Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
The Common Law of Employment Termination
The English Law of Employment Termination
The American Rule of Employment At-Will
Critics of At-Will Employment
The Failed Promise of Statutory Protection
The Promised Lands of Protected
Bargaining
Concession Bargaining and Job Security
Unions versus the “Core of Managerial Control”
Preserving Managerial Power
Unjust Dismissal Litigation
The “Erosion” of At-Will Employment
The State and Unjust Dismissal Litigation
Geographic Diffusion and Conceptual Consolidation
Unjust Dismissal Litigation and Job Security
Conclusion
An Excurse on the Economics of Dismissal Restriction
Afterword
List of Works Cited
Index
Reviews
“In this elegantly argued book, Matthias Beck has produced a masterful account of how and why successive attempts at strengthening job security for American employees at their place of work have come virtually to nothing. Synthesising brilliantly a mass of historical detail, he shows how powerful institutional and organizational forces have been mobilised to prevent American employees enjoying a level of employment protection that is taken-for-granted in most parts of Europe. As a result, at-will-employment is the Sword of Damocles that continues to hang most American workplaces. Above all, what emerges from this fine book is the perverse irony of the world’s richest country affording its citizens the least job security of any economically advanced nation.” – Professor Paul Teague, Martin Naughton Chair of Management at Queen’s University, Belfast
“In this impressively researched and scholarly book Prof Beck investigates the origins and consequences of limited legal protection offered to American workers … and explores the particular historical reasons for this apparent American exceptionalism. Thoroughly footnoted throughout, the narrative concentrates on the legal aspects of dismissal and the role of the judiciary promoting ‘at will’ firing and plant level bargaining. A detailed array of evidence is fielded to show how attempts to restrict managerial rights were doomed to failure … The book will be of interest to business, legal and economic historians, and policy makers. Above all, it will appeal to those readers who are seeking new insights into the linkages between disorganised labour and the evident competitive advantage of American capitalism before the financial crisis of 2007.” – Professor Steven Toms, Chair in Accounting at Leeds University Business School, UK and Editor of Business History.
