Labor relations is the study and practice of managing unionized employment situations. In academia, labor relations is frequently a subarea within industrial relations, though scholars from many disciplines--including economics, sociology, history, law, and political science--also study labor unions and labor movements. In practice, labor relations is frequently a subarea within human resource management. Courses in labor relations typically cover labor history, labor law, union organizing, bargaining, contract administration, and important contemporary topics.
In the United States, labor relations in the private sector is regulated by the National Labor Relations Act. Public sector labor relations is regulated by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 and various pieces of state legislation. In other countries, labor relations might be regulated by law or tradition.
An important professional association for U.S. labor relations scholars and practitioners is the Labor and Employment Relations Association.
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Organized labour |
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The labour movement
New Unionism · Proletariat Social Movement Unionism · Socialism Syndicalism · Anarcho-syndicalism Timeline |
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Labour rights
Child labour · Eight-hour day Collective bargaining Occupational safety and health |
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Trade unions
Trade unions by country Trade union federations International comparisons ITUC · IWA · WFTU |
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Labour parties
Labour Party (UK) Labour Party (Ireland) Australian Labor Party New Zealand Labour Party List of other Labour parties |
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Academic disciplines
Industrial relations Labour economics Labor history · Labour law |
Famous quotes containing the words labor and/or relations:
“By the “mud-sill” theory it is assumed that labor and education are incompatible; and any practical combination of them impossible. According to that theory, a blind horse upon a tread-mill, is a perfect illustration of what a laborer should be—all the better for being blind, that he could not tread out of place, or kick understandingly.... Free labor insists on universal education.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“The land is the appointed remedy for whatever is false and fantastic in our culture. The continent we inhabit is to be physic and food for our mind, as well as our body. The land, with its tranquilizing, sanative influences, is to repair the errors of a scholastic and traditional education, and bring us to just relations with men and things.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)