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:
“Actually, the laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain the manliest relations to men; his labor would be depreciated in the market.
He has no time to be anything but a machine.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The interest in life does not lie in what people do, nor even in their relations to each other, but largely in the power to communicate with a third party, antagonistic, enigmatic, yet perhaps persuadable, which one may call life in general.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)