Social Organization of the United States National Labor Policy Domain, 1981-1987 (ICPSR 9802)

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The purpose of this data collection is to provide information about the process by which various organizations become involved in debates about national labor policy. A policy domain is a set of organizations, both governmental and in the private sector, operating at the federal level and seeking to influence the decisions of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government in some substantive arena--in this case, the regulation of labor practices. The central issue of the research is how the social structure of relationships among organizations in the national labor policy domain affect the processes by which policy proposals are generated, placed on the national political agenda, and subsequently enacted or blocked. To address this issue, the most active organizations in the United States labor policy domain were identified and contacted for interviews. A knowledgeable representative from each organization, typically a director of governmental affairs, was asked a battery of questions about his or her organization's involvement in shaping national policies. The general scope of these questions was (1) What particular issues in the labor field are of interest to the organization? (2) In what specific policy events between 1981 and 1987 did the organization participate, and what was the nature of that involvement? (3) What general patterns of interaction does the organization have with other participants in the national labor policy domain? Variables in the collection include collective bargaining regulations, participation of labor in management and control of enterprises, employee stock ownership plans, and internal organization and governance of labor unions and employer associations. Other items cover working conditions (safety and physical conditions), employment conditions (hiring, promotion, firing, layoff, retirement, time, and wages), social policies (pensions, insurance, maternity leave, and job rights), disadvantaged populations in the labor market (women, minorities, the handicapped, youth, the elderly, veterans, welfare, vocational education and retraining), discrimination in employment, and labor market policies (job creation, immigration, underground economy, and plant closings).

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