Overview

One consequence of the growing international integration of economies has been an erosion of American workers' rights. Employers attempting to meet the pressures of new international competition have had to change the way they organize their work forces and the protections given to their employees. There are more low-wage jobs, more part-time and temporary workers, more subcontractors, reduced benefits, and intensified work schedules. In the current environment, employers have a greater need for highly motivated, hardworking, skilled employees, and have often developed innovative forms of management to enlist these workers' support. Other forces transforming the traditional system have been the decline of unions and the ascendance of conservative policy. Even with all these developments, workers have won new rights in recent years, such as mandatory early notification of plant closings, greater rights for workers with disabilities, and increased protection for older workers. State legislatures have also enacted expanded protections for workers, and state courts have been rewriting basic legal doctrines governing workers' rights in ways that favour employees. In addressing this subject, Edwards calls on law, economics, and institutional change.

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9780815721055

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Reviews

A timely and important book about change in defintiion of the employment relationship in the United States... Read this book before determining your own position. -- Journal of Economic Literature This book explores employees' rights in the workplace and proposes some innovative public policy strategies that would protect the rights of workers while enhancing the ability of employers to succeed in today's highly competitive global environment... [A] useful contribution to the growing discussion of workplace rights. -- Choice This is a most important book. Calling on law, economics and basic institutional change, the author provides a most informative view of modern labor relations and its problems and possibilities. Do not miss it! --John Kenneth Galbraith, Harvard University A useful contribution to the general discussion about workplace rights. Rights at Work is timely as the common law is in a period of flux and the United States is increasingly concerned about foreign competition. The book is easy to follow and very accessible to interested laypeople. --Stewart J. Schwab, Cornell Law School

A timely and important book about change in defintiion of the employment relationship in the United States... Read this book before determining your own position. -- Journal of Economic Literature This book explores employees' rights in the workplace and proposes some innovative public policy strategies that would protect the rights of workers while enhancing the ability of employers to succeed in today's highly competitive global environment... [A] useful contribution to the growing discussion of workplace rights. -- Choice

Author Information

Richard Edwards is dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky. He is the author of numerous books, including Contested Terrain: The Transformation of the Workplace in the Twentieth Century (Basic Books, 1979).

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