Labor and Employment Relations Association

Labor and Employment Relations Association
Company type	Labor relations and human resources management
Founded	1947
Headquarters	Champaign, Ill., USA
Key people	Emily E. Smith, Executive Director
Website	http://www.leraweb.org

The Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) was founded in 1947 as the Industrial Relations Research Association. LERA is an organization for professionals in industrial relations and human resources. Headquartered at the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, the organization has more than 3,000 members at the national level and in its local chapters. LERA is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that draws its members from the ranks of academia, management, labor and "neutrals" (arbitrators and mediators).

LERA's constituencies are professionals in the areas of academic research and education, compensation and benefits, human resources, labor and employment law, labor and management resources, labor markets and economics, public policy, training and development, and union administration and organizing. The executive director of LERA is Emily Smith. Past presidents of LERA include John T. Dunlop, George Shultz, and Ray Marshall, all of whom went on to serve as U.S. Secretary of Labor.

LERA encourages research into all areas of the field of labor, employment, the workplace, employer/employee organization, employment and labor relations, human resources, labor markets, income security, and the international dimensions of all of these areas. The organization takes a multi-disciplinarian approach and includes scholars from various disciplines including industrial relations, history, economics, political science, psychology, sociology, law, management, labor studies, and others.

LERA promotes full discussion and exchange of ideas between and among all of its constituencies—academic, labor, management, neutral, and government—on the planning, development and results of research in these fields, as well as its useful application in both practice and policy.

LERA is also disseminates the latest research, challenges in the field, and best practices to researchers, practitioners, and the public, by holding meetings, producing materials and publications.

The association assumes no partisan position on questions of policy in these fields, but is an open forum respecting all opinions and perspectives. The association supports fundamental worker and human rights in the workplace and supports rights of the employees, employers, and their organizations to organize.

History

The organization was founded as the Industrial Relations Research Association, by labor economists in the post World War II era, who found a need to expand upon discussions taking place surrounding workplace issues. For the first 52 years of the organization, the IRRA was headquartered at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 1999, the organization moved its headquarters to the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Paula Wells became the executive director. The organization was invited to make the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois its home base, which later became known as the School of Labor and Employment Relations in 2006, with LERA past President Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld as its first dean. LERA itself changed its own name to the Labor and Employment Relations Association in 2005, in response to many changes taking place in the field, transitioning from industrial relations to the field of labor and employment relations.^[1]

Past presidents

1948 Edwin E. Witte, University of Wisconsin
1949 Sumner H. Slichter, Harvard University
1950 George W. Taylor, University of Pennsylvania
1951 William M. Leiserson, Johns Hopkins University
1952 J. Douglas Brown, Princeton University
1953 Ewan Clague, U.S. Department of Labor
1954 Clark Kerr, University of California
1955 Lloyd G. Reynolds, Yale University
1956 Richard A. Lester, Princeton University
1957 Dale Yoder, University of Minnesota
1958 E. Wight Bakke, Yale University
1959 William Haber, University of Michigan
1960 John T. Dunlop, Harvard University
1961 Philip Taft, Brown University
1962 Charles A. Myers, MIT
1963 William F. Whyte, Cornell University
1964 Solomon Barkin, Textile Workers of America
1965 Edwin Young, University of Wisconsin
1966 Arthur M. Ross, University of California
1967 Neil W. Chamberlain, Columbia University
1968 George P. Shultz, University of Chicago
1969 Frederick H. Harbison, Princeton University
1970 Douglass V. Brown, MIT
1971 George H. Hildebrand, U.S. Department of Labor
1972 Benjamin Aaron, UCLA
1973 Douglas H. Soutar, Am. Smelting & Refining Co.
1974 Nathaniel Goldfinger, AFL-CIO
1975 Gerald G. Somers, University of Wisconsin
1976 Irving Bernstein, UCLA
1977 F. Ray Marshall, University of Texas
1978 Charles C. Killingsworth, Michigan State University.
1979 Jerome M. Rosow, Work in America Institute
1980 Jack Barbash, University of Wisconsin
1980 Rudolph A. Oswald, AFL-CIO
1982 Milton Derber, University of Illinois
1983 Jack Stieber, Michigan State University
1984 Wayne L. Horvitz, Consultant, Washington, D.C.
1985 Everett M. Kassalow, University of Wisconsin
1986 Lloyd Ulman, University of California-Berkeley
1987 Michael H. Moskow, Premark International
1988 Phyllis A. Wallace, MIT
1989 Joyce D. Miller, ACTWU
1990 Robert B. McKersie, MIT
1991 James L. Stern, University of Wisconsin-Madison
1992 Ernest J. Savoie, Ford Motor Company
1993 George Strauss, University of California-Berkeley
1994 Lynn R. Williams, United Steelworkers of America
1995 Walter J. Gershenfeld, Arbitrator, Flourtown, PA
1996 Hoyt N. Wheeler, University of South Carolina
1997 Francine Blau, Cornell University
1998 F. Donal O'Brien, Arbitrator/Mediator
1999 Thomas A. Kochan, MIT
2000 Sheldon Friedman, AFL-CIO
2001 Magdalena Jacobsen, FMCS
2002 John F. Burton Jr., Rutgers University
2003 Paula Voos, Rutgers University
2004 Marlene K. Heyser, Workplace Law Strategies
2005 Stephen Sleigh, IAMAW
2006 David Lipsky, Cornell University
2007 Eileen B. Hoffman, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
2008 Anthony Oliver Jr., Parker Milliken, Clark O'Hara & Samuelian
2009 Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2010 Eileen Appelbaum, Rutgers University
2011 Gordon Pavy, AFL-CIO
2012–13 David Lewin, UCLA
2014 Martin Mulloy, Ford Motor CO.
2015 Lisa M. Lynch, Brandeis University
2016 Bonnie Prouty Castry, Arbitrator/Mediator
2017 Janice R. Bellace, University of Pennsylvania
2018 Harry C. Katz, Cornell University
2019 Kris Rondeau, AFSCME
2020 Dennis Dabney, Kaiser Permanente
2021 Adrienne Eaton, Rutgers University

Editors

Milton Derber, University of Illinois, 1948–50
L. Reed Tripp, University of Wisconsin, 1951–56
Gerald G. Somers, University of Wisconsin, 1957–74
Barbara D. Dennis and James L. Stern, Univ. of Wis., 1975–77
Barbara D. Dennis, University of Wisconsin, 1977–89
John F. Burton Jr., Rutgers University, 1989–94
Paula B. Voos, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1994–2002
Adrienne Eaton, Rutgers University, 2003–2009
Françoise Carré and Christian Weller, University of Massachusetts Boston, 2010-2014
Ariel Avgar, Cornell University, 2015–2019
Ryan Lamare, University of Illinois, 2020−

Secretary-treasurers

William H. McPherson, University of Illinois, 1948–50
Robben W. Fleming, University of Wisconsin, 1951–53
Edwin Young, University of Wisconsin, 1954–62
David B. Johnson, University of Wisconsin, 1963–72
James L. Stern (Treas.), UW-Madison, 1968–69
Richard U. Miller, UW-Madison, 1973–77
David R. Zimmerman, UW-Madison, 1978–1999
Peter Feuille, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2000–2014
Craig Olson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2015–2017
Ryan Lamare, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2018–2019
Andrew Weaver, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2020–

Founding members

Vincent W. Bladen, University of Toronto
Eveline M. Burns, Columbia University
Ewan Clague, U.S. Department of Labor
Milton Derber, University of Illinois
William Haber, University of Michigan
Frederick H. Harbison, University of Chicago
Vernon H. Jensen, Cornell University
Clark Kerr, University of California-Berkeley
Richard A. Lester, Princeton University
William H. McPherson, University of Illinois
C. Wright Mills, Columbia University
Donald G. Paterson, University of Minnesota
Sumner H. Slichter, Harvard University
Sterling D. Spero, New York University
George W. Taylor, University of Pennsylvania
Francis Tyson, University of Pittsburgh
William F. Whyte, University of Chicago
W. Willard Wirtz, Northwestern University
Edwin E. Witte, University of Wisconsin
Harry D. Wolf, University of North Carolina
Dale Yoder, University of Minnesota

Charter members (affiliation at time became member)

Benjamin Aaron, Arbitrator, Los Angeles
Leonard P. Adams, Cornell University
Gabriel N. Alexander, Arbitrator, Detroit
(Mrs.) Jack Barbash, Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcherworkmen of NA
Solomon Barkin, Textile Workers
Irving Bernstein, UCLA
Seymour Brandwein, Bureau of National Affairs
George W. Brooks, Washington, DC
Neil W. Chamberlain, Yale University
Jesse C. Clamp Jr., Florida State University
Bernard Cushman, Labor Burea of Middle West
Edward L. Cushman, Wayne University
G. Allan Dash Jr., Arbitrator, Philadelphia
John T. Dunlop, Harvard University
Milton T. Edelman, University of Illinois
Marten S. Estey, Cornell University
Tracy H. Ferguson, Esq., Syracuse
Joseph P. Goldberg, Jt. Congressional Comm. on Labor-Mgmt. Relations
Lois S. Gray, Cornell University
Einar J. Hardin, University of Minnesota
James J. Healy, Harvard University
Peter Henle, American Federation of Labor
Morris A. Horowitz, University of Illinois
Harriet D. Hudson, University of Illinois
Arthur T. Jacobs, USNA, New York
Howard W. Johnson, University of Chicago
Jacob J. Kaufman, University of Toledo
Clark Kerr, University of California-Berkeley
Charles C. Killingsworth, Michigan State College
Forrest H. Kirkpatrick, Bethany College
Milton R. Konvitz, Cornell University
Richard A. Lester, Princeton University
Solomon B. Levine, University of Illinois
Kenneth M. McCaffree, University of Washington
Frederic Meyers, University of Texas
James G. Miller, Cornell University
John W. Miller Jr., Ford Motor Co.
Charles A. Myers, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Maurice F. Neufeld, Cornell University
Herbert R. Northrup, Columbia University
Lloyd G. Reynolds, Yale University
Milton Rubin, War Labor Board
Stanley H. Ruttenberg, Congress of Indus. Organizations
Sidney W. Salsburg, University of Wisconsin
Arthur W. Saltzman, Syracuse University
Richard Scheuch, Princeton University
Rosalind S. Schulman, Indus. Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers-CIO
Boaz Siegel, Wayne University
Ruth S. Spitz, Ohio State University
Arthur Stark, New York State Board of Mediation
Jack Stieber, United Steelworkers of America
Ralph I. Thayer, Washington State College
Lloyd Ulman, Harvard University
Martin Wagner, Louisville Labor-Mgmt. Comm.
Morris Weisz, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Donald J. White, Boston College
William F. Whyte, Cornell University
John P. Windmuller, Cornell University
Fred Witney, Indiana University
David A. Wolff, Arbitrator, Ann Arbor
Henry S. Woodbridge, American Optical Co.
David Ziskind, Esq., Los Angeles

Employment Policy Research Network

At the 2011 January annual meeting, LERA launched the Employment Policy Research Network (EPRN). It originally consisted of about 100 researchers (economists; management, human resources, and labor relations researchers; attorneys, historians and sociologists) from 30 universities, including California-Berkeley, Columbia, Cornell, Illinois, Massachusetts (several campuses), MIT, Michigan, Michigan State, Northeastern, Rutgers, Stanford and UCLA, as well as universities in Canada and the United Kingdom. In March, 2011, the first cohort of doctoral students from MIT and Cornell joined EPRN as graduate student researchers who are sponsored by EPRN researchers. As of May 1, 2011, there were 125 EPRN researchers from 50 universities.

EPRN received start-up funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and Russell Sage Foundation. The EPRN principal investigator is Thomas A. Kochan, George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management at MIT's Sloan School of Management and co-director of both the MIT Workplace Center and the Institute for Work and Employment Research.

EPRN is an employment research repository and virtual collaboration space whose mission is to replace ideology and partisan rhetoric with facts and objective, evidence-based research in discussions of U.S. employment, work and labor. EPRN's goal is to provide the data, research, policy proposals and reasoning to improve national and state employment laws, policies and practices. Ultimately, EPRN realizing its mission means to contribute to healthier and more productive lives of American workers and their families, to promote general economic prosperity and to enable the nation to compete successfully in the global economy. Like LERA, its parent organization, EPRN is non-profit and non-partisan.

EPRN divides the large subject of employment and work into 15 topics and research clusters of 20–40 researchers:

Employment regulations
Equal employment opportunity
Globalization, employment and labor Standards
Immigration
Industry studies/strategies
Labor and employment law
Labor force demographics/supply
Labor–management relations
Regional economic development/adjustment
Skills, work and technology
Social insurance
Unemployment – jobs deficit/growth
Workers' compensation

Publications

LERA publishes a number of research reports and books, as well as an annual research volume, an annual proceedings of LERA meetings, an electronically distributed newsletter, and an online membership directory. It also publishes the biannual journal, Perspectives on Work. The LERA Labor and Employment Law Section publishes a quarterly electronic newsletter as well.

Perspectives on Work Magazine
LERA Annual Research Volume
Proceedings of the Annual Meetings
LERA eBulletin
LERA Labor and Employment Law Newsletter (LEL News)^[2]

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Administration and organization

Administrative staff and directors

1947–1967: No administrative staff (LERA's Secretary-Treasurer had an administrative assistant.)
1967–1982: Elizabeth Gulesserian, Executive Assistant to the IRRA
1982–1999: Kay Hutchinson, Administrator of the IRRA
1999–2012: Paula D. Wells, Executive Director, IRRA/LERA
2012–2015: Eric Duchinsky, Executive Director, LERA
2015–Present: Emily E. Smith, Executive Director, LERA

^[4]

Membership

LERA organizational members include unions, management schools, universities, academic schools and departments, law firms and institutes. Individual members come from the ranks of academe, labor, management and neutrals. The organization provides professional development for human resource professionals, union members, corporate and non-profit managers; national, state and local government employees; arbitrators and mediators; labor attorneys and others.

LERA meets each year in May/June (LERA Annual Meeting), and participates with 18 sessions (LERA@ASSA Meeting) as part of the Allied Social Science Associations the first week of January each year.

In 2018, LERA held the LERA 70th Annual Meeting, in Baltimore, MD, at the Hilton Baltimore, June 14–17, 2018. Our LERA 71st Annual Meeting, June 13–16, 2019 will take place in Cleveland, Ohio at the Westin Cleveland Downtown. ^[5]

Awards

LERA offers a number of awards, recognitions and grants each year. Its most prestigious award is the John T. Dunlop Scholar Award. Two Dunlop Scholar Awards are given each year. One goes to an academic who makes the best contribution to international and/or comparative labor and employment research. A second award recognizes an academic for research that addresses an industrial relations/employment problem of national significance in the United States. Other awards include:

Thomas A. Kochan and Stephen R. Sleigh Best Dissertation Award
Chapter Merit Awards, Outstanding Chapter, and Chapter Star Awards
LERA Fellows
Lifetime Achievement Award
James G. Scoville Best International Paper Award
John T. Dunlop Scholar Awards
LERA Outstanding Practitioner Awards
Susan C. Eaton Scholar-Practitioner Award
Susan C. Eaton Scholar-Practitioner Grant
Kenneth May Media Award
Myron Taylor Management Award

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References

[1] "History".

[2] "Publications".

[3] "Publications".

[4] "Contact".

[5] "Membership".

[6] "LERA Awards".

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