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Student at Labor Roundtable

The Worker Institute at Cornell engages in research and education on contemporary labor issues to generate innovative thinking and solutions to problems related to work, the economy, and society. The new Institute brings together researchers, educators, and students with practitioners in labor, business, and public policy to confront economic and social inequalities and to promote sustainable economic development and the creation of good jobs.

Core questions that guide our work include:

  • In the current economic and social context, in the U.S. and abroad, how can labor and its allies best advance worker rights and collective representation?
  • How can the labor movement represent the interests of all working people, both union and nonunion workers?
  • How can the labor movement engage young workers in its mobilization efforts, campaigns, and leadership?
  • How can the labor movement work with allies in the broader community to build stronger, more effective movements for social, environmental, and economic justice?
  • In the face of growing inequality and political polarization, how can research and education contribute to the development of a sustainable society?

Student Fellows Program

Fellowship Program

The Worker Institute offers the following research fellowship opportunities throughout the year.

Student at Labor Roundtable
Learn more about our student fellows

Undergraduate Courses

Student at Class

Worker Institute faculty teach undergraduate and graduate level courses related to the labor movement, growing inequality, workers' rights, collective representation, labor law, and more. Many courses available are closely aligned with the Worker Institute's research, projects, and interests, with many of them taught by core Worker Institute faculty. Explore available course in International & Comparative Labor (ILRIC) and Labor Relations, Law and History (ILRLR).

Labor Roundtable

The ILR Labor Roundtable is an annual event that brings a wide range of representatives in labor leadership, unions, and social justice organizations to campus to engage in dynamic, in-depth conversations with students. 

Through these discussions, students gain exposure to current trends in the labor movement and the fundamental role that it plays in bringing about social change.

 

Labor Roundtable
Learn more about the Labor Roundtable

Connect with Labor

Internships with unions

Interested students can work with Worker Institute associates and ILR Career Services Office to help identify and secure semester, summer and/or post graduate internships with a union.

Research and practitioner contacts

ILR resident faculty members often connect students with Worker Institute extension associates for help with research for term papers, honors theses, and other projects. Worker Institute colleagues are closely connected to practitioners in unions, agencies, social justice and non-traditional groups promoting collective representation. We are pleased to share these contacts with ILR students.

Career Counseling

Worker Institute associates also offer assistance to students to help facilitate job searches by offering job search advice, making contacts within unions and by reviewing resumes.

Graduate Programs

 

The ILR School offers several graduate degree programs.

These programs cover a diversity of topics related to labor and human resource studies including collective bargaining, labor history, labor law, organizational behavior, human resource management, labor economics, and social statistics. 

 

undergraduate students sitting on the grass in ILR's lower courtyard
Learn more about our Graduate Programs

From Retail to Tech to Universities: Unionizing for Equity in all Workplaces

Join us on Friday, April 29th, 2022 at 2:30 p.m. for a Union Days event, "From Retail to Tech to Universities: Unionizing for Equity in all Workplaces." In-person on our Ithaca campus and virtually.
Students Protesting
From Retail to Tech to Universities: Unionizing for Equity in all Workplaces

The Moment for a Movement: Starbucks and the Slow Drip of Starting a Union

Learn the ins and outs of how to unionize a workplace and what legal methods Starbucks has used to delay the votes. In-person event, free and open to the public.
Starbucks Coffee
The Moment for a Movement: Starbucks and the Slow Drip of Starting a Union

2021 Worker Institute Labor Roundtable

On Friday, November 12th, 2021, The Worker Institute is hosting the 2021 Labor Roundtable for ILR Students.
Labor Roundtable 2022; Credit to Daily Sun, Surita Basu
2021 Worker Institute Labor Roundtable

Worker Institute Welcomes Fall 2019 Student Fellows

The fellowship program’s goal is to provide ILR students with a unique opportunity to contribute to important projects concerning workers and unions, expand their research skills, learn about potential career paths, and form connections with faculty.
2019 Workers Institute Student Research Fellows
Worker Institute Welcomes Fall 2019 Student Fellows

Labor Rights for Marginalized Workers

TS Bambii, a sex worker representative from VOCAL-NY and DecrimNY, spoke about the economic necessity of sex work, and its inherent devaluation and criminalization at the panel “Labor Rights for Marginalized Workers,” hosted by the Worker Institute for Union Days.
Missing alt
Labor Rights for Marginalized Workers

The Worker Institute Welcomes The Student Fellows of Fall 2018

On August 29th, 2018 the Worker Institute held a welcome gathering for their Research Fellows in the Doherty Lounge.
 Picture of Worker Institute Student Fellows
The Worker Institute Welcomes The Student Fellows of Fall 2018