On the Lack of Trade Union Power in Kenya

Le but de l'article précédent est de mettre au point un schéma permettant de préciser les différents facteurs qui déterminent un syndicat à décider de recourir à l'arbitrage pendant la durée d'une convention collective. L'objet de ce schéma est l'analyse des répercussions probables de changements qui seraient destinés à accélérer le processus de l'arbitrage, à en réduire le coût pour les syndicats et à faciliter le recours à la médiation avant l'arbitrage. L'auteur discute des conséquences de ces changements du point de vue de la direction, des syndicats et de l'État.L'article s'applique d'abord à l'Ontario, mais il vaut aussi pour les autres provinces canadiennes et plusieurs États Américains, car l'arbitrage exécutoire, en tant que stade ultime de la procédure de griefs, est obligatoire partout au Canada, sauf en Saskatchewan. On retrouve également un régime similaire dans la plupart des conventions collectives outre-frontière.Cette généralisation de l'arbitrage exécutoire ne signifie pas qu'il soit exempt de critiques. On estime que les délais sont beaucoup trop longs, que l'enquête est conduite d'une manière beaucoup trop formelle, que les décisions sont trop souvent sujettes à révision par les cours civiles, que l'obligation pour les syndicats d'avoir généralement à en défrayer la moitié du coût empêche les plus faibles d'y recourir suffisamment.Ceux qui désirent le maintien du régime actuel estiment qu'il est possible pour les intéressés de l'améliorer en établissant, à l'intérieur des conventions, leur propre système d'arbitrage. Ils considèrent aussi que toute tentative pour en réduire le coût se traduira par la multiplication des griefs déférés à des tiers.L'auteur signale que, sous le présent régime, le syndicat, suivant les circonstances, a un triple choix: soumettre le grief à l'arbitrage, réserver la question pour règlement à la prochaine ronde de négociations ou, tout simplement, l'abandonner. Ce triple choix dépend de la situation de force dans laquelle se trouve le syndicat au moment du grief. Si le grief n'est pas abandonné, le syndicat pourra demander l'arbitrage, ce qui peut inciter la direction à le régler. Si la direction ne bouge pas et si l'on est à la veille d'entreprendre de nouvelles négociations, il se peut que le syndicat préfère tenter de trouver une solution au moment des conventions collectives.L'auteur passe ensuite à l'analyse de la conception que les arbitres se font de leur rôle, les uns s'en tenant à l'interprétation stricte de la convention; d'autres, beaucoup moins nombreux, cherchant à jouer si possible le rôle d'un médiateur. D'une façon générale, l'arbitrage est généralement considéré comme un procès, les parties présentant une argumentation, s'appuyant sur une jurisprudence et citant des témoins.La nature des griefs est aussi fort variée. Les uns portent sur des questions de fait précises; d'autres viennent s'insérer dans le processus même des négociations collectives. Il est rare que l'on soit en présence de conflits de droit pur. On est la plupart du temps en présence d'un conflit de droit auquel viennent s'ajouter des questions d'intérêts.Il arrive également que l'on se trouve en présence de pseudo-conflits, c'est-à-dire que les conflits sont inexistants, les parties ne se comprenant pas ou faisant mine de ne pas se comprendre.En effet, les rapports entre des contractants assujettis à une convention collective sont de plusieurs types. Les uns sont en opposition marquée cherchant à sedétruire ou à s'affaiblir l'un et l'autre. D'autres adoptent une attitude d'agression mutuelle, mais l'un accepte l'existence légitime de l'autre. D'autres encore cherchent à s'accommoder: ils ne vont pas jusqu'à travailler à se démolir, mais ne prêtent aucune assistance, gardant des rapports courtois de stricte neutralité. Enfin, il y a ceux qui marchent la main dans la main en parfaite collusion.L'existence de ces climats variés exerce, cela va de soi, une influence sur le type des conflits qui se produisent, sur la façon dont ils sont perçus et aussi sur les modes de règlements de griefs qu'on recherche.À partir des observations précédentes, l'auteur simplifie les choses en estimant qu'il s'installe généralement deux types de climats: les uns, bons, où l'on s'efforce de coopérer, de s'accommoder; les autres, mauvais, où l'on se défie sans cesse mutuellement.Dans le premier cas, il y a peu de pseudo-conflits, puisque ceux-ci ont tendance à se résoudre entre les parties, c'est-à-dire que les problèmes se règlent aux divers stades de la procédure des griefs. Au contraire, si le climat de l'entreprise est mauvais, il y a de fortes chances que le mécanisme mis en place pour le règlement des griefs fonctionnera mal, le syndicat devant choisir l'arbitrage, retenir le grief en vue de son règlement au moment de la négociation collective ou se résigner à le laisser tomber.C'est ici qu'intervient le choix de la méthode à suivre. Par exemple, on sait que la procédure de règlement des griefs précède le recours à l'arbitrage. La décision du syndicat sera alors influencée par le moment où se soulève un grief. Si l'on est à la veille d'entamer de nouvelles négociations et que l'on sait que les délais seront longs avant d'obtenir une décision, le syndicat cherchera à régler le différend par le biais de la négociation collective, d'où l'on peut déduire que des considérations de temps jouent un rôle important dans la décision de porter ou non un grief à l'arbitrage. L'autre aspect, qui entre en ligne de compte, a trait aux gains que l'on peut obtenir. Parfois, quand il s'agit de problèmes relatifs aux salaires, il est possible d'évaluer les avantages qu'on pourra tirer d'une victoire, mais quand il s'agit des droits d'un individu, il est bien plus difficile de trouver une unité de mesure. Le syndicat tient également compte des dépenses qu'il aura à effectuer au cours d'un arbitrage comparativement aux gains qu'il escompte obtenir par la décision et également au risque qu'il court de ne pas avoir gain de cause.Le schéma précédent permet d'étudier plusieurs possibilités de modifier les lois suivant lesquelles le système d'arbitrage avec décision exécutoire peut fonctionner. Ce schéma implique que, là où les relations sont bonnes, la plupart des griefs ne se rendront pas à l'arbitrage. C'est pourquoi les adversaires de la modification du régime estiment que rendre l'arbitrage plus facile d'accès, c'est inviter les parties à ne pas faire tous les efforts voulus pour régler directement les conflits, mais on peut se demander aussi si un régime d'arbitrage moins dispendieux, moins long, moins formaliste ne serait pas un bon moyen de faciliter les négociations collectives.La réduction du coût de l'arbitrage, de sa durée et de son formalisme aurait pour effet de débarrasser la négociation collective de nombreuses questions qui conduisent souvent à des impasses mais, cela accroîtrait le volume des griefs et forcerait aussi le syndicat à poursuivre des griefs qui ne sont pas sérieux.L'auteur conclut son étude en disant que, étant donné le rôle important que joue l'arbitrage dans les relations de travail, il faudrait pousser plus loin les recherches dans ce domaine pour mieux connaître d'abord le fonctionnement du processus d'arbitrage et ensuite pour mieux comprendre les facteurs qui poussent les syndicats à y recourir, ce à quoi l'on peut arriver par l'étude plus poussée de la formation et du cheminement de beaucoup de griefs

Growth and Persistence of Large Business Groups in India

The international business literature is belatedly recognizing the significance of large family-controlled business groups in emerging markets. Most research has focused on analyzing the impact of concentrations of private wealth on economic development in home countries using panel data. This paper examines the growth and persistence of business groups since 1951 in one country – India. Since Independence, the government has attempted to operate an economic policy framework that had, amongst its prime objectives, the curbing of the tendency of business groups to concentrate economic power. As their growth was seen as synonymous with concentration of wealth, business groups became obvious candidates for regulation. Various policy instruments were introduced, such as the Industries (Development and Regulation) (IDR) Act 1951 and the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act 1969, with the aim of erecting barriers to their growth. In 1991, economic reform ushered in the removal of the legislative barriers to business group growth. The analysis in this paper concludes that large business groups expanded their share of wealth between 1951 and 1969, but this growth was arrested between 1970 and 1990, and since 1991, it has dwindled. The pre-eminent position of Tata and Birla, as the two largest business groups, remained unchallenged from 1951 until the emergence of the Reliance Group in the late 1990s. However, there has been frequent change in the relative positions of other groups in and out of the Top-20. After economic liberalisation accelerated from 1991, there was significant change in the ranks of business groups in the Top-20. Existing smaller groups or newly emerging groups, particularly in the IT and telecommunications sectors, have replaced many of the previously dominant older groups. This is interpreted as indicating the central role of entrepreneurship in combination with technological innovation, and the opening up of the Indian economy to international competition, in disturbing established business hierarchies in India. More generally, policy intervention appears to have been less effective in breaking up concentrations of economic power in India than economic liberalization and increased competition

Electrical properties of pulsed UV laser irradiated amorphous carbon

Amorphous carbon films containing no hydrogen were irradiated with a pulsed UV laser in vacuum. Raman spectroscopy indicates an increase in the quantity of sp(2) clustering with the highest laser energy density and a commensurate reduction in resistivity. The reduction of resistivity is explained to be associated with thermally induced graphitization of amorphous carbon films. The high field transport is consistent with a Poole-Frenkel type transport mechanism via neutral trapping centers related to sp(2) sites which are activated under high fields. Decreasing the resistivity is an important feature for use of carbon as an electronic material. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.</p

In situ studies of algal biomass in relation to physicochemical characteristics of the Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma, USA

This is the first in a series of experiments designed to characterize the Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge (SPNWR) ecosystem in northwestern Oklahoma and to catalogue its microbial inhabitants. The SPNWR is the remnant of an ancient ocean, encompassing ~65 km(2 )of variably hypersaline flat land, fed by tributaries of the Arkansas River. Relative algal biomass (i.e., chlorophyll concentrations attributed to Chlorophyll-a-containing oxygenic phototrophs) and physical and chemical parameters were monitored at three permanent stations for a one-year period (July 2000 to July 2001) using a nested block design. Salient features of the flats include annual air temperatures that ranged from -10 to 40°C, and similar to other arid/semi-arid environments, 15–20-degree daily swings were common. Shade is absent from the flats system; intense irradiance and high temperatures (air and sediment surface) resulted in low water availability across the SPNWR, with levels of only ca. 15 % at the sediment surface. Moreover, moderate daily winds were constant (ca. 8–12 km h(-1)), sometimes achieving maximum speeds of up to 137 km h(-1). Typical of freshwater systems, orthophosphate (PO(4)(3-)) concentrations were low, ranging from 0.04 to <1 μM; dissolved inorganic nitrogen levels were high, but spatially variable, ranging from ca. 250–600 μM (NO(3)(- )+ NO(2)(-)) and 4–166 μM (NH(4)(+)). Phototroph abundance was likely tied to nutrient availability, with high-nutrient sites exhibiting high Chl-a levels (ca. 1.46 mg m(-2)). Despite these harsh conditions, the phototrophic microbial community was unexpectedly diverse. Preliminary attempts to isolate and identify oxygenic phototrophs from SPNWR water and soil samples yielded 47 species from 20 taxa and 3 divisions. Our data indicate that highly variable, extreme environments might support phototrophic microbial communities characterized by higher species diversity than previously assumed

Events in Early Life are Associated with Female Reproductive Ageing: A UK Biobank Study.

The available oocyte pool is determined before birth, with the majority of oocytes lost before puberty. We hypothesised that events occurring before birth, in childhood or in adolescence ('early-life risk factors') could influence the size of the oocyte pool and thus the timing of menopause. We included cross-sectional data from 273,474 women from the UK Biobank, recruited in 2006-2010 from across the UK. We analysed the association of early menopause with events occurring before adulthood in 11,781 cases (menopause aged under 45) and 173,641 controls (menopause/pre-menopausal at ≥ 45 years), in models controlling for potential confounding variables. Being part of a multiple birth was strongly associated with early menopause (odds ratio = 1.42, confidence interval: 1.11, 1.82, P = 8.0 × 10(-9), fully-adjusted model). Earlier age at menarche (odds ratio = 1.03, confidence interval: 1.01, 1.06, P = 2.5 × 10(-6)) and earlier year of birth were also associated with EM (odds ratio = 1.02, confidence interval: 1.00, 1.04, P = 8.0 × 10(-6)). We also confirmed previously reported associations with smoking, drinking alcohol, educational level and number of births. We identified an association between multiple births and early menopause, which connects events pre-birth, when the oocyte pool is formed, with reproductive ageing in later life.This research has been conducted using the UK Biobank Resource. This work was generously supported by a Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Award [WT097835MF to University of Exeter].This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep2471

Population Monte Carlo algorithms

We give a cross-disciplinary survey on ``population'' Monte Carlo algorithms. In these algorithms, a set of ``walkers'' or ``particles'' is used as a representation of a high-dimensional vector. The computation is carried out by a random walk and split/deletion of these objects. The algorithms are developed in various fields in physics and statistical sciences and called by lots of different terms -- ``quantum Monte Carlo'', ``transfer-matrix Monte Carlo'', ``Monte Carlo filter (particle filter)'',``sequential Monte Carlo'' and ``PERM'' etc. Here we discuss them in a coherent framework. We also touch on related algorithms -- genetic algorithms and annealed importance sampling.Comment: Title is changed (Population-based Monte Carlo -> Population Monte Carlo). A number of small but important corrections and additions. References are also added. Original Version is read at 2000 Workshop on Information-Based Induction Sciences (July 17-18, 2000, Syuzenji, Shizuoka, Japan). No figure

A genome-wide association study identifies protein quantitative trait loci (pQTLs)

There is considerable evidence that human genetic variation influences gene expression. Genome-wide studies have revealed that mRNA levels are associated with genetic variation in or close to the gene coding for those mRNA transcripts - cis effects, and elsewhere in the genome - trans effects. The role of genetic variation in determining protein levels has not been systematically assessed. Using a genome-wide association approach we show that common genetic variation influences levels of clinically relevant proteins in human serum and plasma. We evaluated the role of 496,032 polymorphisms on levels of 42 proteins measured in 1200 fasting individuals from the population based InCHIANTI study. Proteins included insulin, several interleukins, adipokines, chemokines, and liver function markers that are implicated in many common diseases including metabolic, inflammatory, and infectious conditions. We identified eight Cis effects, including variants in or near the IL6R (p = 1.8×10 -57), CCL4L1 (p = 3.9×10-21), IL18 (p = 6.8×10-13), LPA (p = 4.4×10-10), GGT1 (p = 1.5×10-7), SHBG (p = 3.1×10-7), CRP (p = 6.4×10-6) and IL1RN (p = 7.3×10-6) genes, all associated with their respective protein products with effect sizes ranging from 0.19 to 0.69 standard deviations per allele. Mechanisms implicated include altered rates of cleavage of bound to unbound soluble receptor (IL6R), altered secretion rates of different sized proteins (LPA), variation in gene copy number (CCL4L1) and altered transcription (GGT1). We identified one novel trans effect that was an association between ABO blood group and tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) levels (p = 6.8×10-40), but this finding was not present when TNF-alpha was measured using a different assay , or in a second study, suggesting an assay-specific association. Our results show that protein levels share some of the features of the genetics of gene expression. These include the presence of strong genetic effects in cis locations. The identification of protein quantitative trait loci (pQTLs) may be a powerful complementary method of improving our understanding of disease pathways. © 2008 Melzer et al

Biochemical and histopathological correlation in liver transplant: The first 180 days

It is not known whether the histopathology of the liver allograft can be predicted from biochemical measurements in serum with the same confidence as in the native liver. To answer this question we compared the histopathological diagnoses in 170 biopsy specimens from 70 adult transplant recipients obtained during the first 180 days, with the concentrations of the serum bilirubin and the activities of AST, ALT and alkaline phosphatase measured at the same time. The most frequent diagnosis was cholestasis (n = 45), which was mild, moderate or severe and which may have been complicated by rejection (n = 28) or ischemia (n = 14). Hepatitis (n = 14), ischemia with rejection (n = 6) and spotty focal necrosis (n = 6) were diagnosed less frequently. Fifteen biopsy specimens were reported as histopathologically normal. In general, biochemical measurements discriminated poorly between different histopathological diagnoses. The histopathologically normal liver often showed an abnormal pattern of enzymes and an increase in the serum bilirubin level. As a result histopathologically normal biopsy specimens were indistinguishable biochemically from those with hepatitis. When two pathological conditions were found to coexist (e.g., cholestasis with either rejection or ischemic necrosis, or ischemic necrosis with rejection), the effect on the serum biochemistry was usually not additive and in some instances returned the biochemical abnormalities toward normal. With the exception of the serum bilirubin level, which increased with the severity of uncomplicated cholestasis, we could not identify a specific pattern of biochemical changes corresponding to a given histopathological diagnosis. We suggest that until more specific noninvasive methods of monitoring the transplanted liver are developed protocol liver biopsies offer the best means of identifying significant pathological conditions in liver allografts. (H EPATOLOGY 1992;16:688–693.)Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/38382/1/1840160312_ftp.pd

A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of prostaglandin E 1 in liver transplantation

A double-blind placebo-controlled trial of intravenous prostaglandin PGE 1 (40 Μg/h) was conducted in adult orthotopic liver transplant recipients. Infusion was started intraoperatively and continued for up to 21 days. Patients were followed up for 180 days postoperatively. Among 172 patients eligible for treatment in the study, 160 could be evaluated (78 PGE 1 ; 82 placebo). Patient and graft survival were similar (PGE 1 : 16 deaths, 9 retransplantations [7 survivors]; controls: 15 deaths, 6 retransplantations [3 survivors]). In patients with surviving grafts, however, PGE 1 administration resulted in a 23% shorter mean duration of hospitalization following transplantation (PGE 1 : 24.4 days; controls: 31.8 days; P = .02) and 40% shorter length of time postoperatively in the intensive care unit (PGE 1 : 8.2 days; controls 13.7 days; P = .05). Reduced needs for renal support ( P = .03) or surgical intervention other than retransplantation ( P = .02) were also noted with PGE 1 use. Further, PGE 1 administration resulted in a trend toward improved survival rates in patients with mild renal impairment (preoperative serum creatinine 1.5 mg percent or greater; P = .08). Neither the incidence of acute cellular rejection nor of primary nonfunction was significantly different in the two groups. Phlebitis was the only complication that was more common during PGE 1 administration, (PGE 1 : 9; controls: 4). These results suggest that PGE 1 use in hepatic allograft recipients reduces morbidity and may result in sizable cost reductions. (H EPATOLOGY 1995;21:366–372.)Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/38409/1/1840210216_ftp.pd