tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/labor-relations-84240/articlesLabor relations – La Conversation2024-02-06T13:30:14Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2180282024-02-06T13:30:14Z2024-02-06T13:30:14ZDriving the best possible bargain now isn’t the best long-term strategy, according to game theory<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572022/original/file-20240129-15-8tbwf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C10%2C6669%2C4456&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There is such a thing as a win-win deal.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/employee-people-at-modern-office-royalty-free-image/1302423098">nortonrsx/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Conventional wisdom says that you should never leave money on the table when negotiating. But research in my field suggests this could be exactly the wrong approach. </p>
<p>There’s <a href="https://hbr.org/2019/09/a-new-approach-to-contracts">mounting evidence</a> that a short-term win at the bargaining table can mean a loss in terms of overall trust and cooperation. That can leave everyone – including the “winner” – worse off.</p>
<p>As a former executive, I’ve managed large contracts as both a buyer and a seller. Now, as a <a href="https://haslam.utk.edu/people/profile/kate-vitasek">business professor</a>, I study these trading partner relationships, exploring what works in practice. My work supports what economic theorists and social scientists have been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-493X.2008.00051.x">arguing for years</a>: The best results come when people collaborate to create long-term value instead of fighting for short-term wins.</p>
<h2>What game are you playing?</h2>
<p>Research into art, science and practice of collaborative approaches dates <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691130613/theory-of-games-and-economic-behavior">back to the 1940s</a> when the mathematician John von Neumann and economist Oskar Morgenstern used mathematical analysis to model competition and cooperation in living things. </p>
<p>Interest in collaborative approaches grew when researchers John Nash, John C. Harsanyi and Reinhard Selten won a <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1994/summary/">Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences</a> in 1994. Their work inspired academics around the world to delve deeper into what’s known as <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/game-theory/">game theory</a>.</p>
<p>Game theory is the study of the outcome of strategic interactions among decision makers. By using rigorous statistical methods, researchers can model what happens when people choose to cooperate or choose to take an aggressive, power-based approach to negotiation.</p>
<p>Many business leaders are taught strategies focusing on <a href="https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/shift-of-power-balance-in-business">using their power</a> and playing to win – often at the other party’s expense. In game theory, this is known as a <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zero-sum">zero-sum game</a>, and it’s an easy trap to fall into.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Kate Vitasek lays out five rules for developing a value creation strategy.</span></figcaption>
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<p>But not every game has a clear winner or loser. In economics, a win-win game is called a nonzero-sum game. In this sort of situation, people aren’t fighting over whose slice of a pie will be larger. They’re working to grow the pie for everyone.</p>
<p>A second dimension of game theory is whether people are playing a one-shot or a repeated game. Think of a one-shot game as like going to the flea market: You probably won’t see your trading partner again, so if you’re a jerk to them, the risk of facing the consequences is low.</p>
<p>An interesting twist uncovered by studying repeated games is that when one party uses their power in a negotiation, it creates the urge for the other party to retaliate. </p>
<p>The University of Michigan’s Robert Axelrod, a mathematician turned game theorist, coined this a <a href="https://ee.stanford.edu/%7Ehellman/Breakthrough/book/pdfs/axelrod.pdf">“tit-for-tat” strategy</a>. His research, perhaps best known in the book “<a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/robert-axelrod/the-evolution-of-cooperation/9780465005642">The Evolution of Cooperation</a>,” uses statistics to show that when individuals cooperate, they come out better than when they don’t. </p>
<h2>The case for leaving money on the table</h2>
<p>Another Nobel laureate, American economist <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2009/williamson/facts/">Oliver Williamson</a>, has offered negotiating <a href="https://www.vestedway.com/unpacking-oliver/">advice</a> that most would call a paradigm shift – and some, a heresy. </p>
<p>That advice? Always leave money on the table – especially when you’ll be returning to the same “game” again. Why? According to Williamson, it sends a powerful signal of trustworthiness and credibility to one’s negotiating partner when someone consciously chooses to cooperate and build trust. </p>
<p>The opposite approach leads to lost trust and what the Nobel laureate economist Oliver Hart calls “shading.” This is <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/hart/files/contractsasreferencepointsqje.pdf">a retaliatory behavior</a> that happens when a party isn’t getting the outcome it expected from a deal and feels the other party is to blame. </p>
<p>Simply put, noncollaborative approaches cause distrust and create friction, which adds transaction costs and inefficiencies.</p>
<p>The million-dollar question is whether collaborative approaches work in practice. And from my vantage point as a scholar, the answer is yes. In fields as diverse as <a href="https://www.vestedway.com/island-health/">health care</a> to <a href="https://www.vestedway.com/intel/">high-tech</a>, I see growing real-world evidence backing up the insights of game theory.</p>
<p>The lessons are simple yet profound: Playing a game together to achieve mutual interests is better than playing exclusively with self-interest in mind.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218028/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Vitasek works for the University of Tennessee where she studies and teaches organizations how to create win-win collaborative contracts. Her original research between 2003 and 2009 was funded by the United States Air Force.</span></em></p>‘Winning’ in negotiations isn’t always the best approach.Kate Vitasek, Professor of supply chain management, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1623342021-09-03T12:37:44Z2021-09-03T12:37:44ZSlavery was the ultimate labor distortion – empowering workers today would be a form of reparations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418876/original/file-20210901-16-nd6f8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4308%2C2360&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Labor violations disproportionately affect Black Americans.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/labor-groups-and-workers-including-john-beard-with-the-la-news-photo/567385215?adppopup=true">Katie Falkenberg/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The conversation about reparations for slavery entered a new stage earlier in 2021, with the U.S. House Judiciary Committee <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/04/14/986853285/house-lawmakers-advance-historic-bill-to-form-reparations-commission">voting for the creation of a commission</a> to address the matter.</p>
<p>The bill, <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/40">H.R. 40</a>, has been introduced every Congress since 1989 by Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and John Conyers, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/10/27/773919009/john-conyers-jr-who-represented-michigan-for-5-decades-dies-at-90">until his death in 2019</a>. But this year marks the first time that its request to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans has cleared the committee stage. </p>
<p>Calls to redress the lasting impact of slavery and racial discrimination have been amplified recently following further evidence of the impact of systemic racism – both through the <a href="https://covidtracking.com/race">disproportionate effect of COVID-19 on the Black community</a> and the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others at the hands of U.S. police.</p>
<h2>Disruption of labor relations</h2>
<p>To many, the question going forward is not so much whether or not reparations are in order, but what kinds of reparations might be appropriate.</p>
<p>Most of the conversation to date has focused on reparations in terms of payouts of some form. Prominent author <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/">Ta-Nehisi Coates</a>, in a powerful argument for reparations, said payments must be made by white America to Black America – much as <a href="https://qz.com/1915185/how-germany-paid-reparations-for-the-holocaust/">Germany started paying Israel in 1952</a> to compensate for the persecution of Jews by the Nazis.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://divinity.vanderbilt.edu/people/bio/joerg-rieger">scholar who has written on economic justice and the labor movement</a>, I agree that reparations must have economic substance, because the impact of racism is inherently linked with power and money. But my <a href="https://chalicepress.com/products/unified-we-are-a-force">research suggests another model</a> for reparations: If one of the most significant aspects of slavery – even if not the only one – was a massive disruption of labor relations, then a crucial part in the reparations discussion could involve reshaping the labor relationship between employers and employees today. </p>
<p>I believe such a reshaping of the labor relationship would substantially benefit the descendants of enslaved people in the United States. Labor, as my research has argued, has implications for all aspects of life and labor reform would, I believe, address many of the problems of structural racism as well. In addition, reshaping the labor relationship would also have positive effects for all working people, <a href="https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/findings/country-studies/united-states/">including those who still experience enslavement today</a>. </p>
<h2>Growing racial wage gap</h2>
<p>Labor relations can be considered “distorted” when one party profits disproportionally at the expense of another. In other words, it is a departure from a “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26159/26159-h/26159-h.htm">fair day’s pay for a fair days’s work</a>” – a concept that forms a bedrock demand of the labor movement, alongside good working conditions.</p>
<p>This is not just a matter of money but also of power. Under the conditions of slavery, the distortion of labor relations was nearly complete. Slave owners pocketed the profits and claimed absolute power, while slaves had to obey and risk life and limb for no compensation.</p>
<p>Black Americans continue to be disadvantaged in the labor market today. As CEO compensation <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-compensation-surged-14-in-2019-to-21-3-million-ceos-now-earn-320-times-as-much-as-a-typical-worker/">soars</a>, the number of Black CEOs remains remarkably low – there were just <a href="https://fortune.com/longform/fortune-500-black-ceos-business-history/">four Black CEOs at Fortune 500 companies</a> as of March 2021. In general, the wage gap between Black and white employees <a href="https://www.epi.org/blog/black-white-wage-gaps-are-worse-today-than-in-2000/">has grown in recent years</a>. Fueling these disparities, as well as building on them, is the structural racism that reparations could be designed to address.</p>
<p>Unionization can be a tool to rebalance labor relations and can <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4300995/">diminish this racial gap</a>, <a href="https://cepr.net/report/black-workers-unions-and-inequality/#five">studies have shown</a>. But union membership in general – and among Black workers in particular – has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/01/22/workers-are-fired-up-union-participation-is-still-decline-new-statistics-show/">declined in recent decades</a>. And a weaker labor movement is associated, studies show, with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/663673">greater racial wage disparity</a>. </p>
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<img alt="Black members of the Domestic Workers Union Members march down a road in protest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418983/original/file-20210901-13-vcj2s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418983/original/file-20210901-13-vcj2s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418983/original/file-20210901-13-vcj2s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418983/original/file-20210901-13-vcj2s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418983/original/file-20210901-13-vcj2s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418983/original/file-20210901-13-vcj2s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418983/original/file-20210901-13-vcj2s3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Unionization can help reduce the racial wage gap.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/domestic-workers-union-members-picketing-news-photo/534275792?adppopup=true">Joseph Schwartz/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Another tool to rebalance labor relations is worker-owned cooperatives, which have a <a href="http://johnjay.jjay.cuny.edu/newsroom/7396.php">long tradition in African American communities</a> as <a href="https://www.jjay.cuny.edu/faculty/jessica-gordon-nembhard">economist Jessica Gordon Nembhard</a> has noted. From early on, she points out, “African Americans realized that without economic justice – without economic equality, independence and stability … social and political rights were hollow, or actually not achievable.” Gordon Nembhard’s work also shows that such cooperatives were often fought and ultimately destroyed because they were so successful in empowering African American communities. </p>
<h2>A ‘more permanent’ solution</h2>
<p>Some in the labor movement are beginning to link reparations with union rights. Labor <a href="https://dsgchicago.com/">lawyer Thomas Geoghegan</a> has suggested that the proposed Protecting the Right to Organize Act, a bill before Congress that would strengthen workers’ rights and weaken anti-union right-to-work laws, should be viewed as “a practical form of Black reparations.” He argued in <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/160530/labor-law-reform-racial-equality-protecting-right-organize-act">an article for The New Republic</a> that wealth redistribution through union membership is “more permanent and lasting than a check written out as Black reparations, however much deserved, and far more likely to get a return over time.”</p>
<p>While there is considerable disagreement about the profits employers should be able to make from the labor of their employees, there is little disagreement about the wrongness of practices like outright <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/employers-steal-billions-from-workers-paychecks-each-year/">wage theft</a> – which today takes the form of employers not paying part or all promised wages or paying less than mandated minimum wage. Even those who rarely worry about employers making too much profit would for the most part likely agree that wage theft is wrong. Agreement on this matter takes us back to slavery, which might be considered the ultimate wage theft.</p>
<p>Addressing the ongoing legacy of slavery and systemic racism requires not only economic solutions but also improving labor relations and protecting workers against wage discrimination, disempowerment at work, and violations such as wage theft that <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/employers-steal-billions-from-workers-paychecks-each-year/">disproportionately affect workers of color</a>.</p>
<p>Reparations that fail to pay attention to improving labor relations may not achieve economic equality. The reparations paid to Israel by Germany, for instance, have not helped to achieve economic equality – the Israeli economy is still, alongside the U.S.’s, among the <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2015/05/21/news/economy/worst-inequality-countries-oecd/">most unequal in the developed world</a>, with the richest 10% of each country’s population earning more than 15 times that of the poorest.</p>
<p>Simple monetary payouts are not, I believe, sufficient to solve the problem of racial inequality. Wage theft can again serve as the example here. While repaying stolen wages – as <a href="https://apnews.com/article/76a9403fe9dc4c2daf8a52c38e16284c">New York state did in 2018</a> by returning $35 million to workers – is commendable, repaying stolen wages does not in itself change the skewed relationships between employer and employee that enable wage theft in the first place. Greater empowerment of working people is needed to do that.</p>
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<h2>Benefiting others as well</h2>
<p>So while redistributing money can be part of the solution, it may not go far enough.</p>
<p>Tying reparations to the improvement of labor relations – which can happen through the empowerment of working people or the promotion of <a href="http://www.usworker.coop/home">worker-owned cooperatives</a> – would not only help those most affected by wealth and employment gaps, Black Americans, it would also <a href="http://www.co-opsnow.org">benefit others who have traditionally been discriminated against</a> in employment, such as women, immigrants and many other working people. </p>
<p>Improving labor relations would address systemic racial discrimination where it is often most destructive and painful: at work, where people spend the bulk of their waking hours, and where the economic well-being of families and by extension entire communities can be decided.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joerg Rieger is supporting the work of worker cooperatives, including the Southeast Center for Cooperative Development, which is hyperlinked at the end of the piece. He is not on any of their boards and he is not receiving any remuneration.</span></em></p>Rebalancing labor relations so that workers are empowered would be an effective way to address racial wealth disparities and atone for the legacy of slavery, a scholar argues.Joerg Rieger, Professor of Theology, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1402272020-06-12T20:57:52Z2020-06-12T20:57:52ZPolice unions are one of the biggest obstacles to transforming policing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341533/original/file-20200612-153845-iip80o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=54%2C50%2C2760%2C1741&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protesters in front of Boston Police Headquarters during a United Against Racist Police Terror Rally on June 7, 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protesters-approach-in-front-of-boston-police-headquarters-news-photo/1218632760?adppopup=true">Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Protesters and community organizers are increasingly calling for <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-06-09/what-does-it-mean-to-defund-the-police-or-disband-the-police">defunding and disbanding the police</a> as a way to end police violence. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2426-the-end-of-policing">Advocates</a> argue that moderate reforms like enhanced training and greater community oversight have failed to curb police violence and misconduct. </p>
<p>But there’s a major, and usually insurmountable, obstacle to reform: police unions. <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/gwlr85&div=23&id=&page=">Research</a> suggests that these unions play a critical role in thwarting the transformation of police departments. </p>
<p>Union officials like John McNesby in Philadelphia, where I live and work as <a href="http://www.jillmccorkel.com/">a scholar of law and the criminal justice system</a>, do not deny this. Over the course of his <a href="https://www.phillymag.com/news/2019/02/23/john-mcnesby-fop-police-philadelphia/">12-year career</a> as president of the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, he has derided the city’s civilian review board and predicted in 2010 that beefed-up misconduct procedures would wind up “… <a href="https://www.phillymag.com/news/2019/02/23/john-mcnesby-fop-police-philadelphia/">at the bottom of the litter box</a>.” </p>
<p>He was right. The union has <a href="https://billypenn.com/2019/12/20/phillys-negotiating-a-new-police-contract-can-the-city-get-reforms-past-the-fop-union/">successfully petitioned</a> the Pennsylvania State Labor Relations board to overturn tougher disciplinary measures.</p>
<p>Philadelphia’s police union is not alone in its power to maintain the status quo. In cities and states across the U.S., the benefits and protections afforded police <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/06/us/police-unions-minneapolis-kroll.html">have been provided by public officials</a> who have catered – and caved – to union demands over many decades.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341328/original/file-20200611-80766-1vq5szk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341328/original/file-20200611-80766-1vq5szk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341328/original/file-20200611-80766-1vq5szk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341328/original/file-20200611-80766-1vq5szk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341328/original/file-20200611-80766-1vq5szk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341328/original/file-20200611-80766-1vq5szk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341328/original/file-20200611-80766-1vq5szk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Philadelphia police union head John McNesby addressed the Black Lives Matter protests in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-a-reaction-to-a-black-lives-matter-rally-posted-outside-news-photo/842636568?adppopup=true">Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Lack of accountability</h2>
<p>Across the United States, police are shielded from both public and departmental accountability by multiple layers of contractual and legislative protections. Nearly all of these measures reflect the political will and political might of <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/stanlp28&div=7&id=&page=">police unions</a>.</p>
<p>Measures that discourage accountability vary by jurisdiction, but typically include some combination of collective bargaining agreements, civil service protections, a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/04/24/the-police-officers-bill-of-rights/">Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights</a> and discrete legislative statutes. </p>
<p>Taken together, they afford police greater procedural safeguards than citizens suspected of a crime have and offer more employment assurances than are available to other public servants. </p>
<p>They also make efforts to deter brutality and corruption all but impossible. </p>
<p>Commissioners seeking to tighten disciplinary protocols in departments plagued by police violence and misconduct have terminated officers only to see them <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/a/philadelphia-police-problem-union-misconduct-secret-20190912.html">reinstated</a> in arbitration. </p>
<p>So-called “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/12/18/us/chicago-police-misconduct-records/index.html">purge clauses</a>” require departments to remove all records of disciplinary actions against officers after periods of time typically ranging from <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/559fbf2be4b08ef197467542/t/5773f695f7e0abbdfe28a1f0/1467217560243/Campaign+Zero+Police+Union+Contract+Report.pdf">two to five years</a>. This can stymie the ability of external investigators to discover and analyze patterns of misconduct in a department. Following the police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland, investigators from the Department of Justice had to obtain a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/crt/legacy/2015/05/27/cleveland_agreement_5-26-15.pdf">consent decree</a> to gain access to disciplinary records that were buried behind purge clauses. </p>
<p>Legislative protections and union contracts erode the ability of <a href="https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4586&context=buffalolawreview">civilian review</a> boards to operate as an external check on police power. In <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-cr-police-reforms-20200612-cy63mihhjndvjparmkmoazil3m-story.html">Maryland</a>, civilians are not allowed to participate in an investigation of a law enforcement officer. And in Newark, New Jersey, the <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Newark-ruling.pdf">police union sued and won</a> when the city attempted to give its civilian review board disciplinary powers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341334/original/file-20200611-80762-1hn4f4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/341334/original/file-20200611-80762-1hn4f4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341334/original/file-20200611-80762-1hn4f4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341334/original/file-20200611-80762-1hn4f4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341334/original/file-20200611-80762-1hn4f4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341334/original/file-20200611-80762-1hn4f4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/341334/original/file-20200611-80762-1hn4f4g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Recent legislation has made it difficult for the public to view body camera footage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/los-angeles-police-department-officer-wears-a-body-camera-news-photo/695011490?adppopup=true">ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Closed doors, entrenched protections</h2>
<p>In general, the terms of employment for police officers are dictated by <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/bclr32&div=10&id=&page=">state-level civil service protections</a> that extend to all public employees. State labor laws facilitate the collective bargaining process and provide opportunities for public employees to challenge managerial decisions. </p>
<p>Collective bargaining agreements – union contracts – further refine the terms and conditions of employment for law enforcement officers in thousands of jurisdictions across the country. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3890&context=dlj">These agreements do more than just establish basic parameters</a> governing salaries, raises and overtime pay. They also dictate how investigations into officer misconduct will be carried out, the types of disciplinary measures available to departments and avenues of redress for officers seeking to overturn or evade sanction. In all but <a href="https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=3890&context=dlj">eight states</a>, contract negotiations with police unions take place behind closed doors, outside the purview of journalists and the public.</p>
<p>Many agreements declare that officers will not be immediately interrogated following an incident in which the officer’s use of force, including deadly force, is being investigated. They limit the length of interrogations, the time of day they occur and the number of interrogators. They allow officers to have a union representative or attorney present. And, unlike civilians suspected of a crime, officers are entitled to review all the evidence against them prior to submitting to questioning.</p>
<p>Other contracts require <a href="https://www.joincampaignzero.org/contracts">that civilians</a> pursuing a complaint provide sworn statements, videotaped testimony or agree to cross-examination by an officer’s representatives. In <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/559fbf2be4b08ef197467542/t/55a26ccbe4b02ee06b2a8571/1436708043810/AustinPoliceContract.pdf">Austin, Texas</a>, officers under investigation can be present during a complainant’s testimony before an otherwise private hearing of the city’s civilian review board. <a href="https://journals-sagepub-com.ezp1.villanova.edu/doi/pdf/10.1177/1098611115613320">Research</a> suggests that these requirements can have a chilling effect on the willingness of civilians to file a complaint, or, once filed, see it through the adjudication process. </p>
<p>Even when investigations bear fruit, their impact is blunted. <a href="https://www.luc.edu/law/faculty/facultyandadministrationprofiles/rushin-stephen.shtml">Stephen Rushin</a>, a law professor at Loyola University, recently conducted one of the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3134718">largest studies to date</a> of police union contracts. Over 70% of collective bargaining agreements allow officers sanctioned for misconduct to appeal to an arbiter. The arbiter’s decision is binding and overrides the decisions and recommendations of supervisors, police officials and civilian review boards. </p>
<p>In jurisdictions like Philadelphia where the Fraternal Order of Police has a hand in selecting the arbiter, the officer appealing sanction prevails at least <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/a/philadelphia-police-problem-union-misconduct-secret-20190912.html">two-thirds</a> of the time and receives no, or little, punishment. </p>
<h2>Extra protection for police</h2>
<p>Sixteen states have passed some version of a legislative package known as the <a href="https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=3890&context=dlj">Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights</a>. This legislation incorporates the provisions found in many collective bargaining agreements and extends blanket protections to police officers throughout the state. For example, departments are prevented from publicly identifying officers under investigation and, if an officer is cleared, the department cannot acknowledge that an investigation ever took place.</p>
<p>States that have not passed the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights have nonetheless <a href="https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=3890&context=dlj">enacted legislation</a> that extends similar kinds of protections. This includes laws that prevent the public from accessing disciplinary records, personnel files and body camera footage. </p>
<p>These laws make it difficult for researchers and journalists to document and analyze misconduct. And they create substantial barriers for communities seeking to address police violence and racial discrimination. </p>
<p>Politicians on both sides of the aisle have been, for most of the last three decades, <a href="https://law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/SLPR-Vol.-28-1-Bies.pdf">enthusiastic proponents of legislation</a> that hides collective bargaining agreements from public view and denies citizens access to relevant employment information about the officers who patrol their neighborhoods. </p>
<p>One reason they respond so well to police demands: campaign donations by police unions. </p>
<p>Former D.C. police chief and former Philadelphia police commissioner Charles Ramsey <a href="https://lite.cnn.com/en/article/h_4fdb1fe07f803564aa91bf0e7ba18236">recently told CNN</a> that police and their unions have “become far too powerful. They form political action committees. They donate to district attorneys’ race or state attorneys’ race, state senators and representatives and so forth.”</p>
<p>“And then we wonder why you can’t get anything done.” </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140227/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jill McCorkel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Across the United States, police are shielded from both public and departmental accountability by multiple layers of contractual and legislative protections.Jill McCorkel, Professor of Sociology and Criminology, Villanova UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1341182020-03-20T17:12:01Z2020-03-20T17:12:01ZWorkers left out of government and business response to the coronavirus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321747/original/file-20200319-22594-8ned51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=286%2C73%2C5177%2C3563&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Donald Trump shakes hands with Walmart CEO Doug McMillon at a White House press conference joining government and corporate officials – but no representatives of workers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Trump-Virus-Outbreak/b8e1d659981c4a25a70d023532abefd5/42/0">AP Photo/Alex Brandon</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the coronavirus crisis unfolds, workers and families around the country are finding out how weak the U.S. social safety net is. </p>
<p>Nearly <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-shocking-number-of-americans-are-living-paycheck-to-paycheck-2020-01-07">three-quarters of Americans</a> live paycheck to paycheck. About <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ebs2.pdf">30% of the workforce</a> lacks employer-paid health insurance. <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-workplaces-are-nowhere-near-ready-to-contain-a-coronavirus-outbreak-131102">One-third of workers lack paid sick leave</a>. Most of those working in the self-employed economy as independent contractors <a href="https://www.thebalancecareers.com/can-i-collect-unemployment-if-i-m-self-employed-2064148">don’t even qualify for unemployment</a> benefits.</p>
<p>Those are the people who will most need whatever emergency relief may be coming from the government or their employers. But at the moment, they have no direct voice in the amount, or form, that aid may come in. </p>
<p>I have <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=QfH1gOcAAAAJ">studied work and employment relations</a> for over 40 years and worked directly with employers and unions to build partnerships capable of solving their most difficult problems. Lawmakers representing working-class communities, <a href="https://aflcio.org/covid-19">union lobbyists</a> and advocates for the poor are doing what they can to get help, but they seem to be on the sidelines. </p>
<p>President Donald Trump has repeatedly <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-vice-president-pence-coronavirus-briefing-airline-ceos/">trumpeted his interaction with corporate leaders</a> to help address this crisis – but never said a word about talking with labor leaders about what support workers might provide.</p>
<p>The lessons of U.S. history and the actions of other countries right now suggest there are opportunities for government, business and workers to collaborate on ways to get through this crisis. That effort may, as it has in the past, also lay the groundwork for a new, more inclusive social contract that better prepares society for future crises and gives Americans better lives during good times as well.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321749/original/file-20200319-22590-1kovpco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321749/original/file-20200319-22590-1kovpco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321749/original/file-20200319-22590-1kovpco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321749/original/file-20200319-22590-1kovpco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321749/original/file-20200319-22590-1kovpco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321749/original/file-20200319-22590-1kovpco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321749/original/file-20200319-22590-1kovpco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321749/original/file-20200319-22590-1kovpco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Workers at an Illinois Buick car plant converted for war production line up cylinder barrels for quality control inspection in 1942.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cylinder-barrels-lined-up-for-inspection-at-buick-plant-news-photo/982764832">GHI/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>A wartime footing</h2>
<p>The historical lesson comes from World War II. As the U.S. entered the war in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called on leaders from business and labor to join the war effort. He created the <a href="https://www.financial-dictionary.info/terms/war-production-board-wpb/">National War Production Board</a> to convert the economy to meet the country’s wartime needs. He also set up the <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/national-war-labor-board-world-war-ii">National War Labor Board</a> to oversee workers’ relations with management, aiming to avoid production disruptions and keep prices stable. </p>
<p>Those joint efforts enabled the conversion of factories that <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/forge-of-freedom-american-aircraft-production-in-world-war-ii/oclc/32922220">increased production of military aircraft</a> so much that the country had roughly 3,000 planes before the war – and 300,000 by 1945. </p>
<p>The decisions of labor, business and government leaders in the War Labor Board also gave birth to many of the employment practices that created the <a href="https://www.businessexpertpress.com/books/shaping-future-work-what-future-worker-business-government-and-education-leaders-need-do-all-p/">post-war social contract</a>: Wage formulas tied pay raises to productivity and the cost of living; employers paid fringe benefits such as pensions and health insurance; and workers and owners agreed to arbitration to resolve disputes without strikes. </p>
<h2>The German approach to the coronavirus</h2>
<p>In Germany right now, as part of the economic response to the coronavirus pandemic, the government is seeking to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-germany-spahn/coronavirus-germany-promises-support-to-companies-urges-public-to-stay-home-idUSKBN20V0PK">avoid mass layoffs</a> by having employers and unions agree to shorten workers’ schedules. Unions and workers’ councils are discussing with industry leaders and company management how exactly to adjust production and worker needs. </p>
<p>In Sweden, Italy and Spain, unions, employers and governments have reached joint agreements <a href="https://www.etuc.org/en/trade-unions-and-coronavirus">dealing with worker safety, work hours and layoff benefits</a> in light of the coronavirus crisis. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321750/original/file-20200319-22594-betj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321750/original/file-20200319-22594-betj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321750/original/file-20200319-22594-betj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321750/original/file-20200319-22594-betj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321750/original/file-20200319-22594-betj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321750/original/file-20200319-22594-betj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321750/original/file-20200319-22594-betj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321750/original/file-20200319-22594-betj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A customer picks up takeout food from a restaurant in Houston, Texas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Virus-Outbreak-Texas/8af4daded96642ab8400adb542f72ac4/4/0">AP Photo/David J. Phillip</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Bringing the effort home to the US</h2>
<p>In my view, a similar effort could help the United States now. It will be a bit more complicated than in Europe because union-management relations are not as close here, but there is still a good opportunity.</p>
<p>Workers and companies in all sectors can contribute their skills, personnel and expertise to meet society’s new needs. For instance, manufacturers could help serve the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/nyregion/ny-coronavirus-ventilators.html">surging demand for ventilators</a> and other health care equipment.</p>
<p>Service-industry companies could have workers deliver care or aid to those most in need. For example, hotels and universities with dorms empty of students who have gone home could <a href="https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/18315197.daresbury-park-hotel-offer-beds-hospital-accommodation-coronavirus-crisis/">offer lodging</a> to essential service staff working long hours, the homeless or others who need their own quarters. Many restaurants and their staff are <a href="https://chicago.eater.com/2020/3/18/21185611/dining-at-a-distance-delivery-takeout-directory-chicago-covid-coronavirus">offering takeout and delivery options</a> to families. Schools and teachers can, as many are already doing, work together with parents to <a href="https://www.aft.org/press/nyt">home-school children</a>. </p>
<p>Even within the health care industry, there are opportunities for worker-employer partnerships. For instance, unions could reach out to mobilize retired staffers and those in union-led training programs, to bring them to the front lines where they’re needed. Workers’ councils could help redeploy existing staff to fill urgent shortages and coordinate support services for those who will be pulling long hours. Right now, a major hospital and union in Seattle are developing a way to provide backup child care for workers who need the help.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321752/original/file-20200319-22598-1m502pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321752/original/file-20200319-22598-1m502pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321752/original/file-20200319-22598-1m502pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321752/original/file-20200319-22598-1m502pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321752/original/file-20200319-22598-1m502pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321752/original/file-20200319-22598-1m502pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321752/original/file-20200319-22598-1m502pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321752/original/file-20200319-22598-1m502pu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cleaning workers are among many groups who most likely will need – but often don’t have – paid sick leave from their jobs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Virus-Outbreak-Cleaning-Workers/049d2739f04f4c949cc55fee3dffe5db/1/0">AP Photo/Kathy Willens</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>As events unfold</h2>
<p>Looking ahead, workers and their unions in other industries could make sure government aid, temporary sick leave, family leave, unemployment pay, and other benefits and services get to those most in need.</p>
<p>My research shows that workers are <a href="https://gcgj.mit.edu/whats-new/blog/what-us-workers-want-labor-organization">eager to have a broader role</a> in corporate governance and decision-making. This could be accomplished, for instance, if government bailout funds were conditioned on workers having seats on corporate boards or establishing joint worker-management consultative councils or committees to help allocate the money.</p>
<p>Worker input could help ensure that the aid goes to keeping people employed as much as possible, and providing financial and other supports for those who are laid off. Then as recovery comes, these same representatives can help keep business and workers together with a new spirit of commitment to get the business and the economy going again.</p>
<p>By working together in these ways in this time of crisis, business and labor might just lay the groundwork for building a new social contract that fills the holes in the social safety net and forges relationships that will serve society well in the future.</p>
<p>[<em>You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-help">Read our newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134118/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Kochan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If government and business collaborate with workers, a scholar of labor relations writes, current economic problems could get less severe, the recovery smoother and lasting prosperity more likely.Thomas Kochan, Professor of Management, Co-Director of the MIT Sloan Institute for Work and Employment Research, MIT Sloan School of ManagementLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.