Roy J. Adams is an American-Canadian academic, author, adventurer, labour rights activist and poet.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he received his B.A. degree from Pennsylvania State University (summa cum laude) in 1967 and his Ph.D. degree in Industrial Relations from the University of Wisconsin in 1973. From then until 1997 he was a professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and has also been a visiting professor at 14 other institutions in 11 countries. He has published widely on comparative industrial relations, labour policy. industrial relations theory and human rights in employment, especially on the topic of collective bargaining as a human right. He has given invited talks at over 140 institutions in 20 countries and has served on the editorial boards of twelve professional journals located in seven countries. He headed a Canadian federal government commission on training, educational leave and productivity, published a comparative industrial relations newsletter for 10 years, served as president of the Canadian Industrial Relations Association and was honored with that associations Gérard Dion Award for outstanding contributions to Canadian and international industrial relations.
After serving as Director of McMaster's Theme School on International Justice and Human Rights in 1996-1997, he founded the Society for the Promotion of Human Rights in Employment and became very active promoting human rights and especially the rights to organize and bargain collectively. From 2003 to 2015 the Supreme Court of Canada "constitutionalized" those rights and in doing so extensively cited Adams's work. For his human rights scholarship and activism, he was appointed Ariel F. Sallows Chair of Human Rights on the Faculty of Law at the University of Saskatchewan for 2009-2010.
In 2015 Adams was named a Fellow of the U.S.-based Labor and Employment Relations Association for "contributions of unusual distinction to the field and profession." In 2016 he initiated the Canadian Freedom of Association Award, to be granted annually to a person or organization for promoting knowledge and compliance with international standards regarding the rights to organize and bargain collectively.
In addition to his research and activism in labour and human rights, Adams was a candidate for a seat in the Ontario legislature, served as Executive Director of the Hamilton Civic Coalition, and was a columnist for the Hamilton Spectator, Straight Goods and International Union Rights. He is also a scuba diver, parachutist, mountaineer, amateur magician, memoirist and holds a black belt in Tae Kwan Do.
Roy J. Adams is also a poet with work published in literary magazines in Canada, the U.S.A., the U.K., Singapore and Australia. He is the author of a poetry chapbook and a full book of poetry, both of which are listed below. In 2019, Adams became a full member of the League of Canadian Poets.
Because of his penchant for venturing to dangerous parts of the world, his family nicknamed him "Indiana Dad."
Books
Adams, Roy J. Critical Mass, a book of poetry / by Roy J. Adams—Silver Bow publishing, 2019, 64pp. ISBN978-1-77403-015-8
Adams, Roy J. Bebop From Beau's Caboose, a poetry chapbook / by Roy J. Adams—The Ontario Poetry Society, 2018, 24pp.
Adams, Roy J. Labour left out: Canada's failure to protect and promote collective bargaining as a human right / by Roy J. Adams. -- Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, [2006]. 152 p.; 22cm. ISBN0-88627-469-9
Adams, Roy J. Good job, bad jobs, no jobs: tough choices for Canadian labor law / Roy J. Adams, Gordon Betcherman, Beth Bilson; with comments by Roger Phillips and John O'Grady. -- Toronto: C.D. Howe Institute, 1995. vii, 198 p.: ill.; 23cm. ISBN0-88806-352-0
Adams, Roy J. The growth of white-collar unionism in Britain and Sweden: a comparative investigation / Roy J. Adams. -- Madison: Industrial Relations Research Institute, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1975.
Adams, Roy J. Towards a more competent labour force: a training levy scheme for Canada / by Roy J. Adams. -- Hamilton, Ont.: Faculty of Business, McMaster University, 1979.
Adams, Roy J. Dunlop after two decades: systems theory as a framework for organizing the field of industrial relations / by Roy J. Adams. -- Hamilton, Ont.: Faculty of Business, McMaster University, 1977.
Adams, Roy J. Two policy approaches to labour-management decision-making at the level of the enterprise: a comparison of the Wagner model and statutory works councils / by R.J. Adams. -- Hamilton, Ont.: Faculty of Business, McMaster University, 1984.
Adams, Roy J. Employment standards as industrial relations sub-system: the Ontario case / by Roy J. Adams. -- Hamilton, Ont.: Faculty of Business, McMaster University, 1986.
Adams, Roy J. The role of management in a political conception of the employment relationship / by Roy J. Adams. -- Hamilton, Ont.: Faculty of Business, McMaster University, 1986.
Adams, Roy J. Labour-management dispute resolution in Canadian heavy industry: the Hilton Works case / by Roy J. Adams and Isik Zeytinoglu. -- Hamilton, Ont.: Faculty of Business, McMaster University, [1986].
Comparative industrial relations: contemporary research and theory / edited by Roy J. Adams. -- London: HarperCollinsAcademic, 1991.
Industrial relations theory: its nature, scope, and pedagogy / edited by Roy J. Adams and Noah M. Meltz. -- Metuchen, N.J.: IMLR Press/Rutgers University, 1993.
Adams, Roy J. Industrial relations under liberal democracy: North America in comparative perspective / Roy J. Adams. -- Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, c1995. xi, 219 p.; 24cm. ISBN1-57003-019-7
A trade union or labor union, often simply referred to as a union, is an organisation of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", such as attaining better wages and benefits, improving working conditions, improving safety standards, establishing complaint procedures, developing rules governing status of employees and protecting and increasing the bargaining power of workers.
Labour laws are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee, employer, and union.
Industrial relations or employment relations is the multidisciplinary academic field that studies the employment relationship; that is, the complex interrelations between employers and employees, labor/trade unions, employer organizations, and the state.
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The interests of the employees are commonly presented by representatives of a trade union to which the employees belong. The collective agreements reached by these negotiations usually set out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance mechanisms, and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs.
United Kingdom labour law regulates the relations between workers, employers and trade unions. People at work in the UK can rely upon a minimum set of employment rights, which are found in Acts of Parliament, Regulations, common law and equity. This includes the right to a minimum wage of £9.50 for over-23-year-olds from April 2022 under the National Minimum Wage Act 1998. The Working Time Regulations 1998 give the right to 28 days paid holidays, breaks from work, and attempt to limit long working hours. The Employment Rights Act 1996 gives the right to leave for child care, and the right to request flexible working patterns. The Pensions Act 2008 gives the right to be automatically enrolled in a basic occupational pension, whose funds must be protected according to the Pensions Act 1995.
A union security agreement is a contractual agreement, usually part of a union collective bargaining agreement, in which an employer and a trade or labor union agree on the extent to which the union may compel employees to join the union, and/or whether the employer will collect dues, fees, and assessments on behalf of the union.
Samuel Lawrence was a Canadian politician and trade unionist.
In Canadian labour law, the Rand formula is a workplace compromise arising from jurisprudence struck between organized labour and employers that guarantees employers industrial stability by requiring all workers affected by a collective agreement to pay dues to the union by mandatory deduction in exchange for the union agreement to "work now, grieve later."
A strikebreaker is a person who works despite a strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who were not employed by the company before the trade union dispute but hired after or during the strike to keep the organization running. Strikebreakers may also refer to workers who cross picket lines to work.
The School of Labor and Employment Relations (LER) is a graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Founded in 1946, the school is the second oldest labor and industrial relations school in the nation. Students at Illinois can earn a Master of Human Resources and Industrial Relations or a PhD in Industrial Relations. The school focuses on the MHRIR program. Until August 2008, LER was known as the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations. In spring, 2015, the master's program expanded to accommodate an online program targeted to working professionals.
The Ontario Labour Relations Board is an adjudicative agency of the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development and was established by the Ontario government in 1948. It defines itself as "an independent, quasi-judicial tribunal mandated to mediate and adjudicate a variety of employment and labour relations-related matters under a number of Ontario statutes". Its current (2022) chair is Brian O'Byrne.
The Journal of Collective Negotiations was a peer-reviewed academic journal which published articles regarding collective bargaining. The target audience for the journal was academics, students, employers, workers, and collective bargaining negotiators. It was published quarterly until 2008 by Baywood Publishing. The journal was cited by the Oxford Handbook of Work and Organization as a critical journal in collective bargaining theory and issues. A common textbook in Industrial and organizational psychology has cited the journal as one of two key publications in that very narrow field. It also has been quoted by the National Labor Relations Board.
Labor relations is a field of study that can have different meanings depending on the context in which it is used. In an international context, it is a subfield of labor history that studies the human relations with regard to work in its broadest sense and how this connects to questions of social inequality. It explicitly encompasses unregulated, historical, and non-Western forms of labor. Here, labor relations define "for or with whom one works and under what rules. These rules determine the type of work, type and amount of remuneration, working hours, degrees of physical and psychological strain, as well as the degree of freedom and autonomy associated with the work." More specifically in a North American and strictly modern context, labor relations is the study and practice of managing unionized employment situations. In academia, labor relations is frequently a sub-area 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.
A whipsaw strike is a strike by a trade union against only one or a few employers in an industry or a multi-employer association at a time. The strike is often of a short duration, and usually recurs during the labor dispute or contract negotiations—hence the name "whipsaw".
NLRB v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co., 304 U.S. 333 (1938), is a United States labor law case of the Supreme Court of the United States which held that workers who strike remain employees for the purposes of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The Court granted the relief sought by the National Labor Relations Board, which sought to have the workers reinstated by the employer. However, the decision is much better known today for its obiter dicta in which the Court said that an employer may hire strikebreakers and is not bound to discharge any of them if or when the strike ends.
Inequality of bargaining power in law, economics and social sciences refers to a situation where one party to a bargain, contract or agreement, has more and better alternatives than the other party. This results in one party having greater power than the other to choose not to take the deal and makes it more likely that this party will gain more favourable terms and grant them more negotiating power. Inequality of bargaining power is generally thought to undermine the freedom of contract, resulting in a disproportionate level of freedom between parties, and that it represents a place at which markets fail.
Clyde Wilson Summers was an American lawyer and educator who is best known for his work in advocating more democratic procedures in labor unions. He helped write the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 and was highly influential in the field of labor law, authoring more than 150 publications on the issue of union democracy alone. He was considered the nation's leading expert on union democracy. "What Louis Brandeis was to the field of privacy law, Clyde Summers is to the field of union democracy," wrote Widener University School of Law professor Michael J. Goldberg in the summer of 2010. "Summers, like Brandeis, provided the theoretical foundation for an important new field of law."
A master contract or master agreement is a collective bargaining agreement which covers all unionized worksites in an industry, market or company, and which establishes the terms and conditions of employment common to all workers in the industry, market or company.
The Making Ontario Open for Business Act is a law in the province of Ontario that froze the minimum wage in the province and removing a number of protections of workers' rights.
Joel I. Seidman (1906-1977) was a 20th-century economics professor and Socialist, best known for his 1932 dissertation and book The Yellow Dog Contract as well as work with Brookwood Labor College.
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