The book is the first comprehensive study of the American copper industry to include labor markets, unionism, and labor relations as an integral part of its focus. It also undertakes a careful examination of the influences exerted by geography and geology in the shaping of the industry.
The study begins with the formation, development, and later histories of all the principal copper producers, their major business and labor policies, technical innovations, attempts at diversification, and foreign ventures. On the labor side, the book examines the beginnings of unionism in the 1880s; the emergence of the Western Federation of Miners in 1893; the later appearance of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers in 1916. The eventual takeover of the Mine Mill by the Steel workers in 1967 and the reasons for the eventual collapse of the pattern system in 1983 are also carefully considered.
The study emphasizes the role of strategic innovations in shaping American copper history, most prominently in the successive development of underground block-caving and open-pit mining; concentration and flotation; and solvent extraction and electrowinning. The study concludes with an evaluation of the lessons supplied by the past and the prospects for the future of the industry.

Capital and Labor in American Copper, 1845–1990: A Study of the Linkages between Product and Labor Markets (Wertheim Publications in Industrial Relations)

Business & Money

Mangum, Garth

Hildebrand, George H.

Economics

Harvard University Wertheim Publications Committee

The Operating Engineers: The Economic History of a Trade Union (Wertheim Publications in Industrial Rela)

Harvard University Press

Designing pension plans to cover workers and provide the necessary retirement funds for them is one of the critical issues of the turn of the century. Written by four experts in the field of pension funds, this work examines the possibilities for pension reform based on a detailed understanding of a successful system, the union pension fund of the Operating Engineers. This type of plan is managed by workers and management trustees, covering workers that do not have secure and predictable jobs. The authors demonstrate just how this pension fund can provide a useful blueprint for executives, pension fund managers, industrial relations professionals, and public policy decision makers.

Portable Pension Plans for Casual Labor Markets: Lessons from the Operating Engineers Central Pension Fund

Ghilarducci, Teresa

Peterson, Jeff

Philips, Peter

Education & Reference

Praeger

Drawing upon case studies of firms in the steel industry, authors show that companies competing internationally can pool their strengths to offset their individual weaknesses, enabling them to build economically successful entities more easily than if each company tried to go it alone in competition with rivals. In doing so they show how the world steel industry emerged into a group of international joint ventures and how in each of these transnational marriages the whole became greater than the sum of its parts. Among the authors' main points are: cultural conflicts are minimized by economic success but magnified by failure; expertise and commitment can overcome national differences, and even failing international joint ventures can be rehabilitated. Important reading for professionals in all areas of international business and for their colleagues in the academic community.
Included in each case study is a history of the firms and the emerging joint venture. Authors described the condition of facilities, the rehabilitation and construction of new facilities, the financial relationships between firms and the sources of funding, and their corporate structures. Cultural differences between firms and their impact on the success of the relationship are examined closely, with particular emphasis on personnel selection, training supervision, labor relations, retention and promotion policies and policies on tenure and layoff. Authors look at labor productivity and the use of participative management and other team approaches, relating them to such measurable variables as product quality, corporate profitability, and indeed the ultimate survival of each newly created firm. From there the authors show how the experiences of the steel industry and the lessons learned from its transnational alliances can be applied to other industries and to their own joint ventures.

Transnational Marriages in the Steel Industry: Experience and Lessons For Global Business

Kim, Sae-Young

Tallman, Stephen B.

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