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New York at Work 2023

Annual Report

Designed as a resource for policymakers and the public, the ILR School’s annual New York at Work report examines jobs and other issues impacting communities and individuals across the state.

ILR New York State Impact 2022-23
Read the full report

ILR Advocates for Workplace Health and Safety

Since joining the National Football League Players Association as its general counsel & head of business, Sean Sansiveri ’05 has been behind the NFL’s most important measures to make the game safer.

Read the story
Buffalo Bills players look on after teammate Damar Hamlin #3 collapsed on the field after making a tackle against the Cincinnati Bengals during the first quarter at Paycor Stadium on January 02, 2023 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)

Justice at Work: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

See more justice at work: diversity, equity and inclusion stories

Courtyard Commemorates Beloved Leader

As executive director of the Yang-Tan Institute at ILR, Thomas P. Golden changed the disability world.
Golden Courtyard
Courtyard Commemorates Beloved Leader

ADA Anniversary a Reminder about Disability in the Workplace

The Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability shares tips related to the ADA, approaching its 33rd anniversary.
Three employees in the workplace stand together while viewing a laptop screen
ADA Anniversary a Reminder about Disability in the Workplace

Yasmin Ballew ’23 Receives Robinson-Appel Humanitarian Award

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ILRie will use award funding to establish a partnership between Alpha Phi Omega and the Greater Ithaca Activities Center.
Yasmin Ballew ’23
Yasmin Ballew ’23 Receives Robinson-Appel Humanitarian Award

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 with our rapidly expanding virtual presence in the COVID-19 era, our resources and infrastructure allow us to pursue local innovations that have global implications.

Inaugural High Road Fellowship Cools Down in NYC

Convening one final time to reflect on their High Road experience, the fellows were joined by those who made the pilot NYC fellowship possible - program sponsors, work colleagues, ILR staff, Friday speakers, alumni, and even the city itself. 
NYC high roads scholars group shot
Inaugural High Road Fellowship Cools Down in NYC

ILR Students Help NYC Area Organizations, Gain Experience

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Since 2009, the High Road Fellowship Program has placed Cornell students in organizations around Buffalo to learn, explore, examine and revitalize the historic city. This past summer, ILR expanded the program to place 12 undergraduates in nonprofits, social justice groups, government offices and unions in the New York City region.
New York manhattan skyline
ILR Students Help NYC Area Organizations, Gain Experience

NYC High Road Fellowship Enters Act Two

The fellows are deep into their summer work. Things are confusing, and they’re often left with more questions than answers, but there is an understanding forming that their experiences are shaping something.
Robert Taylor, Youth Action YouthBuild (YAYB)
NYC High Road Fellowship Enters Act Two

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.

Gleeson, Lyon Lead Project Studying Labor Migration Programs

A seven-year, multi-university partnership will examine migrant workers and international mobility programs in New Zealand, also known as Aotearoa, Australia, Canada and the U.S.
Head shot of Associate Professor Shannon Gleeson
Gleeson, Lyon Lead Project Studying Labor Migration Programs

Climate Change Threatens Fashion Industry

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Extreme heat and flooding are threatening key international apparel hubs, with four countries vital to the fashion industry facing losses of 1 million jobs and $65 billion in earnings by 2030, according to two new reports out of the Global Labor Institute at Cornell University.
Textile workers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Climate Change Threatens Fashion Industry

Asia apparel hubs face $65 billion export hit from extreme weather, study shows

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"Among the suppliers and the buyers we talked to, not one had their eye on these two issues (heat and flooding)," said Jason Judd, executive director of Cornell Global Labor Institute.
Reuters headline
Asia apparel hubs face $65 billion export hit from extreme weather, study shows

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.

AFT/ Cornell - Scheinman Institute Collective Bargaining Certificate

The AFT/Cornell - Scheinman Institute Collective Bargaining Certificate Program has trained over 400 participants.
Randi Weingarten, President of the AFT
AFT/ Cornell - Scheinman Institute Collective Bargaining Certificate

General Counsel of the NLRB Urges Employees to Come to Her Agency to Protect Their Labor Rights

The NLRB General Counsel and labor experts with ties to Buffalo discussed recent organizing statistics, unfair labor practices and strikes in the U.S., the possibility of the PRO Act, employer responses to increased unionization, nonprofit organizing efforts, and more.
Jennifer Abruzzo NLRB GC speaks into mic
General Counsel of the NLRB Urges Employees to Come to Her Agency to Protect Their Labor Rights

Amazon Labor Organizers Encourage Solidarity

For more than 300 days, Amazon workers talked with their peers to build relationships, trust and, ultimately, a union that many thought would never be possible, Amazon Labor Union leaders said at ILR during Union Days.
Chris Small speaks at 2013 Union Days
Amazon Labor Organizers Encourage Solidarity

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

Climate Jobs Institute leads educational delegation to Denmark

Cornell ILR’s Climate Jobs Institute leads educational delegation of 30 New York State legislative and labor leaders to Denmark to learn from the nation’s world-leading efforts to build a clean energy economy.
Delegation members at House of Green, an interactive showroom and visitors center operated by State of Green, in Copenhagen
Climate Jobs Institute leads educational delegation to Denmark

ILR and Einhorn Center Partner to Create Office of Engaged and Experiential Programs

The ILR School is the latest undergraduate college at Cornell to be selected for the Einhorn Center's Engaged College Initiative.
Person sitting on a wall overlooking a city
ILR and Einhorn Center Partner to Create Office of Engaged and Experiential Programs

WNYCOSH, COEM, and CORNELL ILR Host Forum on Opioids and Work

Opioids have been in the headlines for decades regarding the devastation they’ve caused to individual lives, families and communities. Whether through workplace exposures or injuries, work has been a significant contributor to the waves of the opioid epidemic.
Opioid Bottle and Doctor Prescribing
WNYCOSH, COEM, and CORNELL ILR Host Forum on Opioids and Work

ILR in the News

Our work from the media

See more ILR news coverage

Fashion is ‘Sleepwalking’ into a Climate Catastrophe. Bangladesh is in the Bullseye.

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“One thing that we want to stress is that our assumptions here are conservative,” said Jason Judd, director of the Global Labor Institute. “ Every time we had to make a choice in terms of in terms of our estimates, we chose a middle-of-the-road climate scenario.”
Fashion is ‘Sleepwalking’ into a Climate Catastrophe. Bangladesh is in the Bullseye.

UAW strike sets the stage for the 4-day work week — and a win could take it mainstream

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A UAW win on the 32-hour week would cause a “massive reverberation,” said Cathy Creighton, director of the Buffalo Co-Lab. “We’ve had fundamental changes in how workers and employers view work life and work-life balance.”
UAW strike sets the stage for the 4-day work week — and a win could take it mainstream

Marijuana regulation of employees needs clarity, Cornell report says

Times Union News
Esta Bigler says their findings show the law lacks clear regulations on how and when employers can test for cannabis. “It is a recreational drug, and it is not to be used at all when you’re working,” Bigler said. “It sounds simple, right? But it’s not.”
Marijuana regulation of employees needs clarity, Cornell report says