The Union Election Commission of Myanmar 2010–2020

The 2008 Constitution of the Union of Myanmar establishes the framework for a ‘discipline-flourishing’ constitutional democracy in which the Tatmadaw, the Burmese military, retains a significant degree of power. Under this Constitution, the Union Election Commission (UEC) is vested with significant authority to supervise elections, regulate political parties and electoral campaigns, register voters, suspend elections, and to make conclusive determinations in electoral disputes. Between 2010 and 2020, the UEC oversaw three consecutive general elections and three by-elections. Following a term under the former military leadership, the country's major democratic opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won a resounding victory in the 2015 elections. In the years that followed, civilian-military relations were a source of tension, as the NLD attempted to reform the executive and legislative roles for the military guaranteed by the Constitution. These tensions became in particular tangible during the 2020 elections, which the NLD again won in a landslide victory. The military alleged the election was marred by fraud while the UEC rejected this allegation. On 1 February 2021, hours before the new parliament was to convene, the Tatmadaw staged a coup d’état. This article reviews the UEC in its constitutional and political context. It identifies its institutional features, significant points in its brief history, and the impact of UEC leadership as a contributing factor in fostering confidence in the electoral process.

Dialing for Change: Organizing Call Center Workers in the 1990s

This article contrasts two Communications Workers of America (CWA) strategic organizing campaigns at Sprint and Southwestern Bell wireless in the 1990s. In the first case, the NLRA failed to protect Sprint workers after their employer closed the call center to avoid a union election, despite a complaint filed by a Mexican union under labor provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement. In the second case, the CWA's “bargain to organize” strategy neutralized Southwestern Bell's opposition, and 40,000 wireless workers chose CWA representation under a negotiated neutrality/card-check recognition process. This article demonstrates how neoliberal regulatory changes in the telecommunications sector in combination with weak labor laws fostered the decline in union representation in this vitally important and dynamic sector of the economy.

Myanmar Military Coup 2021: Causes and Scenarios for Further Development

The article examines the true reasons for the military coup, which, according to the author, are the deep disappointment of the military with the victory of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in the general elections (2020), the growing popularity of this party and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as the old antipathy between the two branches of state power. The author considers the accusation of the Union Election Commission and the NLD of falsifying the election results to be a far-fetched problem and only a pretext for a military coup. The author pays special attention to the strategy of the new military regime and possible scenarios of the development of events in the country.

Security Challenges in Universities: Implications for Safe School Environment

This study researched on security challenges in universities and the implications for safe school environment. Three hundred and twenty five (325) samples, constituting 50% of a population of 650 security personnel in two universities in the study area participated in the study. The study was based on three research questions and one hypothesis. Data for the study was gathered through a 42-item questionnaire. The questionnaire was validated and tested for reliability using Cronbach Alpha with a reliability index of 0.87. Data collected were analyzed using means, standard deviation and independent t-test. Results indicated that cult-related activities, kidnapping, drug abuse/offences, illegal possession of fire arms by students, students’ restiveness/demonstrations, students’ union election crisis, room break-in, stealing and pilfering and sexual assaults were the most prevalent security challenges. Findings also showed that inadequate security personnel, insufficient patrol vehicles, poor lighting of university environments, non-availability of modern security facilities, poor funding of security departments, porous campus environments, lack of security-awareness education, non-availability of electronic gadgets among others were the factors militating against effective security checks in universities. Implications for safe school environment were discussed, and one of the recommendations was that the security unit should be well funded and equipped with modern technology by the university management for a better performance.

What Do Workers and the Public Want? Unions’ Social Value

Using data from a national sample of American workers, the authors develop measures for “prosocial unionism”—the belief that unions contribute to the common good—and use regression analysis to determine its impact on public support for unions and on workers’ likelihood of supporting a union in a representation election in their workplace. Results show that the public’s support for unions is stronger when the public believes that unions act in the interests of all working people instead of just their members. The analyses also show that workers who believe unions have social benefits are significantly more likely to say they would vote “yes” in a union election than those who do not hold this belief. These findings imply that if unions address political and social justice goals that transcend the workplace, their legitimacy and their success in attracting public support and members may be enhanced and help stem the tide of shrinking union density.

From the Fringe to the Fore: Labor Unions and Employee Compensation

Conventional wisdom suggests that labor unions raise worker wages, while the newer empirical literature finds only negligible earnings effects. I reconcile this apparent contradiction by arguing that collective bargaining targets fringe benefits. Using U.S. firm-level data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) Multinational Enterprise Survey and Compustat, I exploit a regression discontinuity in majority rule union elections to compare changes in employee compensation at firms whose establishment barely won a union election against those that barely lost an election. Following unionization, average employee compensation and employer pension contributions increase, which raises the labor share of compensation.