LERA Fellow Awards (Academic and Practitioner)

The Labor and Employment Relations Association annually bestows the LERA Fellows Award. The LERA Fellows designation is meant to recognize scholars and practitioners who have made contributions of unusual distinction to the field and have been in the profession and field for longer than ten years. The selection committee for the Fellow scholar title considered contributions from all disciplines such as Industrial Relations, Labor Law, Economics, Human Resources, Business, Sociology, Political Science, and Organizational Behavior.

Academic Fellows in 2018: Bain, Bruno, Olson & Voos

Trevor Bain
University of Alabama

" ... your focus on research in international industrial relations, human resources, and your authorship of more than 75 books, journal articles, chapters and monographs, which is very impressive. Being a nationally known expert on labor economics as well as serving as an arbitrator and mediator, completes the “renaissance” picture. You are to be commended for your critical participation in the launch of the original Birmingham, Alabama LERA chapter and your guidance over the years. The chapter has become a beacon for participants to network with key labor and management professionals from across the country."
–Tia Denenberg and Doug Kruse, Committee Chairs

Bob Bruno
University of Illinois

" ... your distinguished contributions to labor education, scholarship, and LERA over many years, including your leadership of the labor education program at the University of Illinois, your service as Editor of the Labor Studies Journal, your consistent organization of thought-provoking sessions at LERA meetings, and many other forms of leadership in LERA and the public discussion of unions and labor relations."
–Tia Denenberg and Doug Kruse, Committee Chairs

Craig Olson
University of Illinois

" ... your work in the fields of industrial relations and labor economics, your research into human resource policies and their effect on organizational performance, your research on the impact of employer-provided health insurance on labor market behavior of firms and individuals and on the impacts of unions and strikes, as well as your dedication to the mission of the LERA for over four decades and your service as Secretary-Treasurer of the LERA, providing financial oversight and leadership at a critical time in the organization."
–Tia Denenberg and Doug Kruse, Committee Chairs

Paula Voos
Rutgers University

" ... your distinguished career of research on unionization that has been cited in NLRB and Supreme Court cases, your broad engagement in the labor and employment relations field that includes service on the Dunlop Commission and the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission, and your exemplary leadership roles in IRRA/LERA."
–Tia Denenberg and Doug Kruse, Committee Chairs

Practitioner Fellows in 2018: Furseth, Marschall, and Wheeler

Cynthia Furseth
PGE

" ... your experience with administration of the local Oregon LERA Chapter, coordinating a national LERA Annual Meeting in Oregon, your leadership with the Public Employee Utility Institute, and in creating partnerships based on mutual gains with IBEW in the utility industry."
–Tia Denenberg and Doug Kruse, Committee Chairs

Daniel Marschall
AFL-CIO

" ... your long time efforts to organizing the AFL-CIO policy breakfast during the national LERA conference and your commitment to lifelong learning."
–Tia Denenberg and Doug Kruse, Committee Chairs

Jeffrey Wheeler
Georgetown University

" ... your leadership of the DC LERA Chapter, particularly in recruiting an impressive group of embassy representatives responsible for labor and employment related issues. These representatives, from S. Korea, Japan, Spain, France, and Germany, add an international dimension to LERA not found elsewhere. Your commitment to broadening the reach of LERA, and your own work in international labor rights issues, is noteworthy. "
–Tia Denenberg and Doug Kruse, Committee Chairs

John T. Dunlop Outstanding Scholar Awards

The Labor and Employment Relations Association annually recognizes outstanding academic contributions to research by recent entrants to the field (recent is defined as receiving terminal degree within the last ten years) with the John T. Dunlop Outstanding Scholar Awards. One award recognizes the research contributions of international and/or comparative labor and employment research, and one award recognizes the research addressing industrial relations/employment issues of national significance.

2018 Recipients: Benson, Gilbert & Schulze-Cleven

For outstanding contributions to research that address industrial relations/employment problems of national significance:

For outstanding contributions to research that address industrial relations/employment problems of national significance:

For outstanding contributions to research that address industrial relations/employment problems of international significance:

Alan Benson
University of Minnesota-
Twin Cities

" ... your work on the economics of human resources, your research into compensation plans, incentives, and staffing practices, and your research on dual career issues in job searches."
–Tia Denenberg and Doug Kruse, Committee Chairs

Daniel Gilbert
University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign

" ... your work in the area of the history of labour relations in sports. Your first book Expanding the Strike Zone: Baseball in the Age of Free Agency (University of Massachusetts Press), had an impact beyond the community of labor relations academics and reached a wide audience, which was much deserved."
–Tia Denenberg and Doug Kruse, Committee Chairs

Tobias Schulze-Cleven
Rutgers University

" ... your research comparing regulatory and welfare states, analyzing the seismic shifts that are taking place in higher education across the US and Europe, and evaluating and enriching our discipline’s conceptual frameworks for global and comparative work."
–Tia Denenberg and Doug Kruse, Committee Chairs

LERA Outstanding Practitioner Award

2018 Recipient: Dwyer

The Labor and Employment Relations Association annually confers the LERA Outstanding Practitioner Award. This award recognizes a distinguished practitioner for unique contributions to labor and employment relations practice over her/his career, consistent with the values and the mission of the LERA.

Bill Dwyer
Rutgers University

" ... your distinguished career at PSEG where you rose to become manager of Labor Relations, your subsequent teaching at Rutgers, your excellent guidance of the Rutgers LERA chapter, your extensive work with the NJ LERA chapter and the New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators, and your service as a Pro Bono Municipal Court Mediator. You have shown a praiseworthy dedication to inspiring and advising a new generation of labor relations leaders in both the union and management communities."
–Tia Denenberg and Doug Kruse, Committee Chairs

James G. Scoville Best International/Comparative IR/HR Paper Award

The Labor and Employment Relations Association annually selects the most outstanding international and comparative employment issues paper as the winner of the  James G. Scoville Best International Paper Award, which carries a cash prize. The Award was established in conjunction with the Center for Human Resources and Labor Studies at the University of Minnesota to honor retiring professor and long-time member of the LERA, James G. Scoville. Eligible published papers on international and comparative employment issues are considered, including those with empirical material on employment issues from two or more countries, that examine transnational employment-relations phenomena, or that make theoretical contributions using empirical material from a single country with implicit international comparisons.

2018 Recipient: Fox-Hodess

 "Locating the Local and National in the Global: Multi-Scalar Political Alignment in Transnational European Dockworker Union Campaigns" authored by Katy Fox-Hodess, University of Sheffield

“I'm pleased to report as committee chair that we have selected Katy Hodess-Fox's article from BJIR as this year's winner of the James G. Scoville Best International Paper Award. The paper tackles an important topic for the field of comparative industrial relations, namely the conditions under which transnational union campaigns succeed or fail. Using a novel comparison of Portuguese, English, and Greek dock union campaigns, she highlights the differing strategies of affiliates of the International Dockworkers Council as they operate at the local, national, and transnational levels. We chose this paper because it had very interesting findings about an important topic, and because it nicely integrated theoretical perspectives from our field, labor geography and the sociology of work.” –Ian Greer, Committee Chair

Kenneth May Media Award

2018 Recipients: Greenhouse, McClatchy, Zagoria

The Labor and Employment Relations Association annually recognizes superior reporting regarding issues of importance to our labor-management community including academics, practitioners, industries, and dispute resolution professionals. In the past, the LERA has awarded Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and Ken May of Bloomberg BNA as its recipients for their respective contributions. This award carries the distinction of the recipient being invited to present at the LERA Annual Meeting on their journalistic body of work.

Thomas A. Kochan & Stephen R. Sleigh Best Dissertation Award

The Labor and Employment Relations Association has established an annual competition for post-doctoral students in the field of industrial relations or related fields such as history, political science, economics, sociology, etc., as long as they are broadly related to employment relations as reflected in the publications and membership of the LERA. The purpose is twofold: (1) to stimulate greater awareness and interest among doctoral students at colleges and universities of the field of industrial relations, and (2) to provide a vehicle by which an outstanding thesis by a doctoral student can be made more widely known to scholars in the field. Each year, the Thomas A. Kochan & Stephen R. Sleigh Best Dissertation Award committee reads thousands of pages of dissertations and determines which papers are the most significant contributions to the body of research in the field.

2018 Recipient: Zhang