ILRie

Featuring Laura Boudreau, associate professor of business at Columbia Business School Labor Unions and Pro-Democracy Resistance with Rocco Macchiavello, Virginia Minni, Mari Tanaka, and Francesca Trento How do civil-society organizations shape democratic resilience? We study whether and how labor unions contribute to pro-democracy resistance in the context of Myanmar’s 2021 coup. The two largest union federations' Facebook communications shifted from workplace concerns to political resistance and grew more confrontational after the coup. Combining a pre-coup survey of 1,104 garment workers with political-prisoner records and township-level data on unions, protests, and armed conflict, we find that townships with higher pre-coup union presence saw more civilian collective action after the coup and, with a lag, more state repression. At the individual level, arrest--our main measure of costly participation--falls disproportionately on union presidents, though leadership traits explain almost none of whom is arrested. Pre-coup organizational capacity instead predicts arrest, conditional on individual traits and leader quality; leader arrests also spill over to coworkers, including non-union members. A simple model rationalizes these patterns as leaders investing in their organization’s coordination or credibility. Unions' organizational infrastructure, built during ordinary workplace bargaining, can become a resource for resisting repression.

Take 30 minutes to pause and reset with Let’s Meditate! Join Tanya Kingsley, LMSW, for a guided mindfulness meditation at Ives Hall! This beginner-friendly session is open to all. Let’s Meditate is a free, guided mindfulness meditation series, sponsored by Cornell Health in collaboration with numerous campus partners. Learn more at health.cornell.edu/meditate.

Take 30 minutes to pause and reset with Let’s Meditate! Join Tanya Kingsley, LMSW, for a guided mindfulness meditation at Ives Hall! This beginner-friendly session is open to all. Let’s Meditate is a free, guided mindfulness meditation series, sponsored by Cornell Health in collaboration with numerous campus partners. Learn more at health.cornell.edu/meditate.

Please join us for the opening reception for Weathering the Storm: The Role of Labor in an Era of Climate Change, and enjoy light refreshments with the organizers of the exhibit, including faculty and students from the Cornell Fashion + Textile Collection (CF+TC). This exhibit shows how the Industrial Revolution led to the climactic changes we see today, and how these changes have affected workers over the last two centuries. From the industrial transformation of landscapes in the early 19th century that ultimately led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in the 20th, to new laws around water breaks on increasingly hot summer days, this exhibit also attempts to show how government policies have evolved over time to protect workers. The exhibit will also highlight the work of Theodore Kheel—regarded as America's most distinguished mediator—who was a staunch advocate for sustainability and environmental protection during the first Earth Summit in 1992 and in other labor union-led environmental campaigns. Featuring evolving clothing needs as workers face unprecedented temperatures in their work, the exhibit is a collaboration between CF+TC and Cornell University Library's Kheel Center, located in Catherwood Library. Weathering the Storm is part of a series of exhibits titled From the Brink: Contributions to a Sustainable Future from across Cornell, hosted by different unit libraries across Cornell University Library in close partnership with other departments and groups on campus. From the Brink showcases collections, research support, and collaborative efforts across Cornell and illuminates ways of addressing issues of critical, global importance. This series of exhibits aims to stimulate conversations about the threat of environmental and cultural loss and its implications, while also offering insights about positive developments and constructive steps toward a healthier future for our planet and our communities. Weathering the Storm: The Role of Labor in an Era of Climate Change will be on display through August 15, 2027 during all hours Catherwood Library is open.

Will Dobbie Title Abstract: