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Worker Precarity in Journalism, Academia and Computer Programming

Collective Representation as a Response to Worker Precarity

What do part-time or underemployed workers without health benefits, pensions or job security who work split shifts at a number of different locations each week have in common? They all hold a university degree, often with at least one master’s degree and/or a doctorate, but find themselves in precarious, insecure work.

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Worker Precarity in Journalism, Academia and Computer Programming
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About the Institute

About us

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. The institute brings together researchers, educators and students with practitioners in labor, business and policymaking to confront growing economic and social inequalities, in the interests of working people and their families. A core value of the Worker Institute is that collective representation and workers’ rights are vital to a fair economy, robust democracy and just society. Learn more about all of our offerings.

Worker Institute

Core Offerings

The Worker Institute serves as a hub for policy research, publication, and training for policymakers, entrepreneurs, and activists engaged in the public debate to reduce economic inequality.

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Student Engagement

Student Engagement

The Worker Institute is committed to engaging Cornell ILR undergraduate and graduate students through our courses, research fellowships, graduate programs and other professional development opportunities.

 

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Learn more about our work with students.

In the News

Media Mentions

Inside Private Equity’s Takeover Of America’s Home Care System

Forbes
Private equity firms now control roughly half the home-based healthcare services in New York state says a report from ILR’s Worker Institute called “Private Equity Pathways into Home Care: The Case of New York State.”
Inside Private Equity’s Takeover Of America’s Home Care System

TPS ends for Salvadorans on Wednesday. What this means for those living on Long Island

Newsday
Natalia Navas, Labor Leadership Programs Associate at ILR’s Woker Institute, discusses the mindset of Salvadorans living in the U.S. who may lose Temporary Protected Status and potentially face loss of employment and deportation.
TPS ends for Salvadorans on Wednesday. What this means for those living on Long Island

Pessimism, Cost of Living Are on the Rise, New York at Work Report Finds

Cornell Chronicle
Studying two decades of data collected through the Empire State Poll, researchers have found that the cost of living dominates respondents’ key concerns, eclipsing other priorities, such as the environment.
Pessimism, Cost of Living Are on the Rise, New York at Work Report Finds

The Context: Who Gets to Be American?

Apple Podcasts
Patrica Campos-Medina, executive director of ILR’s Worker Institute, discusses problems with immigration, labor and democratic systems in the U.S. – how these problems are connected and how to fix them.
The Context: Who Gets to Be American?

NYC dismisses Haitian employees who lost their TPS status, Mamdani says

Newsday
This article cites a report by ILR’s Worker Institute, saying that New York state has 98,250 workers with Temporary Protected Status, with most coming from Haiti and Venezuela; the report is called “We Are Home: Workers with TPS Belong Here.”
NYC dismisses Haitian employees who lost their TPS status, Mamdani says

Employers Fear Labor Shortage as Many Immigrants Lose Protected Status

The New York Times
“They have devoted their entire years of productivity to this country,” says Patrica Campos-Medina, executive director of ILR’s Worker Institute – and co-author of the report “We Are Home: TPS Workers Belong Here” – describing the contributions to the U.S. of Central Americans with Temporary Protected Status.
Employers Fear Labor Shortage as Many Immigrants Lose Protected Status

Blog: Latest News and Events

Read more stories from the Worker Institute Blog

Collective Representation as a Response to Worker Precarity in Logistics, Warehousing and Supply Chains

The second webinar in the Cornell ILR Worker Institute's three-part series on collective representation and worker precarity examined how e-commerce, automation, and changing supply chains contribute to worker insecurity in warehousing and logistics, and how collective organizing, legislation, and community solidarity can address these challenges.
overhead shot of warehouse worker pushing boxes with surrounding shelves of packages
Collective Representation as a Response to Worker Precarity in Logistics, Warehousing and Supply Chains

Cornell’s Last Mile Delivery Study Finds Majority of Non-Union Delivery Drivers Would Unionize

Preliminary data from Cornell’s Last Mile Delivery study finds that a majority of its non-unionized package delivery driver respondents think that their interests would be better represented by a union and would support unionization at their employers.
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Cornell’s Last Mile Delivery Study Finds Majority of Non-Union Delivery Drivers Would Unionize

The Incursion of Private Equity into New York State Home Care

Findings from a two-year research project that explores private equity’s incursion into home care in New York State, its relationship to structural racism and how agency structure shapes working conditions, worker voice and what this means for quality of care.
RWJF0930
The Incursion of Private Equity into New York State Home Care

Lois Gray Innovation Initiative 

Explore the Initiative
Lois Gray, ILR School faculty member

The Lois Gray Innovation Initiative was founded by labor pioneer Lois Gray to generate innovative thinking and solutions to problems related to work, economy, and society. The Lois Gray Innovation Fund provide financial incentives for collaboration between resident and extension faculty in relation to priority programs of The Worker Institute. It ensures faculty, researchers and students have the opportunity to fulfill the institute’s mission of advancing worker rights and collective representation.