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Geography of Labor, Jobs, Employment, Careers, Work & 'Temping'

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(http://faculty.washington.edu/krumme/readings/labor.html)

"She (a "temporary hourly employee") sued in 1998 after being told to train another hourly employee to perform her (plaintiff's) duties because her (plaintiff's) job was being phased out."
Source: City of Bellevue settles 'permatemp' suit, Seattle Times, Friday, July 28, 2000 by Chris Solomon In a tentative agreement between temporary workers and the city, Bellevue will pay more than $700,000 to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by so-called "permatemps" who worked sometimes for years without paid vacations, health insurance and other benefits.

Related Pages:

Internet Sites:

now have such "alternative employment arrangements," according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It doesn't stop there: Government projections call for temporary staffing companies to grow 49 percent by 2010

Clippings:

Job Market: Temp jobs boom, have trade-offs Seattle Times, Sunday, July 28, 2002; By Maria M. Perotin; Knight Ridder Newspapers

'All told, 12.5 million U.S. workers - about 9.2% of the labor force - now have such "alternative employment arrangements," according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It doesn't stop there: Government projections call for temporary staffing companies to grow 49 percent by 2010 - adding 1.9 million new jobs, more than any other industry.'

Economy's new look puts unions on notice Seattle Times, February 12, 2001, by Kevin Galvin

In November 2000, workers at v Amazon.com launched organizing drives at distribution and customer-service centers from Seattle to New Castle, Del., hoping the the holiday shopping season would help the unions. However, Amazon reacted as swiftly as any Old Economy manufacturing firm would to the organizing drive. As resistance from the company grew, enthusiasm for a union flagged.

No-compete clause goes high-tech Seattle Times, August 9, 2000, Inside Eastside Business / Luke Timmerman

Noncompete agreements have been around for years, and employees and employers have always had to balance their opposing interests. But those interests have been amplified in the high-tech world, where loyalty is a stodgy concept and businesses can be broken when intellectual property walks out the door to the competition. Silicon Valley companies are especially worried about it, because noncompete agreements are illegal in California. They are legal in Washington and many other states if they aren't overly restrictive,...

When the Glitter of Stock Options Turns to Dust; New York Times, August 22, 1999 By ABBY ELLIN

After a huge run-up, the decline in Internet stocks since April has loosened the strongest ties that employees have to some risky young companies. Stock options, once limited to top executives, have become the new common currency in the technology world, but the wealth that many workers hoped their options would yield has sometimes become as insubstantial as smoke

French industry hamstrung by tough rules on overtime; Seattle Times, Thursday, December 10, 1998; by Anne Swardson The Washington Post

France is virtually the only developed country in the world where it is up to the state to make sure people don't work longer than the legal weekly limit - generally 39 hours, not including overtime. In a recent government crackdown, hundreds of labor inspectors have been counting cars after hours in parking lots, checking office entry-and-departure records and quizzing employees about their schedules. Several large companies have been fined for allowing employees, including managers, to stay longer than the legal limits on the regular workweek and overtime.

Work hard. Work fast. Seattle Times, Monday, October 19, 1998; by Sandy Shore The Associated Press

"Work harder. Work smarter. Be rewarded. From executive suites to assembly lines, employees increasingly are getting the chance to pocket extra money by giving a little more to the job. It can be as simple as showing up for work every day. Or, it can be exceeding production quotas or taking on extra responsibility, such as learning how to operate new equipment."

Would raise in minimum wage be blessing or threat? Seattle Times, Monday, October 19, 1998, by Jim Lynch

".... are watching Initiative 688 closely, but most of the voters who will decide the issue won't have a personal stake in its outcome.... For those working and hiring in that wage range, the proposed pay hike is a bombshell. The state's minimum pay would jump from $4.90 an hour to $5.70 an hour on Jan. 1, then to $6.50 an hour by 2000. After that, the minimum wage would rise with inflation....

Is it home or work? The line has blurred; Seattle Times, Monday, September 7, 1998; by Jodi Wilgoren

"Sixty years after Congress enacted the eight-hour workday, progress looks like this: ...while the booming economy and new technologies mean that work is spilling into the homes of millions of Americans, personal pursuits also are creeping into the office. The same devices that tether them to the job no matter where they are also let them play computer solitaire and buy airline tickets at their desks...."

Study says Americans have more free time, despite feeling rushed, Seattle Times, Thursday, June 5, 1997.

Nordstrom, Kmart, Wal-Mart, Lerner linked to sweatshop Seattle Times, Sunday, Dec. 14, 1997 by Beth Gardiner Associated Press

NEW YORK - Companies manufacturing clothes for four major national retailers sent some of the garments to two sweatshops that withheld at least $214,000 in wages from 73 workers, the United States Department of Labor said.

: "Temping": Temporary Employment:

Bendich, Stobaugh, and Strong (the law firm that represented the plaintiffs in Vizcaino v. Microsoft) on "permatemp" issues during the past session in Congress.

BSS has currently initiated class-action lawsuits on behalf of "permatemp" workers at several employers. For more information on any of these cases, please select the appropriate link....

Microsoft temp suit widens Seattle Times, May 13, 1999, by Jay Greene

A federal appeals court ruled that thousands of Microsoft temporary workers could participate in a class-action lawsuit seeking millions of dollars in retirement benefits from the software giant.

Web site review - 'Temp24-7': ***1/2 "Temp24-7" Flypaper Press http://www.temp24-7.com/ ; Seattle Times, Sunday, August 23, 1998; by Peter Lewis

"They may be at the bottom of the job food chain, but "temps" get respect at Temp 24-7, a well executed online community for temporary workers. Content turns over weekly - just as some temps do. It deftly combines self deprecating humor, gripes." The (Temp24-7) Web Site for Temporary Workers

Temps might appeal change in overtime rule ; Seattle Times, Thursday, Jan. 1, 1998 by Keith Ervin

Temporary employees in the software industry, concerned about a new state labor rule eliminating mandatory time-and-a-half pay for overtime, may appeal the rule to a legislative review committee.

Temporary fix at Microsoft? ; Seattle Times, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 1997; by Alex Fryer

"On Microsoft's Redmond campus, the distinctions between various classes of workers are clear, and part of the company lexicon. Permanent staffers are called "Blue Badges," the color of their magnetic passes. Temporaries hired from employment agencies are known as "A-dashes," the preface on their e-mail addresses...."

Software temps gain time to fight OT changes , Seattle Times, Dec. 10, 1997, By Keith Ervin

A proposal to take away time-and-a-half overtime pay from contract computer-software professionals has sparked protests from angry software workers, leading the state Department of Labor and Industries to reopen the public-comment period on the proposed rule change.
Employees and some companies within the software industry were startled to learn last Friday in The Seattle Times that L&I was considering the change and already had held a hearing and closed the comment period.
Temp employees - who sometimes refer to themselves as "permatemps" or "permalancers" because of their long-term contracts with high-tech firms - are not organized or represented by labor unions....

Tax bill seen as threat to workers' benefits; Seattle Times, Sunday, July 20, 1997 by Steven Greenhouse New York Times News Service

"In Congress and in thousands of workplaces, the nation's business community is seeking to change longstanding rules and practices to turn many people classified as employees into independent contractors - a move that could cause many Americans to lose health insurance and pension and unemployment insurance benefits."

Teaching students about labor: Teach-In | Politicians, activists and union leaders discussed the future of the labor movement at Hec Ed," The UW DAILY, May 27, 1997.

Temptations of temping: Contracting is becoming a new way of work life, especially at firms such as Microsoft Seattle Times, Monday, April 21, 1997

Tips for contract workers Seattle Times, Monday, April 21, 1997.

The Downsizing of America New York Times Special Report (7 part series, 1996/1997)

Given their druthers, women want to be home Front Porch Forum Seattle Times, Nov. 24, 1996 by Eric Pryne

Literature:

Employment Behaviors, Nature of Work

Telecommuting

Benner, Chris. Work in the New Economy: Flexible Labor Markets in Silicon Valley. Blackwell, 2002 [HD5725 C2 B46 2002/Suzz]

Blossfeld, Hans-Peter and Catherine Hakim, eds., Between Equalization and Marginalization: Women Working Part-Time in Europe and the United States of America. Oxford Univ.Press 1997. [HD4904.25.B47] [Blossfeld: Univ. of Bremen; Hakim: LSE]

Burda, M. and A. Mertens, "Locational Competition versus Cooperation in Labor Markets: An Implicit Contract Reinterpretation," in: Siebert, Horst, ed. Locational Competition in the World Economy. Symposium 1994. Tübingen: Mohr, 1995, pp.71ff. [HC79 D5 L633 1995]

Clark, Gordon L., Fluctuations and Rigidities in Local Labor Markets," Environment & Planning A, vol.15 (1983),

Delbridge, Rick. Life on the Line in Contemporary Manufacturing. (The workplace experience of lean production and the "Japanese" Model) Oxford UP, 1998.

Eberts, Randall W., and Joe A. Stone, Wage and Employment Adjustment in Local Labor Markets. Upjohn Institute.

England, Kim, ed., Who will mind the baby? : geographies of child care and working mothers. London ; New York : Routledge, 1996. Includes bibliographical references (p. 186-199) and index. Child-care -- Government-policy. Child-care-services -- United-States, Canada. [Social Work General Stacks HQ778.5 .W48 1996 Suzzallo General Stacks HQ778.5 .W48 1996]

England, K.V., Suburban Pink Collar Ghettos: The Spatial Entrapment of Women? Annals (AAG), 83 (1993), 225-42.

Evans, Karen; Martin Behrens and Jens Kaluza, Learning and Work in the Risk Society: Lessons for the Labour Markets of Europe from Eastern Germany. Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society: 2000. [distributed by Macmillan] [HD6278 G4 E93.2000]

Fischer, M.M. and P. Nijkamp, "Major Issues in Regional Labour Market Analysis," in Boyce, D.E. et al., eds., Regional Science: Retrospect and Prospect. 1991. [HT388.R44]

Hanson, Susan and Geraldine Pratt. Gender, Work and Space. London: Routledge, 1995.

Hanson, Susan and Geraldine Pratt, "Dynamic Dependencies: A Geographic Investigation of Local Labor Markets," Economic Geography 68(4), Oct. 1992, 373-405.

Hanson, Susan and Geraldine Pratt, Job Search and the Occupational Segregation of Women, Annals (AAG), 81 (1991), 229-53.

Hanson, Susan and Geraldine Pratt, Spatial Dimensions of the Gender Division of Labor in a Local Labor Market, Urban Geography, 9 (1988), 193-219.

Harrod, Jeffrey and Robert O.Brien, eds., Global Unions? Theory and Strategies of Organized Labour in the Global Political Economy. Routledge, 2002. [HD 6476 G586 2002/ Suzz]

Hayter, Roger and T. Barnes, "Labour Market Segmentation, Flexibility, and Recession: A British Columbian Case Study," Government and Policy 10(3). August 1992, 333-54.

Herod A., From a geography of labor to a labor geography: Labor's spatial fix and the geography of capitalism, ANTIPODE, 29: (1) 1-& JAN 1997

Mainstream neoclassical economic geography and its Marxist critique have largely failed to incorporate active conceptions of working class people in their explanations of the location of economic activities. Neoclassical approaches tend to conceive of workers simply as factors of location, whereas Marxist approaches primarily focus on how capital structures the economic landscape in its search for profit and frequently relegate labor to the status of ''variable capital.''

Herod, Andrew. Labor Geographies: Workers and the Landscapes of Capitalism. Guilford Press, 2001. (Pb)

Herod, Andrew. "Labor Unions and Economic Geography," in: Sheppard, Eric and Trevor J. Barnes, eds., A companion to economic geography. Oxford, UK ; Malden, Mass. : Blackwell Publishers, 2000 [Chapter 21, pp.341ff.] [Suzzallo/Allen Stacks HF1025 .C66 2000]

Herod, Andrew, editor; foreword by Richard A. Walker. Organizing the landscape : geographical perspectives on labor unions. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 1998 [Foster General Stacks HD6483 .O75 1998. xix, 372 p. : maps ; 23 cm

The spatiality of labor unions : a review essay / Andrew Herod -- Increasing the scale of things : labor's transnational spatial strategies and the geography of capitalism / Andrew Herod -- The geostrategics of labor in post Cold-War Eastern Europe : an examination of the activities of the International Metalworkers Federation / Andrew Herod -- Cowboys and dinosaurs : Mexican labor unionism and the state / Altha J. Cravey -- Japanese labor and the production of the space economy in an era of globalization / Robert Q. Hanham and Shawn Banasick -- Geographic mobility, place, and cultures of labor unionism / Andrew Herod -- Space, place, and tradition in working class organization / Jane Wills -- The scales of justice : localist ideology, large scale production, and agricultural labor's geography of resistance in 1930s California / Don Mitchell -- Political geographies of labor union organizing / Andrew Herod -- In your face, in your space : spatial strategies in organizing clerical workers at Yale / Lee Lucas Berman -- Geographies of organizing : justice for janitors in Los Angeles / Lydia A. Savage -- Labor unions and the making of economic geographies / Andrew Herod -- Rival unionism and the geography of the meatpacking industry / Brian Page -- "Working steady" : gender, ethnicity, and change in households, communities, and labor markets in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1930-1940 / Meghan Cope -- Investigating the local-global paradox : corporate strategy, union local autonomy, and community action in Chicago / Andrew E.G. Jonas

Herod, Andrew, "From a Geography of Labor to a Labor Geography: Labor's Spatial Fix and the Geography of Capitalism," Antipode 29(1), 1997, pp.1-31.

Paper assails past neglect of labor issues in geography, particularly the single-minded concentration on the role of capital by Marxist geographers. The author suggests that more emphasis should be placed on the way in which working class people "activily produce economic spaces and scales in particular ways .. as part of their own spatial fixes and thus of how working class people's spatial practices shape the location of economic activity and the economic geography of capitalism."

Hyclak, Thomas and Geraint Johnes, Wage Flexibility and Unemployment Dynamics in Regional Labor Markets. Upjohn Institute, 1992. ($11, paper)

Krumme, 1977, 1984 etc.

KENNETH LABICH; GERALD GREENWALD KENNETH LABICH; GERALD GREENWALD, "WHEN WORKERS REALLY COUNT: The United Airlines chief describes the challenge of piloting America's largest employee-owned company." Fortune, October 14, 1996

Martin, Ronald L., "Local Labour Markets: Their Nature, Performance, and Regulation, in: The Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography, Edited by GORDON L. CLARK, MARYANN P. FELDMAN, and MERIC S. GERTLER, Oxford (U.K.): Oxford University Press, 2000, Ch.23, pp.455ff.. [HF1025.O94.2000 (Suzzallo)]

McLafferty, S. and V. Preston, Gender, Race and Commuting Among Service Sector Workers, Professional Geographer 43 (1991), 1-15.

Philip Moss and Chris Tilly, "Raised Hurdles for Black Men: Evidence from Interviews with Employers" (Russell Sage Foundation: November 1995 [http://epn.org/sage/rstimo.html])

Murray, Emmett, ``The Lexicon of Labor'' American labor, from A to L to Z The New Press, $13.95 Seattle Times Review, Sunday, February 7, 1999 Books by Kevin J. Hamilton Special to The Seattle Times

"The Lexicon of Labor" is a recently published dictionary of the labor movement in America, inspired by a Washington State Labor Council pamphlet and written by longtime Seattle Times editor Emmett Murray. Organized alphabetically, the small book covers American labor history from A to Z..."

Oberhauser, Ann M., Feminism and Economic Geography: Gendering Work and Working Gender, in: Sheppard, Eric and Trevor J. Barnes, eds., A companion to economic geography. Oxford, UK ; Malden, Mass. : Blackwell Publishers, 2000 [Chapter 5, pp.60ff.] [Suzzallo/Allen Stacks HF1025 .C66 2000]

Ouaked, S. Transatlantic roundtable on high-skilled migration and sending countries issues. Table ronde transatlantique sur la migration tres qualifiee et les questions interessant les pays de depart. International-Migration. 2002; 40(4): 153-166

Peck, Jamie A., Reconceptualizing the Local Labor Market: Space, Segmentation and the State, Progress in Human Geography 13(1), 1989, 42-61.

Peck, Jamie, "Labor and Agglomeration: Control and Flexibility in Local Labor Markets," Economic Geography 68(4), October 1992, pp.325-47.

Peck, Jamie. Work Place: The Social Regulation of labor Markets. New York: Guilford, 1996. [HD5707.P425/Bothell Stacks]

Peck, Jamie, "Places of Work," in: Sheppard, Eric and Trevor J. Barnes, eds., A companion to economic geography. Oxford, UK ; Malden, Mass. : Blackwell Publishers, 2000 [Chapter 9, pp.133ff.] [Suzzallo/Allen Stacks HF1025 .C66 2000]

Rao, T.V. et al., eds., HRD in the New Economic Environment. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill, 1994. [HF5549.2 I4 N37 1994] [HRD:="Human Resource Development"]

Jeremy Rifkin article from Mother Jones "VANISHING JOBS" Some business leaders are concerned, but politicians seem strangeley deaf to what is likely to be the most explosive issue of the decade. "Will there be a job for me in the new Information Age?"

Sachs, Ben. Reorganizing Work: The Evolution of Work Changes in the Japanese and Swedish Automobile Industries. NY: Garland, 1994. [HD9710.J32.S23]

Scott, A., "The Spatial Organization of a Local Labor Market: Employment and Residential Patterns in a Cohort of Engineering and Scientific Workers," Growth and Change 23(1), Winter 1992, 94-115.

Standing, Guy, ed., Labour Circulation and Labour Process. Croom Helm, 1985 [HD 5856.D44.L33]

Wills, Jane; Andrew Cumbers & Christian Berndt, "The workplace at the millennium: new geographies of employment", Environment and Planning A 2000, volume 32, pages 1523 - 1528 [Guest editorial]

"Work, whatever its future, remains the central facet of existence for the vast majority of people around the globe. Scholarship to grasp the changing nature of work is thus fundamental to understanding the human condition. Yet the project to map contemporary geographies of employment is potentially a huge task."

EU Labor Ministers Settle on Guidelines for Part-Time Workers (Week in Germany, Dec. 19, 1997)

Europe’s part-time job holders should not be treated like second-class employees, the European Union insists. On Monday (December 15), the labor ministers of the fifteen EU member states new approved guidelines aimed at protecting part-time workers against discrimination. Part-time employees, the guidelines stipulate, may not be treated differently from their full-time colleagues as far as basic working conditions are concerned. Distinctions are permissible, though, if they can be justified on “objective grounds.” The guidelines also specify that a full-time employee may not be fired for refusing to accept a reduction in his or her hours to part-time status.

The ministers agreed that the question of part-time workers’ social welfare contributions and benefits will be left to the individual member states to decide. In Germany, workers earning less than DM 610 per month (U.S. $339) neither pay into the health, pension and unemployment insurance systems, nor are they covered by them. The Christian Democrats, the senior partner in Bonn’s governing coalition, and the opposition Social Democrats have come out in favor of abolishing 610-Mark jobs or at least tightening the regulations governing them (TWIG 10/24/97, p.2). Attempts to change the policy on 610-Mark jobs have been blocked so far, however, by the smallest of the parties in the governing coalition, the Free Democratic Party.

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