Kate Bronfenbrenner

Cornell University | CU · Department of Labor Relations, Law, History

[Excerpt] One of the long held performance objectives of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has been to reduce the time period between the filing of the petition and union certification elections. This year the NLRB's 2010 Performance Accountability Report claimed that 86.3 percent of all NLRB elections were held within 100 days of the petit...

[Excerpt] This study is a comprehensive analysis of employer behavior in representation elections supervised by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The data for this study originate from a thorough review of primary NLRB documents for a random sample of 1,004 NLRB certification elections that took place between January 1, 1999 and December 3...

[Excerpt] In this chapter we seek to answer the following questions: Why has it been so difficult for unions to turn the organizing efforts and initiatives of the last six years into any significant gains in union density? Why have a small number of unions been able to make major gains through organizing? And most importantly, which organizing stra...

"With the refocusing of attention of the labor movement on organizing, an increasing number of scholars have been directing their research toward the nature and practice of current union organizing efforts. These scholars have begun updating a literature that had grown sorely out of touch with the organizing experience of America’s unions and have...

[Excerpt] Unless Congress passes serious labor law reform with real penalties, only a small fraction of the workers who seek union representation will succeed. If recent trends continue, there will no longer be a functioning legal mechanism to effectively protect the right of private-sector workers to organize and collectively bargain. Our country...

Recent non-Board and public sector campaign victories include the 49,000 home child care providers who won recognition in Illinois, and 5,300 mostly immigrant janitors who won recognition in Houston, both through SEIU in 2005; 40,000 child care providers organized by AFSCME and the UAW in Michigan in 2006; and earlier this year, the 4,000 mostly Af...

[Excerpt] What the cases in this book show is that the world's unions have a greater potential than most realize to take on the most powerful corporations and win. These cases also show how difficult that can be. It requires enormous effort, creativity, and a willingness to take risks and reach across differences. But going from individual cases to...

[Excerpt] After two decades of massive employment losses in heavily unionized sectors of the economy and exponential growth of the largely unorganized service sector, the U.S. labor movement is struggling to remain relevant. Despite new organizing initiatives and practices, union organizing today remains a tremendously arduous endeavor, particularl...

The relationship between American working women and the U.S. labor movement can neither be easily described nor categorized. In part, this is because women’s participation and experience in the labor movement differ so greatly across industry, region, union, occupation, and ethnic background. But mostly, it is a consequence of the inevitable contra...

[Excerpt] That labor is in a crisis cannot be questioned. While there may be some labor leaders who are content to keep ministering to an ever less powerful, shrinking base, there were few in the room that day that would disagree with the words expressed by SEIU International Executive Vice President Gerry Hudson on the opening panel, that the U.S....

Labor Studies Journal 30.1 (2005) i-vii Looking back at our history we cannot ignore how struggles around the changing nature of work itself were formative in the building of the U.S. labor movement. In the early textile mills in Lowell and Lawrence, Massachusetts, New England farm women, and later immigrants from western and central Europe, faced...

From the “Editor’s Introduction”: Within today’s AFL-CIO, a different set of frustrations with the bureaucratic structure and leadership is simmering. The relative lack of new organizing and the continuous toll of jurisdictional rivalries have produced a call for radical restructuring, or “New Unity Partnership” (NUP). As articulated by the leaders...

"Women in professional and technical occupations fill a unique niche in the US workforce and the US labor movement. For, while the image of an elementary or secondary school teacher is not likely one that would come to mind as the most typical example of either a worker, a professional, or a union member, it actually would be one of the better answ...

Despite the increasing amount of trade between China and the US, and the increase in foreign direct investment from the US into China, there is no government body that collects information detailing the incidence of production shifts out of the US to China or any other country. In the fall of 2000, the predecessor to the US-China Economic and Secur...

The authors assess the status of recent organizing efforts in California and examine the challenges that must be overcome if California unions are going to significantly increase union density in the state. Through their analysis of a combination of national and state data on employment, union membership, workforce and union demographics, and publi...

[Excerpt] Even leaving aside the unusual events of last year, it is clear that despite all the new initiatives and resources devoted to organizing and all the talk of “changing to organize,” American unions are at best standing still. They will need to organize millions, not hundreds of thousands, of workers each year if they are to reverse the tid...

[Excerpt] The Killing of Karen Silkwood, therefore, is both a cautionary and inspirational tale. It reminds us of what we are up against and what it takes to win. But most of all it reminds us why each of us must stand with the whistle-blowers and the ordinary heroes that are among us, in the workplace, in government, and in our communities, and, i...

[Excerpt] Despite talk in the media and academia concerning worker attitudes about unions and workplace participation, there is precious little data to inform any of these discussions. Thus, research of the scope and scale of the Workplace Representation and Participation Study is of enormous value to the field of industrial relations because it pr...

In May 2000, the United States Trade Deficit Review Commission contracted with Cornell University to conduct a study updating Cornell’s previous research on the impact of plant closings and threats of plant closings on union organizing campaigns in the U.S. private sector. Through surveys, personal interviews, documentary evidence, and the use of e...

The second in a two‐part series details the sophisticated international campaign and grass‐roots activism that gave labor one of its biggest wins in the ′90s.

The first in a two‐part series that details the Steelworkers' victory at Ravenswood Aluminum—one of labor's biggest wins in the ′90s.

[Excerpt] When the Ravenswood Aluminum Company locked out seventeen hundred workers on October 31, 1990, it hardly looked like a big opportunity for labor. In what had become standard operating procedure for employers during the 1980s, management broke off bargaining with the United Steelworkers of America, and then brought hundreds of replacement...

[Excerpt] In the last several years a great deal of discussion has taken place both inside and outside the labor movement about the need for American unions to organize massive numbers of unorganized workers. Who exactly this target workforce should be, ranging from low-wage contingent workers in home care, janitorial, or food service occupations,...

As increasing numbers of employers and governments in industrialized nations hasten to "Americanize" their economic policies, labor laws, and union-avoidance strategies, it has become critical for unions in other countries to learn what they can from the organizing experience of the US labor movement. Most research on factors contributing to US org...

[Excerpt] Until recently, some national and local union leaders still argued that labor should circle the wagons and take care of existing members rather than spend scarce resources on organizing nonunion workers. Today those voices have largely been silenced by the hard numbers of labor's dramatic decline. As expressed in the platform of the new A...

Several recent books have touted the benefits of working as a temporary employee, but now Parker, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and onetime temp himself, portrays a dark side to the temporary-help industry. In spite of its title, this book is a scholarly look at what Parker calls "contingent work." He...

Analyzing 1986-87 data from 261 NLRB certification election campaigns, the author finds that union tactic variables explain more of the variance in election outcomes than any other group of variables, including employer tactics, bargaining unit demographics, organizer background, election background, employer characteristics, and election environme...

Over the last ten years we have seen a dramatic increase in the utilization of part-time workers by the United Parcel Service (UPS). This increase has been coupled with a stunningly high turnover rate of 150 percent among these workers. This study documents the deteriorating work environment for part-time workers at UPS and finds that a lack of ful...

[Excerpt] This study examines the impact of union tactics on certification election win rates, first contracts and post-contract membership rates in the public sector. Based on an in-depth survey of union organizers in a national sample of public sector certification election campaigns the findings suggest that a grassroots, rank-and-file intensive...

[Excerpt] No revival of our American labor movement will be possible without massive new organizing. While it is important to stem the loss of unionized manufacturing jobs and do a better job of servicing and mobilizing current union members, these alone will not put the labor movement on the road to renewal. Even a cursory review of the data shows...

"This report represents the first part of a larger study of public sector organizing that will include a detailed examination of certification, decerticification and multi-union challenge elections."

"Organizing is an extremely risky and arduous venture for American workers. As the experience of the last twenty years has shown, a combination of unfettered employer antiunion behavior and weak and poorly enforced labor law make for an ‘unlevel playing field’ stacked against unorganized workers and unions. Using survey data from private-sector cer...

[Excerpt] In early November 1933, organizers from the Communist-led Cannery and Agricultural Workers Industrial Union (CAWIU) returned to the Imperial Valley, where just four years before their first strike among California's agricultural workers had ended in a swift and inglorious defeat. Now they returned to the valley, fresh from their strike vi...

[Excerpt] Two days after the November 1932 elections, newly elected California congressman Frank H. Buck provoked a massive tree pruners' strike when he announced a wage cut for pruners on his ranch from $1.40 for an eight-hour day to $1.25 for a nine-hour day. Buck, one the largest growers in the Vacaville fruit growing region, had raised wages to...

Testimony before the NMB hearings on the proposed rule change to the RLA that recommend changing the voting standard from the majority of eligible voters to the majority of votes cast. The testimony summarized findings from the first ever national academic study of organizing under the RLA. Based on findings that showed that under the RLA standard...

[Excerpt] Just before the start of the May 1932 harvest season, growers in the Half Moon Bay area of San Mateo, California, provoked a spontaneous strike among pea pickers when they reduced piece rates from seventy-five to fifty cents a pack. Although the workers were unorganized, the large pay cut represented the breaking point for families just c...

[Excerpt] In the fall of 2000, legislation was enacted by the U.S. Congress to establish a bipartisan commission to investigate, assess, and report to Congress on the economic and security implications of the bilateral economic relationship between the U.S. and China. Unfortunately, to date no government body in the U.S. has had the responsibility...

[Excerpt] Cohn's study is based on an analysis of wage and strike data from French coal miners between 1890 and 1935. Using a statistical analysis of the relative impact of strike activity and market determinants on changes in coal miner wages over the 45-year period, as well as a more traditional historical review of primary union, government, and...

New York State has long been hailed by the labor movement for its high union density and strong and active local labor unions. Yet, like their counterparts in other states, unions in New York State have watched their numbers and their power shrink precipitously in the last few decades under the onslaught of corporate "downsizing," plant closings, d...

[Excerpt] The spring of 1933 ushered in a wave of labor unrest unparalleled in the history of California agriculture. Starting in April with the Santa Clara pea harvest, strikes erupted throughout the summer and fall as each crop ripened for harvest. The strike wave culminated with the San Joaquin Valley strike, the largest and most important strik...

[Excerpt] On January 1, 1930, several hundred Mexican and Filipino lettuce workers in Brawley, California, walked off their jobs in a spontaneous protest against declining wages and intolerable working conditions. In less than a week they were joined by 5,000 other field workers, and the impromptu walkout of Imperial Valley lettuce workers turned i...

[Excerpt] Unions seeking to organize the unorganized face increasing numbers of part-time, temporary and leased employees. These contingent workers now make up more than a quarter of the American work force. Of the new work force they are the least organized and perhaps the most difficult to organize. But they are also the group most in need of the...

[Excerpt] The chapters in this book make clear that unions have the capability to build the cross-border coalitions necessary to take on transnational corporations. The question is whether they are willing to make the fundamental ideological and cultural changes necessary to make this happen on a global scale. If they are, then maybe it will be fiv...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University, January, 1993. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 650-662).

For all of the increase in international trade and rising concern about shifting of manufacturing and service jobs away from the United States, there is remarkably little detailed data on the scope of outsourcing. In part that reflects corporation's reluctance to announce plans to shift production or office work overseas. Even more, it is a consequ...

"In 1985, Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, announced that it was going to contract out the work of its food-service department, effectively terminating 156 employees. This action was taken despite the department’s well-established record of profitability and quality service. A workforce of almost entirely African-American w...

[Excerpt] The purpose of this chapter is to examine how unions and their allies can build global networks in the face of multinational company (MNC) efforts to deny workers their rights to representation and destroy the very unions that represent them. In particular, we examine the strike and the global contract campaign organized by the United Ste...

In September 2000 we submitted our research report, "Uneasy Terrain: The Impact of Capital Mobility on Workers, Wages, and Union Organizing," to the U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission. The findings from our study were then incorporated in their final report, The U.S. Trade Deficit: Causes, Consequences and Recommendations for Action. Our original...

After decades of massive employment losses in heavily unionized sectors of the economy, and the exponential growth of the largely unorganized service sector, the American labor movement is struggling to remain relevant. Despite new organizing initiatives, the combination of US labor law and labor relations practices have made new organizing a treme...

Kate Bronfenbrenner is director of labor education research at the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. She worked for many years as an organizer with the United Woodcutters Association in Mississippi and the Service Employees International Union in Boston. She is the author, co-author and editor of numerou...

Excerpt] There is no question that some unions, such as the UAW in auto-transplants and auto-parts, CWA/IUE in high tech and electronics, USWA in metal production and fabrication or the UFCW in food processing, face much greater challenges organising in their primary jurisdictions because they are confronted with more mobile, more global, and more...

[Excerpt] The free fall of union membership in the 1970s and 1980s in the U.S. private sector was checked by unionization in the public sector. In many ways the growth of public-sector employment both masked the dramatic decline of private-sector unionization and prevented the wholesale hemorrhaging of the labor movement. Although government worker...

[Excerpt] The American labor movement is at a watershed. For the first time since the early years of industrial unionism sixty years ago, there is near-universal agreement among union leaders that the future of the movement depends on massive new organizing. In October 1995, John Sweeney, Richard Trumka, and Linda Chavez-Thompson were swept into th...

This article is based on Final Report: The Effects of Plant Closing or Threat of Plant Closing on the Right of Workers to Organize. The report was commissioned by the tri-national Labor Secretariat of the Commission for Labor Cooperation (the NAFTA labor commission) "on the effects of the sudden closing of the plant on the principle of freedom of a...

Today, in the post-NAFTA climate of expanding trade agreements and skyrocketing levels of corporate migration, a majority of employers continue to make plant-closing threats during organizing campaigns. A recent study found that plant-closing threats continue to be among the most powerful anti-union strategies, and threats are even more pervasive t...

[Excerpt] This chapter examines the impact of corporate restructuring and global outsourcing on employment in the Commonwealth and the shifts in production from workplaces in Massachusetts to other countries. In particular we focus on global outsourcing, the shifting of work from Massachusetts offshore to countries in Europe and Asia, and nearshore...