Insight, Issues & Research
Inequality and Worker Rights: Where do we go from here?
Webcast Date: Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Presenters:
- Lara Skinner, Associate Director of The Worker Institute at Cornell
- Shannon Gleeson, Associate Professor of Labor Relations, Law & History
Additional perspectives by:
- Sarita Gupta, Executive Director of Jobs With Justice and the Co-Director of Caring Across Generations
- Kendall Fells, SEIU National Coordinator and President of Fast Food Forward
- Lou Jean Fleron, Emeritus Extension Faculty (Cornell ILR) and Director of the High Road program in Buffalo
The crisis of inequality is arguably one of the greatest social and economic issues facing the United States today. In this webcast, representatives of The Worker Institute at Cornell will examine the ways in which worker rights and collective representation impact inequality and explore innovative solutions developed by the labor movement to solve this growing crisis.
The presenters will address the role that industrial and labor relations has historically had in reducing inequality and how changes in the country’s collective bargaining system can be linked to the extreme levels of inequality we see today. They will then present new ways in which low-wage workers are organizing to address inequality and look at two specific examples: Caring Across Generations, a campaign that works to expand access to in-home care while creating living wage jobs for care workers; and Fight for 15, a fast food worker-led movement to raise the national minimum wage to $15 an hour.
This is a live webcast, and questions and comments from our viewers are encouraged.