Center for Research in International Labor and Industrial Relations

The Center for Research in International Labor and Industrial Relations developed plans for a small international conference to be held on the Berkeley campus in 1999. It will be a conference on union perspectives on selected problems of importance in Germany, Japan, and the U.S. The purpose is to provide a forum for a small group of unionists from the three countries to exchange views on the nature of the problems involved and on what trade union responses to them should be. The problems include unemployment, industrial restructuring and downsizing, outsourcing and low-wage competition, restraints on international trade and investment, and systems of worker representation. The invited unionists will be the discussants; faculty participation will consist in framing agenda questions; actively chairing the sessions; and serving as rappporteurs. In addition to IRLE and its Labor Center, prospective sponsoring Berkeley institutions include the Center for German and European Studies and the Center for Japanese Studies (Berkeley), WZB Institute (Berlin), Abteilung Politische Wirtschaffslehre unde Arbeitokonoomie (Hannover), Hitotsubashi (Tokyo), and Doshisha (Kyoto).

Professor Lloyd Ulman, Chair