This collection of five essays examines ethnic and economic conflict in small communities in northern New York state in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Presented by Oullette (history and American studies, Saint Michael's College in Colchester, Vermont) the papers specifically discuss the ethnic tensions surrounding the trial of a French Canadian immigrant for the murder of a middle-class Yankee in Plattsburgh, the broad experience of French Canadians working as waged industrial labor in Plattsburgh, the institutionalization of ethnic conflict among French Canadian and Irish immigrant mill workers in Keeseville, social and economic tensions arising from the arrival of the Great Northern Railroad in Ellenburgh, and resistance to police enforcement of Prohibition in the 1920s.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again" didn't spring from the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), but it may as well have, as the law creates an ongoing obligation to reasonably accommodate qualified individuals with disabilities.

"Many managers are confused about how much they have to do and how far they have to go" when workers request accommodation, noted Sharon Rennert, senior attorney adviser at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
"It is imperative for employers and managers to understand that the reasonable accommodation obligation is an ongoing obligation," she said, citing Humphrey v. Memorial Hospitals Association (239 F.3d 1128 (9th Cir. 2001)). That ruling states that "the duty to accommodate is a continuing duty that is not exhausted by one effort."

The fact that you've provided one accommodation and it works or doesn't work "does not necessarily mean you're done," she observed. "Employers need to stay on top of" accommodation requests, according to Rennert, who said that employers should:

* Research possible accommodations thoroughly, checking first with the employee requesting accommodation, but also checking, for example, with the Department of Labor's Job Accommodation Network ((800) ADA-WORK), the EEOC, organizations representing people who have the same disability as the employee and the vocational rehabilitation agency.