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ILR, Unions Offer NYC Construction Workers Innovative Emotional First Aid

New York State Public Impact

The ILR School’s Worker Institute and unions have launched an innovative peer support initiative to destigmatize mental health and reduce suicide in New York City’s construction industry.

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Arianna Schindle (left) and Jeff Grabelsky (right) of the ILR School’s Worker Institute talk with Paul Schwan (center), a member of the Ornamental and Architectural Ironworkers Union Local 361 and an instructor in the peer supporter program.

New York State

Economy, Policy, and Practice

See more stories about our work in New York State

As a New York land-grant college, we have a state mandate to apply our work in service to our local communities, state and regional economies, and partners in governance. We create and share knowledge, build relationships, and inform strategies aimed at improving economic well-being for all New Yorkers.

Coupling our strong physical foundations in Buffalo, Ithaca, and New York City, our resources and infrastructure allow us to pursue local innovations that have global implications.

Justice at Work: Belonging

See more justice at work and belonging

How Older Adults are Getting Home Care

Dr. Madeline Sterling discusses long-term care for older adults and highlights that most prefer to age at home. She discusses existing gaps in the healthcare system, including underfunded services and geographic differences; and emphasizes that telehealth and AI can be leveraged with support from better infrastructure and ongoing research.
social-worker-taking-care-old-woman
How Older Adults are Getting Home Care

Relentless Advocate Bridges Research, Policy and Practice

Scientific inquiry, practical solutions and pioneering strategies led by Susanne Bruyère have changed work cultures around the world to include more people with disabilities.
Susanne Bruyère
Relentless Advocate Bridges Research, Policy and Practice

Tools You Can Use and More: 2025 Year-in-Review for YTI

The Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability highlights its 2025 impact, previews future initiatives, and offers tools you can use today.
Looking over a snowy pine branch toward Cornell’s iconic clock tower.
Tools You Can Use and More: 2025 Year-in-Review for YTI

A driving principle behind our research, teaching, training, and practice is that everyone deserves fair and equal access to jobs, housing, healthcare, and other means for achieving economic security. Our work seeks solutions that remove inequitable barriers to economic opportunities, whether those barriers occur within an individual workplace or at the structural levels of our political and economic systems.

You can see a handful of our recent work below.

NYS Can Protect Workers with Disabilities, Strobel Gower Tells State Senate

Cornell Chronicle
Wendy Strobel Gower, executive director of YTI, testified before the NY State Senate that individuals with disabilities face numerous challenges in the workplace and a growing threat from recent federal policy changes – but that New York state can mitigate these harms.
Wendy Strobel Gower testifies before the NY State Senate
NYS Can Protect Workers with Disabilities, Strobel Gower Tells State Senate

Improving Interviews for Autistic Jobseekers

Researchers at ILR's Yang-Tan Institute are studying the experiences of Autistic jobseekers in STEM to understand interview challenges and develop recommendations for improving the hiring process.
Job interview
Improving Interviews for Autistic Jobseekers

Job Listings With Wide Pay Ranges May Deter Female Applicants

Cornell Chronicle
Pay range transparency laws intended to promote pay equity can inadvertently deter women from applying, thus perpetuating gender gaps in the workforce, according to research from Alice Lee, assistant professor of organizational behavior.
Missing alt
Job Listings With Wide Pay Ranges May Deter Female Applicants

Collective Representation and Worker Voice

See more stories about collective representation workers' voices

We were founded to study and improve the world of work. We have strong research roots in labor relations and negotiations, and our work with varying communities comes from our commitment to understanding collective representation, the perspectives of workers, and improving workers' lives.

New Paper Explores Black Workers in the South and Their Views on Unions

Black workers in the Southeast face numerous challenges, but they also believe unions could alleviate some of these issues, according to a working paper co-authored by Kate Bronfenbrenner, Ph.D. ’93, director of Labor Education Research at the ILR School.
Male African American Engineer is working in a welding production line while adjusting the accuracy of welding assembly jig auto parts in a industry shop floor.
New Paper Explores Black Workers in the South and Their Views on Unions

ILR, Unions Offer NYC Construction Workers Innovative Emotional First Aid

Cornell Chronicle
The ILR School’s Worker Institute and unions have launched an innovative peer support initiative to destigmatize mental health and reduce suicide in New York City’s construction industry.
Arianna Schindle (left) and Jeff Grabelsky (right) of the ILR School’s Worker Institute talk with Paul Schwan (center), a member of the Ornamental and Architectural Ironworkers Union Local 361 and an instructor in the peer supporter program.
ILR, Unions Offer NYC Construction Workers Innovative Emotional First Aid

How Can Unions Negotiate AI in the Workplace? Lessons from the Port Sector

The Dockers' AI Toolkit by José Luis Gallegos provides guidance on how workers can negotiate over artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace. Although the toolkit is grounded in the port sector, its lessons extend far beyond dock work.
A human hand and robot hand
How Can Unions Negotiate AI in the Workplace? Lessons from the Port Sector

Leadership Development

We work with communities, organizations, departments and companies – all to help develop leaders who will make workplaces and employment itself better. Foundations in management and collective bargaining, and our 75 years in industry put us in a unique position to help develop leaders in business, labor and policy.

CAHRS

Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies

CAHRS is the world's leading partnership between industry and academia, devoted to global human resource management. The CAHRS partnership connects leading companies to Cornell University, the ILR School, and leading faculty, students and intellectual leaders throughout the world.

several towers from Cornell's Ithaca campus
Visit CAHRS

Labor Leadership Training

We work with union leaders at national and state levels to develop training programs for aspiring and established leaders within the labor field.

Explore labor leadership programs

Senior Leader Programs

We bring together world-class faculty with business and industry leaders to design and deliver training systems that develop HR, business and management leaders. Learn from world-class faculty dedicated to HR research and driving organizational performance.

Man leaning reflected against city glass door
Find out more about our senior leadership training

From Training to Transformation: Preparing and Celebrating NYC’s Next Generation of Clean Energy Workers

The Climate Jobs Institute hosted a two-day train-the-trainer program for workforce partners, followed by a graduation ceremony celebrating 49 Pathways to Apprenticeship participants. The events highlighted a growing clean energy workforce pipeline, connecting instructor development with hands-on training and honoring graduates entering careers in New York City’s expanding green economy.
P2A Graduation Ceremony
From Training to Transformation: Preparing and Celebrating NYC’s Next Generation of Clean Energy Workers

CJI Organizes Empire State Plaza Decarbonization Tour

The Climate Jobs Institute partnered with OGS and NYPA to host a legislative discussion and tour of the Empire State Plaza decarbonization project. The initiative aims to cut emissions, modernize heating and cooling, and demonstrate how New York can lead in public-sector decarbonization and high-quality job creation.
Empire State Plaza Decarbonization Tour
CJI Organizes Empire State Plaza Decarbonization Tour

22 January 2026 Cornell Southeast Asia Program, Global Labor Institute and Thammasat Business School Bangkok Conference 'Hot Air: What works to combat extreme heat in apparel production in Asia?' Recap

Please enjoy our recap of our 22 January 2026 conference in Bangkok, 'Hot Air: What works to combat extreme heat in apparel production in Asia?'
People sit in a room for a conference behind wooden tables.
22 January 2026 Cornell Southeast Asia Program, Global Labor Institute and Thammasat Business School Bangkok Conference 'Hot Air: What works to combat extreme heat in apparel production in Asia?' Recap

ILR in the News

Our work from the media

See more ILR news coverage

Heat exhaustion hits Bangladesh garment workers amid power cuts

Fashion Network
A 2023 study by ILR’s Global Labor Institute is referenced in this article about problems and solutions for cooling garment workers on hot days. [Syndicated from Reuters]
Heat exhaustion hits Bangladesh garment workers amid power cuts

Turns out, even boring topics are fun to talk about

Axios
Talking with another person is engaging, regardless of the topic says a paper collaborated on by Nicole Thio, ILR doctoral student; the paper is called “Conversations About Boring Topics Are More Interesting Than We Think.”
Turns out, even boring topics are fun to talk about

The Trust We Assume, the Consent We Feel

TrustTalk
“We often assume that people let things roll off of them more than they actually do … and don’t continue to think about the things we say as much as they actually do,” says ILR Professor Vanessa Bohns in this wide-ranging audio interview about her research findings from several studies.
The Trust We Assume, the Consent We Feel

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