This Week’s Top Hits

Union members probably would have stayed with the union despite a delay in receiving an expected pay raise, explains Kate Bronfenbrenner, ILR senior lecturer emeritus, pointing out several advantages of union membership.

“There have been minor improvements, like a slight decline in hours worked, and whether workers are paid correctly, and declines in child labor,” says Sarosh Kuruvilla, academic director of the Global Labor Institute, commenting on progress to improve working conditions for garment factory workers in Vietnam and Indonesia.

60% of adults who live in New York, and 75% in New York City, think the state’s minimum wage should be at least $30, according to the 2026 Empire State Poll led by ILR’s Center for Applied Research on Work.

“Factories and industries need to develop and enforce protocols for high heat,” said Jason Judd, executive director of ILR’s Global Labor Institute, in this podcast interview focusing on the institute’s recent report, “Six Seasons, Four Summers: How to Solve Fashion’s High Heat Problem.”

“Are there other models ... for thinking about how profit should not be the primary motive in care provision?” asks Zoë West, senior researcher at ILR’s Worker Institute, while discussing recent Worker Institute studies of the effect of private equity ownership on homecare workers and patients in New York.

“You aren’t going to get all the unions to agree. One loses, the other might gain,” says Art Wheaton, ILR director of labor studies, commenting on varied perspectives within labor unions on supporting AI.