The Survival of National Bargaining in the Electrical Contracting Industry: A Deviant Case?

One seemingly incontestable fact about British industrial relations over the last quarter century is the decentralisation of private sector collective bargaining from multi-employer level to the level of the enterprise, division, or plant. This article explores what is often seen to be a deviant case, namely the electrical contracting industry, where multi-employer national bargaining is claimed to have remained strong. This resilience would seem to be despite the fact that, on a priori grounds, given industrial structure and work organisation, multi-employer bargaining would seem unlikely in this industry. The first part of the paper briefly outlines the wider context of collective bargaining trends in British industry. In the second section, the development of collective bargaining arrangements in electrical contracting is outlined. The third section then investigates recent developments and the degree to which arrangements in the industry have deviated from the rest of the private sector. In the final section explanations are offered and implications are explored. The industry's bargaining arrangements are seen as having some positive outcomes in terms of the regulation of self-employment, employee benefits, and training.

Acting With Integrity Across The World’? What Do Multinationals Say About Labour Standards?

This paper is concerned with global labour governance and with the position taken by UK based multinational corporations with regard to labour standards in the management of their supply chains, both in the UK and internationally. Organisations may have multiple and varied reasons for their public statements on corporate behaviour, we ask what the largest and most reputable of UK organisations pledge in their public statements about the ways in which they manage across international and corporate boundaries. We address the following questions. What are the claimed objectives for MNC’s in considering management across international boundaries, including management of their supply chains? How do they frame those objectives in public documentation? This paper reports on the first phase of our work, based on documentary research. We have reviewed the annual reports of 20 UK plc’s – multinationals with extensive overseas supply chains and considerable purchasing power and influence. Power asymmetries are inherent in the relations between MNEs and suppliers or sub-contractors and we found that there is little evidence that corporate positions are implemented throughout the relevant supply chains. We found an absence of uniformity in approach (although a high proportion of our sample publically express nothing, or little, on the subject of labour standards). There is no strong evidence to show that fair trading standards in commercial relations with suppliers or contractors lead to clear labour standards for those employed in supply chain companies or with sub-contractors

Perspectives on the development of a molecularly targeted agent

AbstractSTI571 (Gleevec, imatinib mesylate) exemplifies the successful development of a rationally designed, molecularly targeted therapy for the treatment of a specific cancer. This article reviews the identification of Bcr-Abl as a therapeutic target in chronic myelogenous leukemia and the steps in the development of an agent to specifically inactivate this abnormality. Issues related to clinical trials of molecularly targeted agents are discussed, including dose and patient selection, as are possible mechanisms of resistance to STI571. Lastly, the potential use of STI571 in other malignancies and the translation of this paradigm to other malignancies is explored

One big union? : structural change in building trade unionism

Various publications have focussed attention on the building trade unions, usually with the aim of presenting an account of the history of an individual union. In most of them it has been assumed that one union for the building industry was the real and realisable objective of many of the actors in that history. The object of this thesis is to assess the validity of that assumption in the light of discussions on structural change within and between the unions concerned. The work takes the form of a historical account spanning the years of the twentieth century. It is based on surviving documentation and interviews with former officials of the unions concerned. Firstly it is argued that changes in the labour process were a necessary pre—requisite for changes in trade union structure. The labour process is defined according to its specific social form, that is as a capitalist process of production and emphasis is placed on capital formation, on government policy, on the level of technology and on the division of labour within the construction industry, as factors which explain the long survival of a craft form of trade union organisation. Attention is directed to changes in the form of engagement of labour, to the emergence of labour—only sub—contracting, and its significance for trade union organisation in construction. Secondly it is suggested that there is a close relationship between trade union government and trade union structure. Adjustments to the shape and size of trade unions are used by their leaders to foster their own authority and status within the emergent organisation. It is concluded that these factors were more important in motivating changes than any commitment to a particular form of trade union organisation

Mouse model of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma validates FIG-ROS as a potent fusion oncogene and therapeutic target

Cholangiocarcinoma is the second most common primary liver cancer and responds poorly to existing therapies. Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) likely originates from the biliary tree and develops within the hepatic parenchyma. We have generated a flexible orthotopic allograft mouse model of ICC that incorporates common genetic alterations identified in human ICC and histologically resembles the human disease. We examined the utility of this model to validate driver alterations in ICC and tested their suitability as therapeutic targets. Specifically, we showed that the fused-in-glioblastoma-c- ros-oncogene1 (FIG-ROS1(S); FIG- ROS) fusion gene dramatically accelerates ICC development and that its inactivation in established tumors has a potent antitumor effect. Our studies establish a versatile model of ICC that will be a useful preclinical tool and validate ROS1 fusions as potent oncoproteins and therapeutic targets in ICC and potentially other tumor types

A screen to identify drug resistant variants to target-directed anti-cancer agents

The discovery of oncogenes and signal transduction pathways important for mitogenesis has triggered the development of target-specific small molecule anti-cancer compounds. As exemplified by imatinib (Gleevec), a specific inhibitor of the Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML)-associated Bcr-Abl kinase, these agents promise impressive activity in clinical trials, with low levels of clinical toxicity. However, such therapy is susceptible to the emergence of drug resistance due to amino acid substitutions in the target protein. Defining the spectrum of such mutations is important for patient monitoring and the design of next-generation inhibitors. Using imatinib and BCR/ABL as a paradigm for a drug-target pair, we recently reported a retroviral vector-based screening strategy to identify the spectrum of resistance-conferring mutations. Here we provide a detailed methodology for the screen, which can be generally applied to any drug-target pair

Growth Arrest of BCR-ABL Positive Cells with a Sequence-Specific Polyamide-Chlorambucil Conjugate

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is characterized by the presence of a constitutively active Abl kinase, which is the product of a chimeric BCR-ABL gene, caused by the genetic translocation known as the Philadelphia chromosome. Imatinib, a selective inhibitor of the Bcr-Abl tyrosine kinase, has significantly improved the clinical outcome of patients with CML. However, subsets of patients lose their response to treatment through the emergence of imatinib-resistant cells, and imatinib treatment is less durable for patients with late stage CML. Although alternative Bcr-Abl tyrosine kinase inhibitors have been developed to overcome drug resistance, a cocktail therapy of different kinase inhibitors and additional chemotherapeutics may be needed for complete remission of CML in some cases. Chlorambucil has been used for treatment of B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia, non-Hodgkin's and Hodgkin's disease. Here we report that a DNA sequence-specific pyrrole-imidazole polyamide-chlorambucil conjugate, 1R-Chl, causes growth arrest of cells harboring both unmutated BCR-ABL and three imatinib resistant strains. 1R-Chl also displays selective toxicities against activated lymphocytes and a high dose tolerance in a murine model