December 5, 2005
Clark University Professor Gary Chaison Publishes “Unions in America”
Worcester, Mass. - Gary Chaison, professor of industrial relations in Clark University’s Graduate School of Management, announces the publication of his new book “Unions in America” (SAGE Publications). His book offers a clear, concise and unbiased understanding of America’s labor unions -- what they do and why they do it.
Professor Chaison portrays America’s unions as complex, self governing organizations that are struggling to regain their lost membership, bargaining power, and political influence.
“This book is meant to offer an impartial overview of American unions that ranges from the struggle for recognition from employers in their earliest years to their present-day difficulties,” said Chaison. It is written in a widely accessible manner, free of academic jargon and the distracting biases so often found in books by union or company activists.
Chapters in the book are devoted to the evolution of unions, union structure and growth, union government and administration, proposals for union revival, and insight on the future of unions. The book uses recent examples and descriptions of emerging or continuing trends in organizing, collective bargaining, and political action. Professor Chaison believes that an accurate appraisal of the future of America’s unions must be based on a sound understanding of exactly how unions operate as organizations and worker representatives.
Professor Chaison has taught at Clark’s GSOM for 25 years. He co-authored Unions and Legitimacy (Cornell University Press 2002) with fellow Clark professor Barbara Bigelow and is the author of Union Mergers in Hard Times: The View from Five Countries (Cornell 1996) and When Unions Merge (Lexington 1986). He has published several articles on the determinants of union growth in the United States and Canada, the causes and consequences of union mergers in the United States as well as several other countries, and the unions’ use of the Internet. He is quoted regularly in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and is a frequent guest on NPR programs about labor issues.
Professor Chaison has a Ph.D. in industrial relations from the State University of New York, Buffalo. For an in-depth bio of the author, visit his web site at
Professor Chaison is a resident of Worcester, Mass.
Clark University is a private, co-educational liberal-arts research university with 2,000 undergraduate and 600 graduate students. Since its founding in 1887 as the first all-graduate school in New England, Clark has challenged convention with innovative programs such as the International Studies Stream, the Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the five-year BA/MA programs with the fifth year tuition-free for eligible students.
Angela M. Bazydlo
Associate Director of Media Relations
Clark University
Worcester, Mass.
phone: 508-793-7635
www.clarku.edu
|
