Headlines
Today’s labor battles, legislation harken back to conflicts of nearly a century ago, professor writes
LAWRENCE — Stephen Ware, the Frank Edwards Tyler Distinguished Professor of Law at KU, has recently written two articles on labor unions and labor arbitration. He explained that current unionization drives and proposed legislation are responding to a changing economy and workspace, but they are doing so in the context of laws mostly developed shortly after big labor battles of the early 20th century.
Kansas Fire & Rescue Training Institute hosts demonstrated ability event for training officers statewide
LAWRENCE — The Montana State University Fire Services Training School (FSTS) recently conducted an Instructor C training event for the Kansas Fire & Rescue Training Institute (KFRTI). The two-day event, led by Brian Crandell and John Culbertson, trained instructors in the FSTS demonstrated ability methodology, also called training in context, which emphasizes a performance-based assessment of skills. Training officers from the Kansas City, Kansas Fire Department, Johnson County Consolidated Fire District No. 2, Topeka Fire Department, Coffeyville Fire Department and KFRTI were represented at the event.
Full stories below.
————————————————————————
Contact: Mike Krings, KU News Service, 785-864-8860, [email protected], @MikeKrings
Today’s labor battles, legislation harken back to conflicts of nearly a century ago, professor writes
LAWRENCE — President Joe Biden has pledged to support union organizing, and the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the union-supported Protecting the Right to Organize Act. Yet, high-profile efforts to unionize Amazon warehouse workers have not succeeded, and the PRO Act may not pass the U.S. Senate. These mixed results for labor unions are in today’s headlines, but a University of Kansas law professor notes how such news harkens back to labor conflicts of nearly a century ago.
Stephen Ware, the Frank Edwards Tyler Distinguished Professor of Law at KU, has recently written two articles on labor unions and labor arbitration. He explained that current unionization drives and proposed legislation are responding to a changing economy and workspace, but they are doing so in the context of laws mostly developed shortly after big labor battles of the early 20th century.
“Labor rights in the U.S. largely date back to landmark laws of the 1930s. But then labor activism faded in the second half of the 20th century as progressive reformers turned to other areas, such as the civil rights, consumer, women’s and environmental movements. Labor unions shrank from representing about 30% of private sector workers in the 1950s to under 7% today,” Ware said. “Now, however, with recent years’ renewed focus on inequalities of wealth, progressive energy — sometimes with support from populist conservatives — has returned to labor activism. For instance, efforts to unionize Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama have drawn national support from a variety of people, ranging from President Biden to Killer Mike, a rapper. The growth of companies like Uber and Door Dash has accelerated a shift of work away from stable employment to independent contractors in the gig economy. This shift has prompted some scholars and activists to try to adapt traditional labor law to newer industries.”
This new interest in labor law prompted Ware to reexamine its history “with the hope that learning from the past can helpfully inform today’s discussions,” he said. In an article published in the Arbitration Law Review, Ware examines how 1930s labor law enabled unions to replace at-will employment with arbitration of employee grievances.
The article documents how pre-1930s employers usually defeated unions and maintained the power to fire employees at will. However, 1930s labor laws prohibited anti-union contracts and exempted labor from antitrust laws enough to permit the cartelization of labor, or employees banding together to increase wages. This legally encouraged labor cartelization, Ware said, empowered unions to extract from employers contracts replacing at-will employment with arbitrators deciding what counts as good cause for employers to discharge or discipline employees.
An arbitration specialist, Ware also wrote a companion article, “Labor Grievance Arbitration’s Differences,” which details how labor arbitration differs from other arbitration in the United States. The article, which Ware recently presented to the Cumberland Law Review’s symposium on Alternative Dispute Resolution, shows how labor arbitration’s differences arose from its roots in legally enforced labor cartelization.
Ware’s comparisons of labor and other arbitration more broadly include his co-written 2020 “Arbitration” casebook. Surveying arbitration in many contexts — labor, commercial, employment, insurance, medical and religious — helps show, Ware said, “just how unique, and how old and traditional, labor arbitration is. So, it will be striking if unions and their allies in government choose to go down much the same path nearly a century later.”
————————————————————————
The official university Twitter account has changed to @UnivOfKansas.
Refollow @KUNews for KU News Service stories, discoveries and experts.
Tweets by KUnews
————————————————————————
Contact: Hannah Lemon, KU Edwards Campus, 913-897-8755, [email protected], @KUEdwardsCampus
Kansas Fire & Rescue Training Institute hosts demonstrated ability event for training officers statewide
LAWRENCE — Firefighting is an inherently dangerous job. Firefighters must be well-trained for safe operations, but they also must be well-trained to deliver exceptional service to customers – those calling 911 and anyone in need of help.
On April 14 and 15, the Montana State University Fire Services Training School (FSTS) conducted an Instructor C training event for the Kansas Fire & Rescue Training Institute (KFRTI). The two-day event, led by Brian Crandell and John Culbertson, trained instructors in the FSTS demonstrated ability methodology, also called training in context, which emphasizes a performance-based assessment of skills.
Crandell wrote his doctoral thesis on demonstrated ability, which FSTS has been employing in their training process for 30 years. Training officers from the Kansas City, Kansas Fire Department, Johnson County Consolidated Fire District No. 2, Topeka Fire Department, Coffeyville Fire Department and Kansas Fire & Rescue Training Institute were represented at the event.
“For too long, the U.S. fire service has trained firefighters using passive learning techniques,” said Kelly McCoy, director of KFRTI. “Our goal for this training was to break away from that paradigm and move toward a hands-on, performance-based instructional model.”
Demonstrated ability takes students through a “crawl, walk, run” approach to training, showing them best practices, coaching them through the process and evaluating their ability to conduct job performance requirements in a real-life context. The process is repeated until instructors are confident in students’ ability to complete the task effectively.
“I have wondered, how do I get away from point-click-and-read the slides in training environments and engage firefighters,” said James Zeeb, training chief, Kansas City, Kansas Fire Department. “Following this course, I will be a champion for training in context and excited to see the changes in Kansas fire service training.”
This model’s adaption promotes community health and safety by ensuring firefighters can exemplify mastery of all necessary skills in a single evolution, rather than a written test or random sampling of skills in isolation, to prepare a more competent workforce.
Shon Price, training officer in the Coffeyville Fire Department, said, “This class has caused me to reflect on how I have trained firefighters in the past. In the past, I have not always connected the training to the what and the why. I am going to change that in my training. Firefighters will know what the work is we are training for and why it’s important.”
Jennifer Johnson, fire certification manager at KFRTI, said her team will begin to move the training system in Kansas toward this model. “Training has to be about the work and doing the job,” she said. “We have to make sure we are measuring the things that are right.”
Culbertson acknowledged the readiness of Kansas fire training instructors to adopt this model for the benefit of firefighters throughout the state.
“It’s refreshing to see a group of fire training instructors so willing to consider a different model of training firefighters that will benefit Kansans,” Culbertson said. “I think the citizens firefighters serve are going to see great value in this training model.”
McCoy says the event exceeded his expectations and that he looks forward to partnering with FSTS again in the future.
“We are thankful to Dr. John Culbertson and Dr. Brian Crandall of Montana Fire Services Training School for sharing their years of education and experience with the Kansas fire service. We would also like to thank Fire Chief Mike Baxter, Wakarusa Township Fire Department, for hosting our training event,” McCoy said. “We believe this paradigm shift in the learning process will lead to safer communities in Kansas.”
To learn more about demonstrated ability, review these articles from EMS1 and Firefighternation.com.
————————————————————————
KU News Service
1450 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence KS 66045
Phone: 785-864-3256
Fax: 785-864-3339
[email protected]
http://www.news.ku.edu
Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]
Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs
