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.
News
Solving labor, last-mile delivery key to Amazon's 1-day shipping ambitions
S&P Global
"I think workers want more security for going back to work, which includes more control over their lives," Campos-Medina said. "We are seeing a seismic shift in what workers expect. It's not as easy as a sign-on bonus or raising wages."
42% of food delivery workers say they've been underpaid, according to ILR's Worker Institute and the Workers Justice Project's study cited by The Wall Street Journal in wake of FTC warning to companies about unfair practices.
Basic training isn’t enough to stem sexual harassment in the workplace, cultural audits are needed to measure the “pulse” of organizations, according to KC Wagner.
Chuck Schumer Aims to Deliver Infrastructure Dollars to Help Food Couriers
The City
Nearly half said they’ve been in a crash while doing a delivery, according to the survey done by the Workers Justice Project and the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
How low-wage workers are taking back power in the ‘Great Resignation’
Patricia Campos-Medina, the executive director of the Worker Institute at Cornell University, said workers, even if not through formal unions, are demanding basic rights. “What we’re seeing is a fundamental shift in the relationship between service workers, low-wage service workers, and employers,” she said.
Activision Bias Settlement Draws Challenge From California
Bloomberg Law
Risa Lieberwitz, Worker Institute Academic Director and a professor of labor and employment law at Cornell University, said "My overall assessment is that it would be unusual for a state agency to object to an EEOC settlement."
Fed up by pandemic, US food workers launch rare strikes
AP News
After decades of watching companies chip away at pay and benefits, food workers sense that they have a rare upper hand in the wake of the pandemic, says Patricia Campos-Medina, the executive director of The Worker Institute at ILR Cornell.
Worker advocates demand transparency in Port Authority's million-dollar deal with Amazon
Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of the Worker Institute at Cornell University and a specialist in worker rights in the logistics and distribution industry, wanted to know if the company is committed to long-term jobs at its logistics facilities, saying negotiations like these can include Community Benefit Agreements.
Study explores ‘harrowing’ safety risks mobile app-based delivery workers face
From December through April, researchers from Los Deliveristas Unidos, the Worker’s Justice Project and The Worker Institute at Cornell University surveyed 500 adult couriers from around the city. They found that 49% of the respondents had experienced a crash or some other type of incident.
New Report: A ride-service program for homecare workers in Upstate New York provided substantial financial benefits
A new study released today from Cornell’s ILR Worker Institute, “A High Road for Home Care: Program Assessment of the Healthcare Workers Rising Transportation Pilot,” examines a ride-service program for homecare workers in the upstate New York region that was launched during the height of the pandemic last year.
The Latino Coalition of New Jersey has honored Worker Institute Executive Director Patricia Campos-Medina for her work on behalf of laborers, undocumented immigrants and domestic workers.
New York Passes Sweeping Bills to Improve Conditions for Delivery Workers
The New York Times
A survey of 500 app food delivery workers by the Worker Institute at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the Workers Justice Project found that 42 percent of workers had experienced being underpaid or not paid at all.
A Search for the Delivery Worker in a Viral Hurricane Ida Video
The New Yorker
The Worker’s Justice Project and researchers from Cornell University, the group released a report on the working conditions in the delivery industry in New York, based in part on a survey of five hundred app delivery workers.
How the US labor movement is getting to grips with the climate crisis
The Guardian
Through organizing led in part by the Climate Jobs National Resource Center and the Workers Institute at Cornell University, this strategy has been adopted in other states around the US, such as New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Illinois and Texas.
Labor Secretary Walsh, AFL-CIO Pres. Shuler, Union and Climate Leaders to Participate in Climate Jobs Summit
On Tuesday, September 21, the second virtual annual Climate Jobs Summit will convene leaders from the labor and climate movements, policymakers, scientists, academics, and activists to discuss America’s historic opportunity to build a worker-centered clean energy economy.
while DoorDash claims Manhattan workers make $33 per hour, including tips, when you factor in expenses, delivery workers have a base pay of $7.87 per hour, according to a recent study of app-based workers conducted by the Cornell Worker Institute and the Worker’s Justice Project.
NYC Food Delivery Workers Face Paltry Pay and High Risks, Analysis Shows
The City
Even with tips, average pay amounted to $12.21 an hour, the report determined. Organizers from the worker advocacy group that conducted the survey along with the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations hope that their findings will prompt government action.
New York Delivery Drivers Face Low Pay Even as Risks Mount
Bloomberg
fter accounting for expenses like electric bikes and batteries, the median hourly wage for delivery workers in New York City is $7.94, excluding tips, according to a study conducted by advocacy group Worker’s Justice Project in partnership with Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
Unions split on vaccine mandates, complicating Biden push
AP News
“Labor unions are a microcosm of the society we live in,” said Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of Cornell University’s The Worker Institute. “The same political divide we have right now exists within the rank and file of unions.”
As we celebrate Labor Day, we at The Worker Institute honor workers by recommitting ourselves to our founding mission to advance collective bargaining rights and collective worker power through our applied research, training, and policy innovation on critical issues facing workers today.
It has been my distinct pleasure and honor to serve as the Academic Director of The Worker Institute at Cornell’s ILR School over the past five years. Over this time, my colleagues in The Worker Institute, both past, and present, continually have inspired me.
A strike at Nabisco is testing the power of unions in the pandemic
Quartz
“Workers have more power to demand more rights, and unions have more power to demand more from employers like Nabisco,” says Patricia Campos-Medina, the executive director at The Worker Institute at Cornell University.
Zach Cunningham and local partners deliver training for Local 338 (RWDSU)
Cunningham of the Worker Institute, in conjunction with Climate Jobs NY, delivers virtual training for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union Local 338.
NYC passes new protections for delivery app workers
Marketplace
Customers are finally realizing that ordering on apps has an impact, “that there’s actually a cost for my cheap food, that there’s actually a cost for my 24-hour delivery,” said Patricia Campos-Medina at Cornell’s Worker Institute. “And workers realized that they had the power to demand more.”
Trumka era ends, and union tactics may be in for a makeover
Politico
"People have all of these new issues at work all of a sudden," said Ileen DeVault, academic director of The Worker Institute at Cornell University's Industrial and Labor Relations School.
‘Everyone Wants a Good Job’: The Texas Unions Fighting for a Green New Deal
At the Texas AFL-CIO annual convention, unions voted in favor of a green jobs plan. The proposal was written by the Texas Climate Jobs Project, “a project of the state labor federation and ILR's Worker Institute in consultation with 27 unions statewide.”
Today’s special: Angry diners. What’s a restaurant to do?
The Christian Science Monitor
“The fundamental shift and reckoning of the hospitality industry is happening because the pandemic actually changed the perception of those jobs” to something more valued and necessary, says Patricia Campos-Medina, a labor expert at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York
Worker Institute Statement on the Passing of Richard Trumka
The news of Richard Trumka’s death on Thursday, August 5, 2021, sent shock waves through the U.S. labor movement. A fiery orator and fierce warrior for the working class, America’s unions have lost a powerful leader and The Worker Institute at Cornell ILR has lost a devoted friend.
