workers and the wider community. Hughie Williams, Federal President of Queensland Secretary of the Transport Workers Union (TWU), with his usual wry humour, offered some valuable suggestions regarding industrial action, particularly in regard to securing public support. Like the TWU, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) finds itself a particular target of the Howard Government. Howard Guille, Queensland State

Low-Income Children and Health Insurance: Old News and New Realities

This supplement of Pediatrics presents a series of articles on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). These articles represent a unique collaborative effort among nationally recognized experts in child health services research, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Health Resources and Services Administration. It is fair to say that these studies are appearing at a momentous time in the evolution of US child health policy. The central challenge that lies ahead is to ensure that their important findings make their way into the extraordinary debate over the future of US health policy that is underway now in the 108th Congress. Enacted in 1997, SCHIP had as its central purpose the extension of publicly supported health insurance to uninsured low-income children whose family incomes exceeded Medicaid eligibility levels. SCHIP offered an alternative to existing Medicaid eligibility options for near-poor children whose financial circumstances placed them beyond the poverty level at which Medicaid coverage for children is mandatory; enactment of SCHIP reflected states’ concerns regarding additional expansion of the Medicaid legal entitlement. The response to SCHIP was rapid and dramatic: within 3 years, all states had implemented the program1 and by June 2002, enrollment had surpassed 3.6 million.2 States used SCHIP funds to establish separate programs, expand Medicaid, or implement a combination of the 2 approaches. SCHIP bears some similarities to its far-larger Medicaid companion, which in 2001 enrolled 17 million children.3 Both programs enable states to secure federal matching funds to support health insurance for low-income children. Both envision comprehensive benefits coverage (Medicaid on a mandatory basis and SCHIP by option). Both emphasize outreach and enrollment assistance to families with children. However, SCHIP and Medicaid also differ profoundly. Medicaid is a federal legal entitlement that contains 2 basic …

New Meaning to it Alignment

One of the perennial top issues in surveys of IT management concerns is IT alignment. It always seems to be in the top-ten, but cyclically rises to number-one at times of economic decline. When the economy turns down, information services departments are called upon to redouble their vigilance on spending and to focus their attention on projects and initiatives that are in line with the near-term objectives of the overall business. the enterprises that have developed collaborative management processes between the business and information services organizations do this best and with the least amount of disruption. in fact, it seems that there has been tremendous progress in the past ten or fifteen years in terms of leadership and management practices on the part of both business and information services organizations that have contributed to a dramatic improvement in the handling of downward economic adjustments. Upward economic change, on the other hand, poses more perplexing challenges.

Power Dynamics between Administrators and Faculty on a Unionized Campus: A Case Study

This article offers a case study of labor relations in a higher education setting. The University of Bridgeport's faculty union was certified in May 1973 and decertified in August 1992. Contract negotiation disputes centered on shared governance, managing faculty reductions during a time of inflation and declining enrollments, and determining fair wages. The private university experienced four faculty strikes, culminating in a two-year faculty strike – the longest in U.S. higher education history. The university was also the first institution of higher education in the United States to hire permanent replacement faculty during a strike. In 1990, leaders of the locked-out striking faculty unsuccessfully lobbied for a state government takeover of the nearly bankrupt university. The case study highlights a plethora of complex ethical issues faced by administrators, faculty, and unions during times of economic decline.

Modelling for Resource Allocation to Departments and Faculties in African Universities.

University budgets and actual results have not been balanced in African universities, partly because of the unscientific way in which budgetary planning is arrived at and allocations of money is decided upon. Formula budgeting presents an attractive option for developing countries as it reduces substantially the dependence of funding decisions on political considerations and allows for a fair, equitable and transparent disbursement of funds. Norms and other guidelines can be used to steer university development in the directions prescribed by national policy decisions and can facilitate the monitoring and evaluation of the performance of the institutions. They are therefore useful both in times of economic decline and expansion. Since headcount enrolment does not allow rational budget planning for, and allocation of funds to academic departments, the full time equivalent student count which reflects the workload of programmes and departments can be introduced as an alternative measure of enrolment and adopted as a funding parameter. Other funding indices can include student based parameters such as growth rate and enrolment mix, staff student ratios and expenditure ratios such as the ratio of salaries to goods and services and the ratio for expenditure on the academic as against the non-academic sectors. A comprehensive study of expenditure patterns in universities can stimulate the evolution of a model for fund allocation to academic and other units within the institutions. A micro model embedded in a consistent global model for budgeting and allocation of funds in the university system by a central funding agency. A standardisation of budgeting techniques and fund allocation procedures within the university system is therefore achievable with an emerging consolidated budgetary system where uniform parameters are used with a well defined basis for fund allocation formulated to justify management decisions and actions. Managers will then be well motivated,

Tax Structure and Public Spending ‐ Or How the Electorate Is Deceived into Paying for Bigger Public Spending than It Really Wants

It is a classical proposition that tax structure may influence public spending. Two such propositions concerning the visibility and the elasticity of the tax system are tested. Visibility is not important while highly elastic tax systems are correlated with big public spending in times of economic boom. In times of economic decline and recession, high spending countries turn to deficit financing. In both cases big spenders seem to rely more upon a dose of fiscal illusion than moderate spenders.