Professor Richard B. Freeman (Economics Department, Harvard University) presents From the Webbs to the Web: the Contribution of the Internet to Reviving Union Fortunes today Thursday, October 7, 2004 at the Institute of Industrial Relations at the University of California- Berkeley. Here is the abstract:
This paper shows that in the 2000s unions in the UK and US made innovative use of the Internet to deliver union services and move toward open source unions better suited for the modern world than traditional union structures. In contrast to analysts who see unions as being on an inexorable path of decline, I argue that these innovations are changing unions from institutions of the Webbs to institutions of the Web, which will improve their effectiveness and revive their role as the key worker organization in capitalism.
Professor Freeman co-chairs the Harvard Trade Union Program and directs the Labor Studies program at NBER. One of the most prolific and influential labor economists in the United States, Freeman’s many books include What Do Unions Do? (1984) and Visible Hands: Labor Institutions in the New Economy, forthcoming 2004.