Mar 28/Cleveland + Web: The Assault on Collective Bargaining Rights in the Public Sector

Joseph E. Slater

Perhaps the most striking political development in 2011 was the widespread and aggressive assault on public sector collective bargaining rights. While the most highly publicized and significant changes have taken place in Wisconsin and Ohio, other states have also passed laws restricting the rights of public sector workers. These changes represent the most radical revisions to labor law in the U.S. in decades, and have set off a political firestorm.
Professor Slater argues that these attacks are a partisan attempt to weaken a key supporter of the Democratic Party and do not address budget deficits. Rather, they take away a right, considered fundamental in much of the industrialized world, that helps sustain a vital middle class and ensure skilled people will find public service an attractive career option.
Title: 
The Assault on Collective Bargaining Rights in the Public Sector
(Webcast link here will be active around 4:30 Eastern/1:30 Pacific)
Sponsor:   Rush McKnight Labor Law Lecture
presented by the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Conflict and Dispute Resolution
Date/Time/Place:
March 28, 2012
4:30 PM - 5:30 PM Eastern
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
11075 East Blvd
Moot Courtroom (A59)
Cleveland, OH
Also Available As Webcast
Speaker:
Joseph E. Slater
Eugene N. Balk Professor of Law and Values
University of Toledo College of Law
Joseph Slater holds a B.A. from Oberlin College, a J.D. from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in History from Georgetown. Before joining the Toledo faculty (1999), Professor Slater practiced labor and employment law in Washington D.C. for over a decade. He has published numerous books and articles on labor and employment law, including Public Sector Employment: Cases and Materials (with M. Malin & A. Hodges, 2nd ed. West 2010). He has made numerous media appearances on these issues, including NPR’s “Morning Edition,” MSNBC.com, Reuters, Fortune, several Toledo television stations, and op-eds and interviews in The Plain Dealer, Cincinnati Enquirer, and Toledo Blade. A member of the Labor Law Group and Employment Policy Research Network, affiliated with the Labor and Employment Research Association, he has given many presentations on the topic of public sector labor law and history.
Cost:
Free and open to the public. Reception follows.
Credit:
1 hr. continuing legal education credit available.
DIRECTIONS TO CAMPUS
More:
http://law.cwru.edu/Lectures.aspx?lec_id=291