Ineffectiveness in Teacher Bargaining: The Anatomy of a First Strike

Dans l'étude et la pratique de la négociation collective, on se heurte toujours à la possibilité d'une grève qui peut être potentiellement néfaste. Lorsque, de plus, les parties sont des novices dans l'art de négocier et qu'elles font face à un état de grève pour la première fois, il est probable qu'elles auront un comportement qui laisse à désirer et qui peut conduire à des résultats désastreux.Cette étude traite spécifiquement d'une « première grève » et propose une série de faits qui caractérisent de pareilles situations. Ces facteurs sont ensuite utilisés dans l'analyse des événements qui entourent une grève dans le secteur de l'enseignement où les deux parties, le syndicat et la commission scolaire, en étaient à leur première expérience.Lorsqu'il s'agit d'une première grève, on peut s'attendre à ce que, comparés à des négociateurs plus expérimentés, les responsables de la négociation soient (1) moins bien informés et plus hésitants, ce qui conduit à une perception moins nette des événements et à un comportement irrationnel; (2) qu'ils se montrent méfiants à l'endroit des autres parties; (3) qu'ils s'appuient sur des raisons émotives; (4) qu'ils adoptent une attitude défensive et agressive; (5) qu'ils optent pour des modes de communication inadéquats; (6) qu'ils aient recours à des aides professionnels moins compétents, ce qui a pour effet d'accroître les autres difficultés.L'examen de ce qui s'est passé au cours de cette grève d'enseignants a révélé que, d'une façon générale, le syndicat a subi des préjudices graves et inutiles comme résultat de sa décision de faire la grève, en obtenant qu'un petit peu plus que ce que lui avait offert la commission scolaire immédiatement avant la grève. Des communications réticentes et sélectives, alors que l'une et l'autre parties jouaient à cache-cache, le manque de conseils à la section locale de la part du siège social du syndicat, la négligence des dirigeants syndicaux à renseigner les membres sur des faits importants qui se rapportaient directement au conflit comme les offres salariales, des erreurs dans la stratégie de négociation qui ont placé le syndicat dans une situation désavantageuse, des attitudes de plus en plus émotives et agressives entre les parties au fur et à mesure que les négociations se poursuivaient, autant de faits qui ont caractérisé ces négociations. Le syndicat laissa passer la période la plus propice à la grève au commencement de l'automne au moment de l'ouverture des classes alors que la commission scolaire était moins prête à affronter la grève.La grève elle-même fut assez violente; elle a laissé de profonds ressentiments et une méfiance prolongée entre les parties. Les dirigeants syndicaux ont été emprisonnés une semaine pendant la grève. Les cours furent perturbés et les policiers furent forcés de maîtriser les grévistes. Les membres en général furent surpris par la dureté de la grève et par la fermeté de la commission scolaire à maintenir sa position. Le président de la commission scolaire remet peu après sa démission à cause d'animosité et de pressions sous forme d'appels téléphoniques outranciers, de lettres haineuses et d'altercation publique avec les membres du syndicat.Les événements et les expériences qui ont marqué cette grève diffèrent de la plupart des grèves d'enseignants qui ont été analysées jusqu'ici, ce qui indique que les premières grèves méritent une étude spéciale en tant que forme originale de conflits qui possèdent leurs caractéristiques et leurs dynamisme propres.On peut donc conclure que les parties à une première grève devraient se rendre compte de la probabilité plus forte des dangers dont il vient d'être question et qu'elles devraient mieux se préparer aux réalités de la négociation collective, se doter d'une aide professionnelle compétente, être prêtes à faire des compromis et être conscientes des effets prolongés de comportements néfastes pour les négociations futures.The objective of this paper is to identify characteristics which distinguish first strike situations from other strike actions. It is based on both collective bargaining and conflict resolution literature as well as the detailed analysis of a recent walkout by a public school teachers' union

Estimation and predictors of the Omega-3 Index in the UK Biobank

Information on the Omega-3 Index (O3I) in the United Kingdom (UK) are scarce. The UK-Biobank (UKBB) contains data on total plasma omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n3-PUFA%) and DHA% measured by NMR. The aim of our study was to create an equation to estimate the O3I (eO3I) from these data. We first performed an interlaboratory experiment with 250 random blood samples in which the O3I was measured in erythrocytes by gas chromatography, and total n3% and DHA% were measured in plasma by NMR. The best predictor of eO3I included both DHA% and a derived metric, the total n3%-DHA%. Together these explained 65% of the variability (r=0.832, p<0.0001). We then estimated the O3I in 117, 108 UKBB subjects and correlated it with demographic and lifestyle variables in multivariable adjusted models. The mean (SD) eO3I was 5.58% (2.35%) this UKBB cohort. Several predictors were significantly correlated with eO3I (all p<0.0001). In general order of impact and with directionality (- = inverse, + = direct): oily-fish consumption (+), fish oil supplement use (+), female sex (+), older age (+), alcohol use (+), smoking (-), higher waist circumference and BMI (-), lower socioeconomic status and less education (-). Only 20.5% of eO3I variability could be explained by predictors investigated, and oily-fish consumption accounted for 7.0% of that. With the availability of the eO3I in the UKBB cohort we will be in a position to link risk for a variety of diseases with this commonly-used and well-documented marker of n3-PUFA biostatus

Effect of physical activity during COVID-19 on the sleep health of community-level athletes in Australia

The COVID-19 outbreak presents a serious health challenges, with Australia enforcing tight restrictions, impacting sporting activities and sleep health of many Australians. Routine lifestyle patterns (physical activity and employment) are important to maintaining overall sleep health. Current literature indicates COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected the employment status and sport engagement. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of physical activity during COVID-19 on sleep health, and its association with employment and sport engagement of community-level athletes throughout Australia. Participants self-reported sleep health prior to COVID-19 (pre-sleep) and over the month prior to data collection (during-sleep) using the validated 5-item Satisfaction Alertness Timing Efficiency and Duration questionnaire (SATED). Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test assessed the difference in pre- and during perceived sleep health scores. A generalized linear model was used to assess the impact of sporting and demographic factors on a community athlete’s change in perceived sleep health score. A total of 139 community-level Australian athletes responded. The majority of participants were aged 18–30 and engaged in full-time employment prior to COVID-19 (n = 82, 54%). Eight percent of participants were unemployed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 12, 8%). Our findings show that sleep health values were higher during COVID-19, with 91.4% of respondents able to maintain some form of physical activity during the pandemic. Together, our results show better sleep health scores reported by the respondents who maintained or lost employment and maintained sporting engagements during the pandemic

Nonlinear hopping transport in ring systems and open channels

We study the nonlinear hopping transport in one-dimensional rings and open channels. Analytical results are derived for the stationary current response to a constant bias without assuming any specific coupling to the external fields. It is shown that anomalous large effective jump lengths, as observed in recent experiments by taking the ratio of the third order nonlinear and the linear conductivity, can occur already in ordered systems. Rectification effects due to site energy disorder in ring systems are expected to become irrelevant for large system sizes. In open channels in contrast, rectification effects occur already for disorder in the jump barriers and do not vanish in the thermodynamic limit. Numerical solutions for a sinusoidal bias show that the ring system provides a good description for the transport behavior in the open channel for intermediate and high frequencies. For low frequencies temporal variations in the mean particle number have to be taken into account in the open channel, which cannot be captured in the more simple ring model.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure

A survey to evaluate the association of COVID-19 restrictions on perceived mood and coping in Australian community level athletes

Australian community level athletes faced unprecedented changes to their training andcompetition options as the global COVID-19 pandemic took a stronghold. This disruptionwas predicted to have a negative impact on emotional well-being as communitiesbraced through periods of social isolation and physical distancing requirements. Thisstudy provides an Australian perspective on the emotional well-being of communitylevel athletes and the extent to which they coped during the COVID-19 pandemic.Emotional well-being and coping were measured using the Brief Emotional ExperienceScale and the 28-item Brief Cope Scale. Both instruments were administered alongwith other questions pertaining to participant demographics and training status via anonline survey between April and June 2020. The survey was disseminated to communityathletes through word-of-mouth and social media platforms. No significant differencesin emotional well-being were observed between athlete groups as a result of COVID-19and its associated restrictions. Coping scores also appeared to be preserved in Australiancommunity athletes, which contrasts the impact expected asa result of the COVID-19pandemic. While tentative, the observed preservation in coping may have bufferedpotential declines in emotional well-being, which has beendocumented in professionaland semi-professional athletes and the general population. These unexpected findingsand tentative suppositions warrant further investigationand highlight the importance ofconducting a country- or region-specific approach to examining the impact of COVID-19on community athletes, as responses to COVID-19 are undoubtedly not consistentthroughout the world

RISKGATE and Australian coal operations

The major Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP) project, RISKGATE has now completed three years of knowledge capture and system development. The body of knowledge for risk management of tyres, collisions, fires, isolation, strata underground, ground control open cut, explosions, explosives underground, explosives open cut, manual tasks and slips/trips/falls was launched in December 2012. Recently, the project added knowledge about outbursts, coal bumps and bursts, human-machine interface, tailings dams, occupational hygiene and inrush to the original 11 topics. In 2014, the project plans (pending ACARP funding approval) to focus on issues around Fitness for Work. RISKGATE provides an environment for knowledge capture and knowledge exchange to drive innovation and cross industry sharing of current practice in the identification, assessment and management of risk. By capturing operational knowledge from industry experts, RISKGATE provides a cumulative corporate memory at a time of high personnel turnover in the coal industry. RISKGATE is the largest single ACARP Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) initiative to date. This paper presents an overview of the first seventeen topics, topic structures, and contrasts and inter-relationships between topics. The second part of the paper discusses some early steps that companies are taking to integrate RISKGATE into their operations; and conclude with some thoughts on where RISKGATE can go in the future