Chicago Fire Department

This research examined labor-management issues affecting the Fire Department of the City of Chicago. These problems were grouped into issues concerning the control of work, affirmative action, and dispute resolution.

With the advent of fiscal restraint at the level of municipal government, the issue of the control of the work place has emerged as a point of contention between management and workers at the Fire Department of the City of Chicago. A differentiation may be made between the "workers control movement" and the "labor movement" in the United States. The differentiation is important, because of the attempts in the United States to control the content and process of work. In the conflict between "management rights" and "union rights," the concept of workers' control is often completely ignored.

The demographics of the City of Chicago have changed dramatically over the past two decades. One consequence of this change has been an increasing demand for diversity within the Chicago Fire Department. Diversity in this context refers to ethnic and gender differences. The issue of diversity in municipal government employment is related directly to the Affirmative Action law.

A significant issue at the Chicago Fire Department involves conflict between management and workers. An equally important issue is the approach to resolving such conflict.

CHICAGO FIRE DEPARTMENT: LABOR/MANAGEMENT ISSUES

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religious preference, or age would not result in the representation of individuals with these characteristics in all types and levels of employment and in all compensation levels in the same proportions as such individuals are found in the general population, began to demand an equality of outcome, as opposed to an equality of opportunity (Bilts & Gottfredson, 1990, pp. 4-11). The equality of outcome concept, as opposed to the equality of opportunity concept, will have adverse impacts on both the short-run, and on the long-run effectiveness of organizations (Lynch, 1990, pp. 44-47). Equality of outcome is sought through the practice of race norming (Wigdor & Hartigan, 1990, pp. 12-16). In race norming, African Americans, as an example, are rated only against other African Americans. Thus, in actual practice, an African American person could score in the 90th percentile on an employment aptitude test, while a white person scored in the 75th percentile on the same test, but, in terms of actual scores, the white person's score would be significantly higher. Under a proposal of the United States Employment Service, employers would be required in such an instance to hire or promote the less qualified black person (Tenopyr, 1990,
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Approximate Word count = 3357
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)

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