The Worker Institute brings together researchers, educators and students with practitioners in labor, business and policymaking to address issues related to confronting systemic inequality and building a fair economy, robust democracy and just society. We will share opinion, analysis, research, data, insights and training from our faculty and staff.
Immigrant Workers Rights
Executive Director, Patricia Campos Medina Releases New Book
The Worker Institute's Executive Director, Patricia Campos Medina, worked jointly with, Kati L. Griffith, Shannon Gleeson and Darlène Dubuisson to co-write Legalized Inequalities: Immigration and Race in the Low-Wage Workplace.
Opinion – All Undocumented Immigrants Deserve Citizenship – Not Just Essential Workers
Shannon Gleeson outlines the situation faced by undocumented workers, and discusses potential futures for them including pathways to citizenship and their relationship.
Latinos stand with #BlackLivesMatter because we both fight for justice and equality
"Our movement for immigrant worker justice is a struggle to reclaim the humanity of immigrant workers in a capitalist economy that thrives on dividing workers by race and nationality." The Worker Institute's Patricia Campos-Medina writes an op-ed in the Star-Ledger.
Unison and the Filipino Care Workers Campaign, 2007
After overcoming initial differences in strategy and structure, the labor-community partnership was successful in bringing about changes to immigration policy and in integrating Filipino care workers into the labor market and the union.
The role of UK unions in the civic integration of immigrant workers
The aim of this literature review is to examine what has been published on UK unions and their role in integrating migrant workers both into unions and in wider society.
Through Polish media, associations, and social and educational events, this campaign set out to increase political participation and activism among Polish migrants.
Biography of Three Trade Unionists with a Migration Background
This paper looks at the background and experiences of three influential German trade unionists and how they came into the positions that they hold today.
The Justice for Roofers Campaign case study details the bottom up organization of Latino workers- many of which were undocumented – in an industry plagued by low wages, dangerous working conditions, and high turnover rates.
The role of US unions in the civic integration of immigrant workers
Written in 1921 at the height of the immigration wave from Eastern, Central and Southern Europe, this functional and largely descriptive work depicted the labor union as an immigrant worker mutual-aid society that provided workers with a range of social welfare and cultural benefits.
The case illustrates the success factors of the strike and the complexities of the union's role in supporting the immigrant workers' struggle and integrating them into French society.
The CFDT-Yveslines case on the "Travailleurs Sans-Papiers"
This case focuses on the work of the Departmental Unit of Yvelines (Versailles Province) of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT-Ivelines) to advance the campaign for regularization of undocumented immigrant workers.
This case study examines CGT's leading role and the factors leading to this unprecedented social movement, including changes in representation laws that propelled persistent declines in union density, and an immigration law reform that provided the opportunity for both immigrant workers and unions to advance common goals.
The role of French unions in the civic integration of immigrant workers
Written in September 2009 as a research contribution for the book Mobilizing against Inequality: Unions, Immigrant Workers, and the Crisis of Capitalism, Lee Adler, Maite Tapia and Lowell Turner (eds.), Ithaca: ILR Press, 2014
The campaign, which led to the first ever contract in the industry for 2011, underscores the importance of labor-community alliances, civic participation, and the integration of culturally appropriate organizing strategies.
