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Workers Participation:
Does it Democratize the Workplace?

Our panel will focus on one of the most controversial issues facing the labor movement today. Worker participation in management is viewed by many unionists as nothing more than cooptation by management in a veiled attempt to avoid union representation. Other unionists see worker participation as a means of democratizing the workplace and of giving workers control over their lives at work. Our panel will examine the political economic content in which worker participation is occurring, provide a model for what an effective program should look like, and analyze the dangers facing unions that are involved in worker participation plans.

Speakers:

• Jerry Parr, Assistant Professor at the Division of Labor Studies, Indiana University.

• Andrew Banks, Assistant Director of the Center for Labor Research and Studies, Florida International University.

• Jerry Tucker, former Regional Director of the United Auto Workers and founder of the New Directions Movement of the UAW.

• Mike Parker, author of Inside the Circle: A Union Guide to QWL.

• Cesar Chavez*, President of the United Farm Workers.

• Anthony Mazzocchi, Secretary-Treasurer of the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers International Union.

*Invited but not confirmed, or has not obtained needed travel funds.

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