Secondary Boycotts in Labor Disputes

Mobilization of External Allies in Labor Disputes

To cope with steep losses in membership and eroding legal protections, some unions have begun to look outward for help. Scholars likewise point to broad-based coalitions as a potential route to labor’s revitalization. Yet surprisingly little is known about union coalition work, from when and why it occurs to what union allies typically bring to the table. We take up these issues with a unique d...

Boycotts and Violence

Sumanta Banerjee ([email protected]) is best known for his book In the Wake of Naxalbari: A History of the Naxalite Movement in India (1980). The Maoists want a provision in the electoral rules to arm the voter with the right to reject a candidate, but if the voters are granted such a provision, will they allow them to participate in the elections, or still insist on boycotting them? It is hi...

Boycotts and Restrictive Marketing Arrangements

14 Labor Disputes and Productivity in Japan and the United States

The quantity of effective labor in the work force depends not only on the number of workers employed but on how hard they work. Many explanations of the superior performance of the Japanese economy stress this fact. Japanese workers seem more dedicated and motivated than their American counterparts. We examine this phenomenon by comparing the effects of worker attitude on productivity and produ...

Verbal Disputes

Is there a distinction between questions of fact and questions of language? Many philosophers have said no. But a version of the distinction is ubiquitous, in philosophy and elsewhere, in the notion of a verbal dispute. Intuitively, a dispute between two parties is verbal when the two parties agree on the relevant facts about a domain of concern, and just disagree about the language used to des...