Our Research
The faculty at the Labor Center is involved in a number of
cutting-edge research projects. These include local projects directly
in support of the labor movement and more long-term academic research.
Under the direction of the faculty, graduate students in the Labor
Center have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in a wide
variety of labor research. Recent projects include:
Living Wages
This research explores the economic impact of living wage
ordinances, tracks the successes and failures of the living wage
movement, assesses the implementation and monitoring by cities with
living wage laws, and theorizes the factors that lead to more
successful living wage campaigns and outcomes. Stephanie Luce is the
author of Fighting for a Living Wage (Cornell University Press, 2004) and co-author with Robert Pollin of The Living Wage: Building a Fair Economy, which was published by the New Press in 1998.
Labor and Community Coalitions
This research project focuses on the ability of labor-community
groups to mobilize around economic justice issues. The research by Eve
Weinbaum includes case studies of communities that mount grassroots
organizing campaigns around a variety of issues, including plant
closings, economic development policy, and civil rights/anti-racism
efforts. The work focuses on issues of leadership, organizing capacity,
and the importance of failure in paving the way for success.
Capital Mobility
With increasing attention paid to the international economy and the
movement of firms across borders, it is crucial that we develop an
understanding of when, how, and why firms move. Stephanie Luce has been
working with Kate Bronfenbrenner of Cornell University to track
international firm and job relocation. They created the first database
of job movement in 2001, and updated that work in
2004. Their latest report on the impact of U.S.-China
trade relations on wages and jobs can be downloaded here.
Women AND Work
Labor Center faculty and staff are engaged in a number of projects
examining the situation for women workers in general and low-wage women
workers in particular. For example, Stephanie Luce and Dean
Frutiger issued a report for the Women's Institute for Leadership
Development looking at the potential for unionization to improve wages
and working conditions for women workers in Massachusetts. In
2006, Stephanie Luce co-wrote an article with Mark Brenner for Monthly Review looking at the conditions for women workers forty years after the founding of the National Organization for Women.
Documenting the Steelworkers' Victory at Ravenswood
Funding was provided by the United Steelworkers of America to
document their victory at the Ravenswood Aluminum Company. Ravenswood:
The Steelworkers' Victory and the Revival of American Labor, by Tom
Juravich and Kate Bronfenbrenner, was published by the Cornell
University Press in 1999.
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