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

Rethinking the semantics of attitude reports

In response to John Locke’s death in 1704, Pierre Coste (1824) penned a letter containing the following passage: [H]e was naturally somewhat choleric. But his anger never lasted long...I remember, that two or three weeks before his death, as he was sitting in a garden, taking the air in a bright sunshine, whose warmth afforded him a great deal of pleasure...; we happened to speak of Horace, I know not on what occasion, and having repeated to him these verses, where that Poet says of himself, that he was Solibus aptum; Irasci celerem, tamen ut placabilis essem: “That he loved the warmth of the sun, and that tho’ he was naturally choleric, his anger was easily appeased.” Mr. Locke replied, that if he durst presume to compare himself with Horace in any thing, he thought he was perfectly like him in those two respects. (170, bold emphasis mine) This passage loosely contains a sentence of the form ⌜x says of y that p⌝ and ends with an anaphoric reference to “two respects” that, at face value, are designated by clausal complements, viz. ‘that he loved the warmth of the sun’ and ‘that tho he was naturally choleric, his anger was easily appeased.’ This dissertation concerns the semantics of these and related constructions, with an emphasis placed on those of the form ⌜x believes about y that p.⌝ These belief-about reports have received less attention than reports of the form ⌜x believes that p,⌝ but the former – along with their syntactically derived forms – are just as much a part of present-day, natural language English as the latter. Indeed, once I started studying ‘about’-constructions systematically, I immediately began to notice their regular appearance “in the wild.” This dissertation represents my attempts at taming this small corner, replete with philosophical significance, of the English language. There are three chapters, and they all concern the semantics of attitude verbs with clausal complements; I focus on ‘believes’ for ease of exposition. Chapters 1 and 3 can be read as standalone works. Chapter 2 should be read after Chapter 1. In Chapter 1, “A Puzzle about Belief-about,” I argue that certain valid inferences involving belief-about reports are prima facie inconsistent with orthodox views of the belief relation as binary and propositional. In response, I propose a conservative departure from orthodoxy according to which certain ‘that’-clauses designate novel devices of semantic type called open propositions; the view of belief as binary and propositional is retained. I give some reasons for thinking that open propositions are properties of a certain kind, give a bridge principle between belief-about and belief simpliciter, and formally implement the resulting view in accordance with contemporary theories of syntax and compositional semantics. The upshot is that theorists committed to orthodoxy must complicate their account of certain ‘that’-clauses in surprising ways. In Chapter 2, “Belief is a Ternary Relation,” I object to the semantic complexity required by the proposal advanced in Chapter 1 and investigate a more radical departure from orthodoxy, viz. that belief is a ternary relation between subjects, objects (“targets”), and properties (“contents”). After showing how the resulting Target and Content View can be formally implemented, I respond to a variety of objections that fall roughly into one of two categories: semantic and metaphysical. Responding to the semantic objections requires developing accounts of truth, assertion, and related notions, while responding to the metaphysical objections requires defending a particular view on the nature of propositions. The upshot is that if theorists are unwilling to countenance the semantic complexity required to save orthodoxy in the way proposed in Chapter 1, then the Target and Content View is an attractive alternative with theoretical benefits that are significant in their own right. The formal implementation of the view proposed in Chapter 2 presupposes an intensional semantic framework attributable to the linguistic development of variable-based theories of intensionality, which purport to explain the transparency of determiner phrases in the context of attitude reports. In Chapter 3, “Variable-based Intensionality for Structured Propositions,” I argue that these theories in their simple, traditional forms are not available to advocates of structured propositions, and that the only attempt so far to unify these approaches is unsuccessful. So, I develop an improved variable-based theory of intensionality for structured propositions. Due to the underappreciated generality of the intensional phenomena at issue, however, it turns out that all theories face further challenges still. The upshot is that advocates of structured propositions might even be in a stronger position than other theorists when it comes to tackling these challenges purely semantically, but the complications required also suggest that non-semantic explanations of transparency are worth investigating now more than ever. I’ll end with a note on methodology. This dissertation is couched within the theoretical framework of generative grammar and compositional semantics. One of its guiding principles is, accordingly, that truth-conditions for English sentences in context must be compositionally derived on the basis of syntactically respectable logical forms. This dissertation is also strongly influenced by the methods and tools of contemporary analytic metaphysics. So, another one of its guiding principle is that we ought to take seriously the nature of the entities appealed to by our best scientific theories, including the science of language. A recurring theme is therefore the dovetailing of considerations from formal semantics, on the one hand, and philosophical argumentation pertaining to the metaphysical natures of compositional semantic values (in context), on the other. I’ve tried to treat linguistic and philosophical considerations as on a par with one another throughout, conceiving of their distinction ultimately as an arbitrary matter – or, at least, as one that can be safely bracketed for present purposes.Philosoph

La doctrina al servicio de la misión pastoral de la Iglesia

Pope Francis has expressed “the Christian doctrine is not a closed system without the capacity to generate questions, doubts, questions, questions, but it is alive, it knows how to animate, it knows how to disturb”. This article offers examples of how in the course of history this evolution has been verified directed towards a deeper understanding Evolution, Doctrine, Development, Pastorality, Dogma, Missionof the doctrine at the service of the mission of proclaiming the Gospel.El papa Francisco ha expresado que “la doctrina cristiana no es un sistema cerrado sin capacidad de generar preguntas, dudas, interrogativos, cuestiones, sino que es viva, sabe animar, sabe inquietar”. Este artículo ofrece ejemplos de cómo en el transcurso de la historia se ha verificado dicha evolución dirigida hacia una más profunda comprensión de la doctrina al servicio de la misión de anunciar el Evangelio

Applicability of Neural Networks for Driving Style Classification and Maneuver Detection

Maneuver and driving style detection are of ongoing interest for the extension of vehicle's functionalities. Existing machine learning approaches require extensive sensor data and demand for high computational power. For vehicle onboard implementation, poorly generalizing rule-based approaches are currently state of the art. Not being restricted to neither comprehensive environmental sensors like camera or radar, nor high computing power (both of what is today only present in upper class' vehicles), our approach allows for cross-vehicle use: In this work, the applicability of small artificial neural networks (ANN) as efficient detectors is tested using a prototypal vehicle implementation. During test drives, overtaking maneuvers have been detected 1.2 s prior to the competing rule-based approach in average, also greatly improving the detection performance. Regarding driving style recognition, ANN-based results are closer to targets and more patient at driving style transitions. A recognition rate of over 75 % is achieved

Graphen, Knotenfarbklassen und 0-1-Matrizen

Einen guten Überblick über Anzahlen von Knotenfärbungen eines Graphen findet der Leser in der grundlegenden Monografie von Norman Biggs(1). Bei der Untersuchung von Knotenfärbungen ausgewählter Graphen und deren Anzahlen ergaben sich verschiedene 0-1-Matrizen mit interessanten Eigenschaften. Diese sollen, nach einfachen Untersuchungen, hier beschrieben werden. Über Matrizen und ihre Polynome findet man unter den Publikationen ausreichend Literatur. Erwähnt seien die Standardwerke von M. Marcus and H. Minc(), F. R. Gantmacher() und D. M. Cvetkovic’, M. Doob and H. Sachs(). Nach einer Einführung in die Begriffswelt werden Zellengraphen , abgeleitet von einem Vierkreis (das Quadrat) ohne und mit Diagonalen, sowie mir deren Anzahl von Farbklassen der Knotenpunkte untersucht

A systematic review of vitamin D status in populations worldwide

Vitamin D deficiency is associated with osteoporosis and is thought to increase the risk of cancer and CVD. Despite these numerous potential health effects, data on vitamin D status at the population level and within key subgroups are limited. The aims of the present study were to examine patterns of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels worldwide and to assess differences by age, sex and region. In a systematic literature review using the Medline and EMBASE databases, we identified 195 studies conducted in forty-four countries involving more than 168000 participants. Mean population-level 25(OH)D values varied considerably across the studies (range 4·9-136·2nmol/l), with 37·3% of the studies reporting mean values below 50nmol/l. The highest 25(OH)D values were observed in North America. Although age-related differences were observed in the Asia/Pacific and Middle East/Africa regions, they were not observed elsewhere and sex-related differences were not observed in any region. Substantial heterogeneity between the studies precluded drawing conclusions on overall vitamin D status at the population level. Exploratory analyses, however, suggested that newborns and institutionalised elderly from several regions worldwide appeared to be at a generally higher risk of exhibiting lower 25(OH)D values. Substantial details on worldwide patterns of vitamin D status at the population level and within key subgroups are needed to inform public health policy development to reduce risk for potential health consequences of an inadequate vitamin D statu