Skip to main content
Cornell University mobile logo
Dignity factory workers producing shirts for overseas clients, in Accra, Ghana

News and Events

Is Fashion Sleepwalking Into the Climate Crisis?

The Business of Fashion News
wild fire photo
Is Fashion Sleepwalking Into the Climate Crisis?

What Causes Garment Workers to Quit Their Jobs?

Workers evaluate their jobs based on a “livelihood” logic--are the wages paid enough to sustain their livelihoods?
GARMENT FACTORY WORKER IN HANOI. MANAN VATSYAYANA/GETTY IMAGES
What Causes Garment Workers to Quit Their Jobs?

GLI Welcomes New Board Members

The Global Labor Institute is pleased to welcome seven new members to our advisory board—Kalpona Akter, Mick Bride, Sarah Dadush, Tenisha Elliott, Duncan Scott, Jill Tucker and Mi Zhou. Please visit the Global Labor Institute’s people page to learn more about them.
Anna Burger at podium
GLI Welcomes New Board Members

Higher Ground + Trade Realities

OECD Garment Forum Side Session with Katalyst Initiative (Amsterdam), Cornell GLI (New York) and Home Based Women Workers Federation (Karachi)
Land and Sea - OECD
Higher Ground + Trade Realities

OECD Due Diligence Session -- Sarosh Kuruvilla

GLI’s Sarosh Kuruvilla is sharing our new framework for hard measures of labor outcomes as part of the main OECD session “Assessing RBC due diligence implementation: Reflecting a risk-based approach".
Logo OECD
OECD Due Diligence Session -- Sarosh Kuruvilla

Learning from Crisis: Apparel Industry Expert on Mitigating the COVID-19 Pandemic and Future Crises

View our live Debate: “Learning from Crisis: Apparel Industry Expert on Mitigating the COVID-19 Pandemic and Future Crises"
Icon
Accessibility text goes here and is required
Learning from Crisis: Apparel Industry Expert on Mitigating the COVID-19 Pandemic and Future Crises

Has Fashion Learned Anything From Covid? (You Already Know the Answer.)

Female garment workers wearing masks.
Has Fashion Learned Anything From Covid? (You Already Know the Answer.)

"Learning from Crisis: Apparel Industry Expert on Mitigating the COVID-19 Pandemic and Future Crises" Live Debate

Join us on Wednesday, February 8th at 9:00 a.m. for a live debate on the Cornell Global Labor Institute’s third and last paper on COVID-19 supported by the ILO: “Learning from Crisis: Apparel Industry Experts on Mitigating the COVID-19 Pandemic and Future Crises.”
garment workers in a factory
"Learning from Crisis: Apparel Industry Expert on Mitigating the COVID-19 Pandemic and Future Crises" Live Debate

Who Do Audits Really Serve? Labor and Denim Experts Have Lots to Say – Sourcing Journal

Sourcing Journal
“The [audit] system is not a system,” said Jason Judd, executive director of the ILR Global Labor Institute. “It’s a confusion of programs. It is program-rich and system-poor.”
Jason Judd
Who Do Audits Really Serve? Labor and Denim Experts Have Lots to Say – Sourcing Journal

Everybody wants strong social protection systems. Who pays for them?

A new paper by Cornell University’s Global Labor Institute concludes that while the industry agrees more social protection is a must, nobody wants to pay for it, say Jason Judd and Matthew M Fisher Daly, co-authors of the report.
Missing alt
Everybody wants strong social protection systems. Who pays for them?

Op-Ed Fashion’s Business Model Isn’t Fit for Climate Change

This op-ed by Jason Judd and Sarosh Kuruvilla explores how the business model of fashion is failing to meet the complex problems posed by climate change.
A man walks through rain and dye outside a dyeing factory in Bangladesh. (Getty)
Op-Ed Fashion’s Business Model Isn’t Fit for Climate Change

Wages trump safety standards for global apparel workers

Cornell Chronicle
factory workers
Wages trump safety standards for global apparel workers

Announcing the Global Labor Institute

NCP is now the Global Labor Institute at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
GLI Logo
Announcing the Global Labor Institute

Ship Detained After ILR/ILO Workshop on Labor Abuse Among Fishers

A recent training by the ILO, in collaboration with Cornell’s New Conversations Project, has resulted in the South African government detaining a foreign-flagged fishing vessel suspected of engaging in labor abuses.
Jason Judd (left) on the docks with a member of the South African Maritime Authority
Ship Detained After ILR/ILO Workshop on Labor Abuse Among Fishers

2022 keynoter Lara Wolters: “Time of ‘I didn’t know’ is over”

Sourcing Journal
Lara Wolters (center), Member of the European Parliament (Netherlands) and Jason Judd, Cornell University
2022 keynoter Lara Wolters: “Time of ‘I didn’t know’ is over”

Video: Sarosh Kuruvilla’s Conference keynote speech

GLI Academic Director brings new data and analysis of private regulation of labor practices
Icon
Sarosh Kuruvilla, Cornell University
Video: Sarosh Kuruvilla’s Conference keynote speech

Video: Thea Lee’s 2022 Conference keynote speech

USDOL Deputy Undersecretary lays out changes for labor provisions in U.S. trade policy and agreements
Icon
Thea Lee, Deputy Undersecretary, U.S. Department of Labor
Video: Thea Lee’s 2022 Conference keynote speech

Speakers and scenes from 2022 NYC Conference

Three crucial questions for global labor governance: Where are we headed with human rights due diligence, private regulation and labor rights in trade policy?” Too long?
Speaker on stage with microphone
Speakers and scenes from 2022 NYC Conference

Study confirms need for binding agreements on pay

The Clean Clothes Campaign says ILR’s Global Labor Institute's (formerly the New Conversations Project) recent report confirms the need for fashion brands to sign a binding global agreement on severance pay.
thread loom in a fabric factory
Study confirms need for binding agreements on pay

Wage-related abuses in fishing industry exacerbated by pandemic response

Cornell University researchers for the ILO’s Ship to Shore Rights South-East Asia project, examined how workers were impacted by the pandemic in the fishing and seafood-processing industries.
Philippine fisherman surrounded by buoys
Wage-related abuses in fishing industry exacerbated by pandemic response

“Security for Apparel Workers: Alternative Models” Live Debate

Join us on Tuesday, 31 May at 9 a.m. Eastern (3 p.m. CET and 7 p.m. Dhaka) for a live debate about a global severance program with IndustriALL General Secretary Atle Høie, President of Sommilito Garment Sramik Federation Nazma Akter and others.
Garment workers live debate
“Security for Apparel Workers: Alternative Models” Live Debate

Global Severance Pay Program Outlined

When apparel factories shut down due to COVID-19, many workers lost their incomes. ILR’s New Conversations Project proposes a model to protect workers.
garment workers in a factory
Global Severance Pay Program Outlined

ILR and ILO Make Suggestions to Help Fishers in Southeast Asia

Researchers from ILR’s New Conversations Project and the International Labour Organization have documented problems faced by fishers, especially migrants, during the pandemic and provided a list of potential policy changes to effect change.
fishing boat in Thailand
ILR and ILO Make Suggestions to Help Fishers in Southeast Asia

Conference: New Rules and New Research

NCP Conference Thursday, June 16, 2022. Will take place at NYC Cornell University ILR Center, 570 Lexington Ave. (12th Floor). New York City, New York 10022 Time: 9 a.m. – 5:15 p.m
worker protest
Conference: New Rules and New Research

Live Event: Rough Seas - COVID’s impact on work in fishing

New Cornell NCP/ILO Ship to Shore Rights brief on fishing in Southeast Asia looks back at the COVID-19 pandemic impacts and responses.
fishing boat in Thailand
Live Event: Rough Seas - COVID’s impact on work in fishing

“Repeat, Regain or Renegotiate?” NCP Working Paper No. 2 asks What's the future of apparel?

Cornell NCP's Jason Judd and Lowell Jackson plot the decades-long, pre-pandemic trajectories of apparel industry consolidation, automation, e-commerce, sourcing patterns, and governance of labor practices against three possible scenarios for the industry in the post-pandemic era. This paper also appears as an ILO Better Work Discussion Paper.
Ho Chi Minh map
“Repeat, Regain or Renegotiate?” NCP Working Paper No. 2 asks What's the future of apparel?

Is private regulation working? Book launch with Sourcing Journal on May 25

New Conversations Project and the Sourcing Journal presents a live book launch and debate on Sarosh Kuruvilla's new book, Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains on Tuesday, May 25.
Sarosh Kuruvilla Book Cover
Is private regulation working? Book launch with Sourcing Journal on May 25

Live Debate: Repeat, Regain or Re-negotiate? The post-COVID future of global apparel

Cornell NCP hosts a live virtual debate on Tuesday, October 12 on NCP's new paper on the future of the apparel industry: 'Repeat, Regain or Re-negotiate?' The analyses track apparel industry concentration, climate crisis impacts, automation, shifting sourcing patterns and public-vs-private regulation for three post-pandemic scenarios.
Women in India
Live Debate: Repeat, Regain or Re-negotiate? The post-COVID future of global apparel

NCP Workshops and Training Programs

NCP launches live workshops and training programs for various stakeholders in the sustainability eco-system regarding labor standards in global supply chains. These workshops and courses are relevant to global corporations, auditing firms, NGOs, consulting companies, labor unions, and others.
Bolts of colorful fabric rolled and piled together
NCP Workshops and Training Programs

NCP at OECD: Is Social Dialogue Part of Fashion's Post-COVID Cure?

NCP and the Strategic Partnership for Garment Supply Chain Transformation led a session sharing NCP's mapping of social dialogue in response to the COVID-19 pandemic at the 2021 OECD Due Diligence Forum.
Logo of the OECD. A globe followed by the letters O E C D.
NCP at OECD: Is Social Dialogue Part of Fashion's Post-COVID Cure?

Stay Connected

Join the Global Labor Institute mailing list.