U.S. WORKERS AND WORKPLACE POLICIES
Spring 2013 Syllabus
Holly Fechner
Harvard Kennedy School
Belfer-L-2D
(617) 384-5899 (HKS) or (202) 662-5475 (w)
holly_fechner@hks.harvard.edu
DPI-425
Spring 2013
Class: Mondays 4:10 to 6 pm
Littauer 382
Office hours: Mondays 2 to 4 pm
Sarah Doyle, Faculty Assistant
sarah_doyle@hks.harvard.edu
(617) 495-9455
Course Description
This course explores the foundations of U.S. labor and employment policies and contemporary
labor issues under active political debate. It considers the significance of New Deal laws
governing wages, hours, and collective bargaining, as well as advances in anti-discrimination
policy during the Civil Rights era. It examines how workers and employers today view their
rights and responsibilities, and covers important demographic and labor market trends. This
course highlights the key political players that create and enforce workplace policies, including
Congress, the Executive Branch, businesses and unions, think tanks and non-profit organizations.
Students will learn practical advocacy skills and should be prepared to participate actively in
class discussion.
The goals of the course are to understand substantive labor and employment policy and to
develop and practice advocacy skills. Students will learn the historical foundations and
contemporary applications of three primary branches of U.S. labor and employment policy:

minimum labor standards,

collective bargaining, and

anti-discrimination policies.
We will also discuss and practice advocacy skills, including lobbying; staffing a high-level
decision maker; and advocating through written or spoken words. We will employ an analytical
framework to help us deconstruct the various components of policymaking. Specifically, over the
course of the class, we will give particular attention to:

text - what a bill, law, or regulation says;

policy - what one wants the bill, law, or regulation to say;

politics - what is feasible given existing realities; and

advocacy - tools to changes policies.
Credit, Class Participation and Evaluation
This is a one credit class that meets once a week for just under two hours. Your final grades are
based on class participation and written work. All students must be familiar with and abide by
the HKS Honor Code to pass. Please consult the following resource for further information on
academic integrity at HKS: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/degrees/registrar/procedures/integrity.
Students are expected to be prepared for every class and participate actively in discussions.
Active participation does not always mean talking. Often it means listening carefully to what
other are saying and asking questions of them when you don’t understand or you disagree.
Comments can and should be directed toward other students as well as the professor. Active
participation necessitates completion of the required reading prior to the class meeting. Class
participation, including reaction papers to the readings, counts for 25% of your grade.
Attendance at every class meeting is required and expected. Plan your schedule around the class
meetings. Please notify Professor Fechner in advance if you need to miss class.
The remainder of your grade (75%) will be based on three written work products:

Lobby Day Fact Sheet (25%) - Due on February 25. You will produce a two page fact
sheet advocating for a particular policy position on paid sick days that you will use in
class for our Lobby Day exercise on February 25.

Memorandum and Talking Points for Elected Official (25%) - Due on April 1. You will
produce a four to five page memorandum to your hypothetical elected official boss, along
with one page of talking points that he or she could use in a meeting with a constituent or
advocate.

Workplace Policy Change Speech or Op-Ed (25%) - Due on May 7. You will produce an
800 word speech or opposition editorial on a labor or employment topic.
Computers, Tablets, Smartphones, and other Mobile Devices
Any device that will make noise during class must be turned off during class, except computers
(provided you are using the computer to take notes) or technology used to assist with an
accommodation for a student with a disability. Please see Professor Fechner if you need an
exception to this rule for a particular class for extenuating circumstances.
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Class Schedule and Reading Assignments
Class 1 - January 28
Introduction to Course and Employment-at-Will
Richard B. Freeman, America Works: Critical Thoughts on the Exceptional U.S. Labor Market,
Introduction and Chapter 1 (2007).
Horace Gray Wood, A Treatise on the Law of Master & Servant, Section 134 at 271 (1877).
http://books.google.com/books?id=qrYzAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22treatise%20on%20the%20law%
20of%20master%22&pg=PP3#v=onepage&q&f=false
Class 2 - February 4
Minimum Labor Standards: The New Deal Foundation
Kirstin Downey, The Woman Behind the New Deal, Prologue and Chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, 13, 14, 16,
26 and 27 (2009).
David Von Drehle, Triangle: The Fire that Changed America, Prologue and Chapter 8 (2003).
U.S. Department of Labor Overview of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
http://www.dol.gov/compliance/laws/comp-flsa.htm#overview
Class 3 - February 11
Contemporary Minimum Labor Standards: Family &
Medical Leave and Fair Labor Standards Act Enforcement
Chai R. Feldblum and Robin Appleberry, “Agencies, Courts and Advocates: How Laws are
Made, Interpreted and Modified” (2006).
http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/1086
Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers: Violations of Employment and Labor Laws in American
Cities 1 to 39 (2009).
http://www.nelp.org/page/-/brokenlaws/BrokenLawsReport2009.pdf?nocdn=1
February 18
President’s Day Holiday - No Class
***Fact Sheet Assignment Due - February 25 by Noon
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Class 4 - February 25
Lobby Day: Paid Sick Days
Healthy Families Act S. 984 and H.R. 1876
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/s984
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/112/hr1876
Healthy Families Act Fact Sheet
http://paidsickdays.nationalpartnership.org/site/DocServer/HFA_Expanded_Overview.pdf?docI
D=10741
Keep Denver Competitive. Mandatory paid leave … bad for business … wrong for Denver.
https://milehighbiz.org/sites/newmhba.geekgene.com/files/KDC%20Fact%20Sheet%2007-1111.pdf
Kevin Miller and Claudia Williams, Institute for Women’s Policy Research, “Valuing Good
Health in Massachusetts: The Costs and Benefits of Paid Sick Days” (May 2012).
http://www.iwpr.org/initiatives/family-leave-paid-sick-days
Michael J. Chow, NFIB Research Foundation, “Effects of a Paid Sick Leave Mandate on
Massachusetts Small Businesses” (January 2012).
http://www.nfib.com/Portals/0/PDF/AllUsers/research/studies/massachusetts-paid-leave-nfibstudy.pdf
Class 5 - March 4
Collective Bargaining: The New Deal Foundation
Nelson Lichtenstein, State of the Union: A Century of American Labor, Introduction and
Chapter 1 (2002).
Kirstin Downey, The Woman Behind the New Deal, Chapters 21, 22 and 23 (2011).
Overview of the National Labor Relations Act.
http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/migrated/labor/basics/nlra/papers/overview_nlra.p
df
Class 6 - March 11
Contemporary Union Organizing and Collective Bargaining
Richard B. Freeman, America Works: Critical Thoughts on the Exceptional U.S. Labor Market
Chapter 5 (2007).
National Labor Relations Board Overview of Protected Concerted Activity.
http://www.nlrb.gov/concerted-activity.
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Republican Platform Statement, 2008, Sections “Developing a Flexible and Innovative
Workforce” and “Protecting Union Workers.”
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=78545
Republican Platform Statement, 2012, Sections “A Twenty-First Century Workforce” and
“Freedom in the Workplace.”
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=101961
Democratic Platform Statements, 2008, Sections “Good Jobs with Good Pay” and “Women and
Family.”
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=78283
Democratic Platform Statements, 2012, Sections “Standing Up for Workers,” “Strengthening the
American Community -- Families” and “Protecting Rights and Freedoms -- Civil Rights,
Women.”
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=101962
Human Rights Watch, “Unfair Advantage: Workers’ Freedom of Association In the United
States under International Human Rights Standards,” 1 to 23 (2000).
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/uslbr008.pdf
March 18
Spring Break - No Class
Class 7 - March 25
Anti-Discrimination Policies: The Civil Rights Era Foundation
Susan D. Carle, “A Social Movement History of Title VII Disparate Impact Analysis,” 16 to 65
(2010).
http://works.bepress.com/susan_carle/4/
Martin Luther King, Jr., If the Negro Wins, Labor Wins (February 2, 1962).
http://mlkkpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry/if_the_negro_wins_labor_wins/
Martin Luther King, Jr., Address at the Illinois State Convention of the AFL-CIO (October 7,
1965).
http://mlkkpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry/address_at_the_illinois_state_conve
ntion_of_the_afl_cio/
***Memorandum and Talking Points to Elected Official Paper Due - April 1 by Noon
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Class 8 - April 1
Contemporary Anti-Discrimination Policy: Discrimination
against Caregivers and Workplace Flexibility
Joan C. Williams, Unbending Gender, Chapter 1 (2001).
Joan C. Williams and Stephanie Bornstein, “Evolution of FReD: Family Responsibilities
Discrimination and Developments in the Law of Stereotyping and Implicit Bias,” 59 Hastings
L.J. 1311 (2007-08).
http://www.heinonline.org/HOL/Page?public=false&handle=hein.journals/hastlj59&men_hide=f
alse&men_tab=citnav&collection=journals&id=1351
Workplace Flexibility 2010, The United Kingdom Flexible Working Act (2006),
http://workplaceflexibility2010.org/images/uploads/C_LegalMemo_FWAUK.pdf
Class 9 - April 8
Advocacy Tools
Writing an Op-Ed
http://shorensteincenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/HO_NEW_HOW-TO-WRITE-ANOPED-OR-COLUMN.pdf
Communications Program Writing and Public Speaking handouts
http://shorensteincenter.org/students/communications-program/writing-public-speakinghandouts/
Class 10 - April 15
Workplace Policies and Demographics
Richard B. Freeman, America Works: Critical Thoughts on the Exceptional U.S. Labor Market
Chapters 2, 3 and 8 (2007).
The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything, Heather Boushey, “The New
Breadwinners,” (2009).
http://shriverreport.com/awn/economy.php.
Class 11 - April 22
Current and Future Labor Markets
C. Brett Lockard and Michael Wolf, “Occupational Projections to 2020,” U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics.
www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2012/01/art5full.pdf
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David Autor, The Polarization of Job Opportunities in the U.S. Labor Market: Implications for
Employment and Earnings (April 2010).
http://economics.mit.edu/files/5554
Lawrence Mishel, Education is not the Cure for High Unemployment or for Income Inequality
(January 2011).
http://www.epi.org/publication/education_is_not_the_cure_for_high_unemployment_or_for_inc
ome_inequality/
Class 12 - April 29
The Future of Labor and Employment Policies
Harold Meyerson, “If Labor Dies, What’s Next?” The American Prospect (September 12, 2012).
http://prospect.org/article/if-labor-dies-whats-next
*** Workplace Policy Change Speech or Op-Ed due - May 7 at Noon.
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