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BNA and the Labor and Employment Relations Association Announce A Webinar on “New Frontiers in Labor & Employment Policy,” April 8, 2009

Webinar to Kick Off Year of Dialogue Among Stakeholders in National Labor & Employment Policy Debates

NEWS RELEASE

Contacts:
Paula Wells, LERA
(217) 333-1485
LERAoffice@illinois.edu

Karen James Cody, BNA
presscontact@bna.com

Arlington, Va. (March 30, 2009) – The deep economic crisis poses fundamental challenges to public understanding of nearly all aspects of labor and employment relations policy. A lasting economic recovery will require labor and management to rethink many of the labor and human resource paradigms that have existed for decades.

Specialized news and information publisher BNA, in collaboration with the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA), will present a 2-hour Webinar on the topic “New Frontiers in Labor and Employment Policy: Ensuring Good Jobs, Fair Treatment, and High Performance in a Turbulent Economy” April 8 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. EST.

This Webinar is being held in advance of a National Policy Forum on the topic, planned for June 11-12, 2009 in Washington, D.C. Both events are in prelude to the LERA 2010 Annual Meeting in Atlanta, January 3-5, 2010. They will kick off a year of dialogue on “Work in America,” planned by LERA, in which managers, union leaders, neutrals, academics, and others are being encouraged to bring their voices and experience into these critical policy debates.

Forum co-chairs Thomas Kochan, Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Richard Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO, and Bonnie Summers, Executive Director of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association’s National Labor Office, will also lead the April 8 Webinar. BNA’s Surveys and Research Director Matthew Sottong will moderate the discussion.

“This event will enable HR and labor professionals to hear from some of today’s most distinguished voices in the area of labor relations, at a critical time in our nation’s business and industrial history,” said Sottong. “BNA is pleased to be able to help facilitate this event with LERA, by providing a forum for this dialog to take place.”

The co-chairs will introduce the broad topics and questions to be addressed at the Forum and invite comments from Webinar participants. Topics and questions to be discussed include:

• Health Care: Will the rising ranks of displaced workers get health care coverage?
• Infrastructure Investments: How do we ensure that infrastructure investments advance sustainability, produce good jobs, and achieve high performance?
• Auto Industry Revitalization: How will the government’s investments help the industry and labor get through the crisis and transform the industry to produce and market green, energy-efficient products?
• Training and Development: What are the respective roles of the public and private sectors in building a competitive 21st century workforce?
• Union Organizing and Collective Bargaining: Will labor law be reformed and, if so, how?
• Public Sector: Can the federal sector once again become a model for labor relations, partnership, and innovation?
• Executive Compensation: How will the process and outcomes for executive compensation be changed in light of recent developments?
• Restoring the American Dream: What is the new American Dream and what will it take to make it possible for people to realize it?

“Public debate on labor and employment relations is emerging and accelerating as a new Administration and Congress tackle these issues. Avoiding past polarization on employment matters and ensuring constructive dialog is essential. We are conducting this webinar and the June Forum to bring thoughtful experts from the labor, management, neutral, and scholarly communities into the process,” said LERA President Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, dean of the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois. “The challenge to society is not based on any one issue, but on the overall way we as a society address all of these issues,” he added.

In parallel to the Webinar, local chapters of LERA and other organizations are invited to conduct their own dialogue sessions on “Work in America.” At these sessions, brief (2-3 minute) comments that reflect personal experiences and can serve as helpful, constructive inputs to policy discussions may be captured on video, audio, or in writing and forwarded to the LERA office. Some of these comments will be featured in the workshops at the National Policy Forums in June. In advance of the June Forum, the Webinar is designed to help motivate these comments.

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BNA (www.bna.com) is the leading independent publisher of print and electronic news, analysis, and reference services for professionals. Delivering specialized information to business, legal, and government professionals at every level of expertise, BNA analysts produce more than 300 news and information services, including the highly respected Daily Labor Report, U.S. Law Week, and Daily Report for Executives.

The LERA is a 501(c)3 association founded in 1947, bringing together professionals in business, labor, government and academia to share and discuss policies, issues, research, ideas and developments impacting today’s workforce.