Labor and Employment Law Books

Slam the Door on Employee Lawsuits tells how to keep your business out of court. It advises business owners and managers on avoiding wrongful discharge, handling hostile employees, wage and hour issues, employee privacy and other touchy work topics.
These situations can burden employers with huge financial setbacks. Be prepared, have your policies in place and know what is proper and legal.
(I deducted one star since the book needs to be reissued to include any changes of the last few years)

The suppliants in this play by Euripides are seven women and their king (Adrastus, King of Argos) who have come to Athens and its leader, Theseus, to ask for aid in their quest. The women's seven sons had been killed in battle against Thebes in the attempt by Polyneices to regain his inheritance from his brother Eteocles (both sons of Oedipus). Argos lost the battle and both of the sons of Oedipus were killed. The new ruler of Thebes, Creon (the brothers' uncle), refused the mothers the right to recover their sons' bodies for burial. Theseus, at first, refuses to help them since it was Adrastus's folly to get involved in that war; however, Theseus is persuaded by his own mother. This is another of Euripides's "irony" plays in which he points out the folly of war, particularly wars whose origins are long in the past (such as the war Athens was currently involved with Sparta).

Too many really qualified, effective, and successful women I know in business seem to just stop after some point, throw in the towel, get shunted aside or just get fired. Now I know why...Reeves' case studies and her analysis make it clear that its not just a glass ceiling women are hitting up against, its more like a trampoline at the top, bouncing back fastest just the women with the greatest momentum... Too many books about women in the work place are pure theory, and there are more than a few that offer advice about how to succeed in the executive suite. This one combines a great grip on solid feminist theory with hard details about individual cases to draw lessons women can apply to work withth system... and to change it!

Taylor and Witney provide an excellent history of the shaping of American labor law. Starting with the early attempts to squash labor unions with the English common law theory of conspiracy, the authors move us through some of the important common law cases such as Commonwealth v. Hunt and Danbury Hatters. Their history takes us to the formation of the Wagner Act and the birth of the NLRA. The appendixes include texts of the NLRA (Wagner Act). This is an excellent companion book to any Labor Law textbook.

This book provides some very insightful perspectives and opinions on minority employment in today's world. Although it can be fairly subtle in some spots, the book is based entirely on fact, and therefore is a good tool for those interested in contemporary labor studies. For those in the field, this book provides fresh new insights. It is appropriate for those studying labor economics, women's issues, minority issues, and discrimination.

This is an extremely well written, clear, and cautious overview of new federal protections for whistleblowers, because that's really what has happened since 2002. Do take note that it is really directed for employees in the private sector; if you are in a government job things may be somewhat different. Or very, very different depending on your location. It would be nice to learn more about private sector jobs that are subcontracted out by government agencies and the whistleblowing is "on" the contractors, but this may be too complex or may need to go through the courts.

Certainly I wish that I had had something like this 14 years ago, when I was caught up in a whistleblowing problem that cost me my job and my life (not that I died, obviously, but that my life could never be the same, not that I really wanted it to be). I took whatever legal guides I could find, but in addition to their being contradictory and sketchy, their bindings were insufficient for the size of their pages and all collapsed within a matter of weeks.

Of course, even more, I wish that the SOX laws were in effect at that time; then the burden of proof really fell upon us, and if we were going to fight their legal teams on any sort of even ground, it was bound to get very nasty. [3]

I have used Women Ethics and the Workplace for four years now teaching to undergraduate business and design students. My ethics class is definitely enhanced by the combination of helpful overviews of the major normative theories and the critical perspectives the book generates. The theory is supplemented by both empirical and statistical data and always sparks great discussion in my college classroom. The book is especially strong at illustrating for students the tensions of career versus family in a capitalist economy. This is a refreshing business ethics text that is theoretical without being dry, and critical without being pedantic. Should be used alongside classic ethics sources.

Book Review: "Worker Centers: Organizing Communities at the Edge of the Dream"

By Janice Fine

Review by James Generic

Edited by Yoni Kroll and Chris Mullen



Today, unions in the US are in a weak state. More than 90% of all working people are not in unions. Does this mean that unions have become obsolete? No! The power of a worker in a union is much higher than someone without a union in terms of job security, wages, benefits, and the ability to solve grievances like harassment or discrimination. However, there have been many changes in American labor of late, such as anti-union laws, aggressive international anti-labor companies like Walmart, globalization where former union jobs are sent overseas, immigration laws aimed at keeping immigrant workers vulnerable, and the retailization of the US economy where many jobs have shifted from factories to retail and low-wage service jobs - like domestic workers, security guards, restaurant workers, agriculture, or day laborers. Most of the tactics of the labor movement have been slow to follow this shift. In addition, US unions tend to be on the conservative side (politically conservative like many building trades or craft unions, or just conservative in tactics and cautious in the case of industrial-based unions.) This huge void in the labor movement hasn't gone unfilled. A host of alternative labor organizing strategies and organizations have risen to fill this void, and one of the biggest trends of low-wage workers organizations is towards workers' centers.



In "Workers Centers: Organizing Communities at the Edge of the Dream", Janice Fine does a very thorough study of workers centers across the US, visiting 137 in a two year span. She lays out what a worker center is, an organization that offers at least four features to workers, which outside of unions that other groups do not: 1- Services, examples being English as a Second Language, legal aid, job placement, placement to need-based service orgs, cash checking, peer counseling, and getting back wages 2- Popular Education, which would be know-your-rights classes, basic economic and globalization classes, critical skills development 3- Organizing, such as collective action for betterment of constituents, engaging in campaigns around issues, getting better conditions for their membership or constituents, bringing in alliances of groups to help, leadership development and 4) Advocacy, which is getting the message out and bringing light to low-wage communities.

The majority of workers' centers are immigrant worker based, with many Latino and Asian centered groups and some African-American majority workers' centers, making race one of the key factors that these groups organize around. Often, the staff and volunteers of the workers centers come from the communities the centers work in, as well as the main point being to develop leadership within those communities. One of their big advantages over traditional unions is that workers centers are bottom up organizations based around local conditions, as opposed to numbers-based groups who target large bodies of people to organize instead of the "hot-shop" places. . In many ways, workers' centers are much like "pre-unions", doing the collective organizing that unions can't or won't do at this time but may someday be able to. The way that workers' centers think of members is also different than unions, in that in unions you are a member if you simply pay dues, but in the workers' centers it is more something you must earn and put in time for. Fine points out, however, that they could do better with fund-raising by establishing more firm membership. A general weakness of progressive organizations on the left - except unions - is the drift towards reliance on foundation money.

There are many examples of workers' centers across the United States. The Chicago Interfaith Workers Rights Center organizes heavily around churches. The Carolina Alliance for Fair Employment (CAFÉ) works with day laborers, recruiting heavily in immigrant soccer leagues. Restaurant Opportunities Center - New York (ROC NY) organizes around the food industry, trying to make many connections from farm to table as well as fighting for the huge but often not organized restaurant industry. Koreatown Immigrant Workers Advocates (KIWA) fights for Korean and Latino workers across the immigrant-heavy Koreatown in Los Angeles. Omaha Together One Community (OTOC) goes after mostly meatpackers, even getting a very conservative governor to give in to their demands and post workers bill of rights in every workplace. The New York Taxi Workers Alliance more or less functions as a union without the legal recognition. The Tenants and Workers Support Committee (TWSC) organizes all sorts of workers in Northern Virginia, but especially taxi drivers and domestic workers. Domestic Workers United in New York City unites a heavily fragmented workforce spread from house to house made up mainly of Caribbean immigrant women. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers fights for tomato pickers across Florida and have won big gains from fast food giants like McDonald's, Burger King, and Taco Bell. CASA Maryland works mainly with day laborers. The Vermont Workers' Center provides a place for alliance amongst organizations and individuals. The Miami Workers Center works internationally with Columbian labor groups. Mississippi Workers' Center for Human Rights places a human rights framework around workers rights. The New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice builds worker power and racial justice in the post-Katrina environment. These are the ones that stand out in Fine's book, though many more have arisen since it was published in 2006.


The worker center model put forth by Fine has many strengths and weaknesses. In general, they are good grassroots organizations that value building up their members and placing action and results above all else. They serve as a way for low-income workers to be able to organize for a better place in society when there is no help coming from outsiders. They also address the immediate needs that have to be filled and combine that with pushing for collective action and power from the bottom-up, thus the service, popular education, organizing and advocacy aspects of workers centers. Often, the staff and volunteers of the workers' centers come from the communities the centers work in, which is important from a leadership perspective.

One of the main weaknesses is that worker centers tend to not have a firm membership base. Their direct membership is often small in comparison to unions, though that is often because they have many informal members through the networks that they build and the communities they serve. Because of that, their funds tend to be low and they tend to have to rely economically on grants because they generally haven't, or don't want to, built ways of raising money due to the fact that many of the communities they organize with are poor. Workers' centers could also do better as far as networking goes, as there are only two major national workers' center networks right now: the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) with 30 workers' centers; and Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) which connects 14 workers' center through strong religious ties. In general, their relationship with mainstream labor like the AFL-CIO has been somewhat rocky because unions often regard the centers as not being disciplined enough and not strategic and the centers see the unions as being too rigid tactically and top-down. However, labor has been moving to endorse workers' centers as a legitimate part of the labor movement. An example of this is the NDLON partnering with the AFL-CIO in 2006.

When I went to the Jobs With Justice (JWJ) 2008 national conference in Providence, Rhode Island, Terence Courtney of Atlanta JWJ remarked that in the last three years, JWJ and the labor movement in general seemed to have gotten more radical in embracing alternative forms of organizing with people directly effected by today's poor economy. Unions and groups like workers' centers have reached a more equal footing in the last three years, according to Courtney. I agreed with him, as low-wage worker organizations seemed to have a key role amongst the workshops and speakers that day, as opposed to mostly unions and their direct allies as it was back in 2005. It appears that JWJ has taken a major step forward in recognizing that because of the bad position American unions currently find themselves in, there's a big void that can and should be filled by workers' groups. That is especially true here in Philadelphia, where there is a big need for a group that would combine organizing with service and advocacy. A workers' center would fill that need perfectly.

This book provides a good general overveiw into sexual harassment. It also provides details as to what an employer should do to limit liability. Beyond that it gives examples of interveiws and ideas for implementing a policy. This is a good choice for those without an extensive HR department who need a general guide. Lost one star because it is not a be all end all guide, but I doubt that was the intention.

Despite the fascinating interviews with vengeful and forgiving victims and with remarkable authorities, I almost dropped this halfway through, because Blumenfeld's drama-queen personality and self-indulgent writing style were getting hard to take; ultimately the book did not ring true for me. I stuck with it partly hoping to see the author (and her mother) get their come-uppance (hmmm...reader's revenge?). I felt truly sorry for her father (diminished more by her portrayal than by the shooter's action), and for her new husband, who kept a record indicating one out of four days in their new marriage was 'insufferable and intolerable.' (Her actions even made me feel sorry for Netanyahu!)

Yet Laura plowed on -- oblivious to anyone else's needs or discomfort, deceiving and constantly manipulating people, cooly describing and then rationalizing her behavior, and scrutinizing her own tiresome emotional navel. Self-display is not the same thing as honesty or insight.

Many reviewers are entranced by her writing -- and she has a really fine eye for telling detail, and at times turns a remarkable, poetic phrase -- but too often I found her writing felt forced, overwrought, or repetitive.

Not really a book I can recommend.

You fool; you insensitive--no, malevolently cruel fool: You can wax philosophic and even have a point. But there are times when such an intellectual exercise is inhumane to the extreme. This woman is writing about something intensely personal, about a loved one who was targeted for death. Your dragging politics into this is ugly and self-centered. Yes, YOU are self-centered and self-righteous, not the author. You are also half-baked; you didn't even read the summary of the book right here on Amazon. You pathetically lazy pseudo-intellectual. If you had read the summary, let alone the book (imagine that), you would in fact have found that the author forced herself to overcome her pain and proceeded to familiarize herself up close and personal with the sorrow of the Palestinian people. But that would refute your hateful thesis. Yes, you read me right: She develops compassion for the man who committed the crime, exactly because of the sad history you glibly cite. How many of us would have the emotional courage to do that?! And you, glib one, have you survived a shooting? Has one of your loved ones? Did you then go out and research the historic grievances of the would-be murderer? Is it not amazing that this woman did? But you are too blind to see what's before your very eyes, because your hatred clouds your vision; it even stops you from reading further: As soon as your prejudice is "confirmed," you perceive no need to read any further. Your comment exemplifies how the radical Left is just as malevolent and hateful as the radical Right. Radicals are blinded by hatred and the world suffers as a result. I don't think you will ever understand the human condition at any level unless misfortune comes your way, and you most certainly deserve such a "learning experience" in the happy event that someone with an axe to grind with the group with whom you affiliate goes after you. I hope you survive, so that you can spend the rest of your life wallowing in self-pity. That's all you would do: The lesson would be lost on you. You coward. Your ugly "wisdom" will crumble like a rotten log should you be unfortunate enough to experience what the author did. And, yes, I survived a drive-by shooting (with bullets penetrating my stomach, limbs and major arteries, the MDs were never quite sure how I lived through surgery I had lost so much blood) committed by someone who had a general grievance that was old-school racist in nature. Should I perhaps apologize for this criminal, explaining that neo-Nazis have their grievances and we have been remiss in addressing them?! Absurd comparison? I am making a point, Einstein. "Moral" apologetics are bankrupt in both cases: Thou shalt not kill, regardless of how angry you might be. This is not a religious precept: It is a basic human axiom that governs acceptable behaviour. You are wretched to miss that simple point. Remember, the extreme right hates you as much as it hates me. Shame on you, if you have the belated decency to even feel that level of remorse.

Researched info. and ideas on taking revenge.
Makes one sit back and think.
Trouble putting the book down because I had to find out what was going to happen. Yes, suspensful!
A good book to read for anyone. If one is feeling revengeful, it would be helpful to read this book.

I really enjoyed this touching narrative. The insights into a Palestinian family were great and the reader learns a lot about the best of Arab culture. We also learned about Jewish culture as well and it's strong points. Laura did something unprecendented and her story is superb.

I do think Laura is a little too self-centered. My experience is that peace comes from being able to put yourself in others shoes and showing genuine empathy ( not sympathy ). I would have liked to see Laura show she can understand Palestinian's point of view. Might is not right and money can not buy freedom. All people have humanity that should be respected. The books shows this which is good.

How does one begin to describe a book that is at once a courageous odyssey of the mind and heart, an educational primer on the taking of revenge, a cornucopia of vivid personalities, an examination of the morality behind the world's responses to outrage, a journalistic investigation of a crime, a peek into familial dynamics, and a penetrating in-depth look into the soul of its author--warts, neuroses, and conflicted yearnings all on prominent display. "Revenge: a story of hope" by Laura Blumenfeld (a reporter for the Washington Post), is all of these things, as well as being a riveting, emotional, occasionally hilarious page turner. The story is set in motion in 1986 when the author's father is shot by a terrorist as he walked the streets of Jerusalem. Though not seriously injured, this act wounded his daughter's sensibilities deeply. A college student at the time, she wrote a poem about the incident, addressed to the terrorist that ended with a promise for revenge:

". . . this hand will find you--I am his daughter."

This unsettling idea remained in the back of her mind, needling her, until 12 years later she and her new husband moved to Israel for a year, setting in motion her inchoate plan to exact retribution. Plan? More like an ill-focused need or desire in search of a goal. She proceeded to read what she could get her hands on about the subject of vengeance, while taking trips all over Europe and the Middle East talking to individuals who had lost loved ones to acts of vengeance, to individuals who had taken revenge, to purported experts on the subject, to religious and philosophical leaders, to heads of State, to strangers on the street, to friends, to family, and finally to the shooters family. Along the way she meets a would-be avenger for the Holocaust who planned to poison tens of thousand of random Germans in an act of collective revenge--who nonetheless thought the idea of personal vengeance to be criminal. She interviews Anez abu Salim, a Bedouin Tribesman, who achieved revenge by composing a poem recounting how his wife had betrayed him. She slips into the holy city of Qom, Iran while in disguise (not at a little risk to herself, being Jewish, foreign, and a woman) to ask a Grand Ayatollah whether, according to precepts of Islam, she was entitled to revenge. All of this is fascinating reading, giving the reader a clear sense of how far man has yet to travel before finding a balance between the competing needs of retribution, compassion, and order--a distance so great that the book might have left a despairing taste--if not what lies at the heart of this volume. It is the author's personal journey that ultimately buoys this work, propelled by an earnest openness and accessible prose, as we follow her through some surprisingly neurotic detours while her thoughts slowly coalesce into an idiosyncratic plan of action--a form of "revenge" that is almost as surprising as it proves cathartic and profoundly moving. I can hardly conceive of an individual (outside of the odd terrorist) who will not find this odyssey through the desert of despair to an oasis of reconciliation and hope utterly compelling.