The Worker Institute

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, economy and society.

Initiatives

Equity at Work

initiative / equity

Employees celebrating equality in the workplace

The Equity at Work initiative examines how the workplace is impacted by the evolving and changing norms of the social construction of gender roles, identity, and expression. This includes discussion of current and evolving workers' rights, the workplace contexts in which they currently exist, and individual, organizational and cultural interventions that promote and expand employment issues of respect, fairness, equity and justice.

Strategic Leadership

initiative / leadership

People gathered for a strategic planning session

The Strategic Leadership Initiative focuses on labor movement leadership development, strategy design and organizational change in unions, professional associations and other worker organizations.

The initiative seeks to engage with leaders at the highest levels of labor and worker formations that are committed to organizational transformation and interested in innovative strategies. This encompasses four broad areas of work:

Precarious Workforce

initiative / Workforce

A woman speaks at the center of a meeting of women day laborers in Williamsburg

The Precarious Workforce Initiative focuses on the labor rights and socioeconomic conditions of low-wage and contingent workers, who receive little or no benefits and have largely no institutional or legal protection.

These workers constitute the most vulnerable segment of the workforce. Their ranks include, but are not limited to, day laborers, immigrants, domestic workers, young workers, the unemployed and the formerly incarcerated.

Labor Leading on Climate

initiative / sustainable

Featured Report: Reversing Inequality, Combating Climate Change

Union Communication Services

About Union Communication Services

publications / ucs

Union Communication Services (UCS), North America’s premier publisher and distributor of labor education materials, is now powered by The Worker Institute at Cornell. Since 1981, UCS has produced hands-on tools that help unions and worker rights groups build their organizations and respond to day-to-day challenges on the job.

Subscribe to Steward Update Newsletter by UCS

publications / ucs

Steward Update newsletter, published six times a year by Union Communication Services (UCS) at The Worker Institute, upgrades union stewards' skills and rewards them for their efforts on behalf of the union. Every issue is packed with new, helpful information and advice.

Visit the Steward Update order page on the Union Communication Services website.

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Union Communication Services: Labor's Bookstore

publications / ucs

Through the UCS Labor's Bookstore at laborbooks.com, The Worker Institute offers a wide range of book titles, hand-picked for their usefulness and interest to union leaders, activists, and rank-and-file members. You’ll find books that help develop skills (negotiating, communicating, handling grievances), enrich your knowledge (labor history, current issues), and build commitment to the union. UCS books are divided into eleven categories; click on the category you’d like to explore to visit the corresponding section at laborbooks.com: