Steven J. Green
School of International
& Public Affairs

LBS 3001 - Labor and Globalization (3) This global learning course examines the challenges and struggles of working people in the United States within a local, regional, national and international context. Students will explore the conditions of low-wage jobs, the role of labor unions, and the impact of immigration and globalization on labor markets both in the U.S. and abroad.

LBS 3468 - Introduction to Mediation (3) This course examines the principles and process of mediation. Among the topics covered are active and reflective listening skills, reframing, gender, power, and ethics in mediation.

LBS 3470 - Labor Contract Administration (3) This course examines the use of grievance procedures to administer a collective bargaining agreement, including identification, research, presentation, and writing of grievance cases. Students will also explore the technical and legal role of union stewards.

LBS 3480 - Introduction to Conflict Resolution (3) This course examines the nature and elements of conflict and conflict resolution skills to manage in everyday life. Students will draw on their own experiences and case studies to learn the principles of conflict and the techniques for productive conflict management. Both theory and application will be stressed, with an emphasis on their interrelation.

LBS 3482 - Methods of Conflict Resolution (3) This course examines the major methods of conflict resolution and their specific advantages with an emphasis on the collaborative conflict-solving approach. The main focus of the course is on the specific techniques that reinforce this approach such as negotiation, mediation, and arbitration. The course is designed to provide students with the practical skills and insights that can be applied in the real world and enhanced through other courses offered in the Certificate in Conflict and Dispute Resolution.

LBS 3943 - Internship in Labor Studies (1-3) This course examines practical training and experience in various aspects of labor organization policies, practices, and procedures through placement with a local labor organization. Reports and papers required. Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor.

LBS 4101 - Theories of the Labor Movement (3) This course examines theories that have attempted to explain the origins, developments, and functioning of the labor movement.

LBS 4150 - Contemporary Labor Issues (3) The course examines contemporary labor issues such areas as collective bargaining, arbitration, mediation, legislation, regulative and administrative law, employment discrimination, and union grievances.

LBS 4154 - Workers and Diversity (3) This global learning course examines the impact of workers’ identities and the scope of diversity in the workplace from a local, regional, and global, perspective through multiple lenses: ableism, ageism and adultism, classism heterosexism, and transgender and religious oppression. Students will examine the theoretical debates surrounding the workforce participation of: lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender groups (LGBT), older workers, people with disability, women, and ethnic and racial minorities and the historical position of these groups in the workforce. Through an analysis of management and equity theories, students will explore social phenomena contributing to the continuation of discriminatory practices and how employers and employees can respond to such issues.

LBS 4210 - Women And Work (3) This global learning course examines issues and events that shaped working women’s varied participation in the workforce, both in the U.S. and internationally. Using gendered readings of American labor history, personal narratives, and global case studies of women’s self-organization, students will analyze how gender intersects with other social constructs like class and colonial relations, to culturally determine the labor market stratification of women’s work locally, nationally, and globally. By developing students’ capacity to contextualize specific workplace problems, within larger international gender-related trends in ideologies, industries, and initiatives taken by labor/ women’s/ resistance movements, this course seeks to increase students’ awareness of their shared personal and social responsibility to foster gender equality in both the workplace and the household.

LBS 4260 - Union Leadership and Administration (3) This course examines the administration of labor organizations, labor policies and practices, legal requirements, and the financial administration of unions. Prerequisite: LBS 3001.

LBS 4401 - Labor Contract Negotiations (3) This course examines collective bargaining with an emphasis on the private sector. Other topics of examination include negotiations and the scope of contracts, day-to-day contract administration, and major bargaining issues.

LBS 4461 - Labor Dispute Resolution (3) This course examines the theory and practice of dispute resolution in industry arbitration processes, grievances, mediation, fact-finding, and conciliation. Other topics of examination include arbitration of industrial claims and disputes and commercial arbitration. Prerequisite: LBS 3001.

LBS 4483 - Organizational Conflict (3) This course examines issues of organizational dynamics centered on change and change resistance that generate conflicts.

LBS 4484 - Applying Conflict Resolution Techniques (3) This course examines conflict resolution skills and techniques across a variety of settings, from personal relationships to the workplace. Students will draw on a range of conflict resolution approaches, theories, principles, and techniques to effectively manage conflict.

LBS 4487 - Conflict Theories (3) This course examines a social group's social, political, or material inequality, with a critique of the broad socio-political system, or that otherwise detracts from structural functionalism and ideological conservatism. We will pay close attention to power differentials, such as class conflict, and generally contrast historically dominant ideologies. This course is therefore a macro-level analysis of society. A few conflict theories will be delved into; certain conflict theories set out to highlight the ideological aspects inherent in traditional thought. While many of these perspectives hold parallels. Conflict theory does not refer to a unified school of thought, and should not be confused with, for instance, peace and conflict studies, or any other specific theory of social conflict.

LBS 4501 - Labor Law (3) This course examines federal labor laws regulating private sector employees’ collective rights and responsibilities, primarily through the mechanisms of unions and collective bargaining. Students will also learn about Florida State laws applicable to public sector workers at the state, county, and municipal levels. These laws largely parallel federal regulations with certain significant differences. The course will address the right of workers to engage in “concerted activities,” primarily through unions, and the statutory framework for collective bargaining, from initial organizing to established bargaining relationships. It will also address the relationship between labor unions and the employees they represent, both members and non-members.

LBS 4610 - Cross-Cultural Dimensions of Latin American Labor Relations (3) This global learning course examines the challenges and struggles of working people in Latin America within a local, national and regional context. Students will examine the interactions between cultural identities, the state, unions, and businesses that structure labor relations and influence working conditions. The course will emphasize the power and cultural dynamics that shape the role of labor unions, business organizations, and informality, and mediate the impact of immigration and globalization on labor markets and labor relations in Latin America.

LBS 4653 - Labor Movements in Developing Countries (3) This course examines the role that unions play in developing or recently developed countries; the relationship between economic development strategies and union structure/strategy; the role of unions in representing popular social sectors; with special emphasis on Latin American and Asian labor movements.

LBS 4654 - Comparative and International Labor Studies (3) This global learning course examines alternative approaches to labor relations, employment systems, and working-class activism in selected economic powers of the world, highlighting specific trends in various regions of the world: Strong Engine Capitalism ( e.g. Germany, Japan), North American Free-Market Capitalism (e.g. United States), Emerging 'Asian Tiger' Economies (e.g. China, India), South American 'Development' (e.g. Brazil, Bolivia), Post-Colonial Africa (e.g. Cameroun, Zimbabwe), and Post-Capitalist Transitional Economies (e.g. Eastern Europe)The course will emphasize the different ways in which workers are organized, the relative success workers and unions have achieved in their respective nations, the different roles played by the state, and the reasons why particular union strategies and national models of employment relations develop.

LBS 4900 - Directed Study in Labor Studies (3) Supervised reading and/or field research and training.

LBS 4905/4930 - Topics in Labor Studies (1-3) Selected topics or themes in Labor Studies. The themes will vary from semester to semester. With a change in content, the course may be repeated.

LBS 4949 - Cooperative Education in Labor Studies (1-3) One or two semesters of part or full-time work related to the major. Written reports and supervisor evaluations are required. Prerequisite: Permission of Labor Studies Program.