Kate L. Bronfenbrenner

People/Faculty
Director of Labor Education Research
Resident Outreach Department
Kate Bronfenbrenner

Contact

133 Statler Dr
262 Ives Hall Faculty Wing
Ithaca, NY 14853
United States

Tel
+1 (607) 255-7581
Websites
Cornell/AFL-CIO Strategic Corporate Research Course
Overview

Kate Bronfenbrenner is the Director of Labor Education Research and a Senior Lecturer at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and the Co-Director of the Worker Empowerment Research Project (WERN). Her primary research interests include union and employer strategies in organizing and bargaining in the global economy; labor, race and gender; the impact of labor law and trade policy on employment, wages, and unionization. Prior to joining the Cornell faculty in 1993, Bronfenbrenner was an Assistant Professor in Labor Studies at Penn State University and worked for many years as an organizer and union representative with the United Woodcutters Association in Mississippi and with SEIU in Boston, as well as a welfare rights organizer in Seattle, Washington.

Bronfenbrenner, who received her PhD. from Cornell in 1993, is the co-author and editor of several peer reviewed books on union and employer strategies, including Global Unions: Challenging Transnational Capital Through Cross Border Campaigns, Union Organizing in the Public Sector: An Analysis of State and Local Elections, Organizing to Win: New Research on Union Strategies, and Ravenswood: The Steelworkers' Victory and the Revival of American Labor. She also published numerous articles, book chapters, and working papers on labor policy, employer and union behavior in public and private sector organizing and first contract campaigns, comprehensive campaigns, union leadership development, women and unions, and global trade and investment policy.

Because of her expertise in contemporary labor issues and her research on union and employer behavior in certification election campaigns, Bronfenbrenner is brought in to testify as an expert witness at Labor Department and Congressional hearings and is frequently quoted in the major news media.

Bronfenbrenner is the recipient of many awards, most notably, the 2020 George D. Levy Faculty Award for outstanding community-engaged learning, and, one of Cornell's highest honors, the Carpenter Memorial Advising Award, in 2012.

Teaching Statement 

The goal of my teaching has always been to develop ILR students as independent thinkers, researchers, and writers and to teach them about contemporary workplace and labor issues in a global context. Small classes such as mine are unique opportunities for students to hone their writing, research, and analytical skills and for engaged learning with workers, unions, government agencies, and NGOs. I am pleased to report that one consistent outcome from my classes is that the majority of my students see themselves as better researchers and writers and feel more confident about pursuing other upper level classes, graduate school, or a career in a research-related field.

Research Statement 

My research focus is fourfold: global corporate restructuring and capital mobility and its impact on workers, wages, and communities; employer and union strategies in organizing and bargaining in a neoliberal economy; implications of changing workplace demographics for unions and employers; and the impact of unionization in the rising challenge of economic inequality in the US. I have conducted my own research and mentored junior scholars with their research, using survey research, multivariate data analysis, ethnography, primary document research, qualitative analysis, and strategic corporate research.

Service Statement 

I have been actively involved in service for the University since I came here in 1993. I have served on University-wide committees for more than two decades, as well as committees within my college. I have actively been involved in anti-racism work both on-campus and in the community. However, I believe the most important service I provide is the mentoring, advising, and teaching I provide students both inside and outside ILR, particularly the work I do to advise, teach and mentor first-generation students, transfers, and students of color.

Outreach Statement 

As one of the few faculty members with an appointment both in the Labor Relations, Law, and History Department and in the Resident Extension Department; outreach continues to be an essential part of the work of the Office of Labor Education Research (OLER), which I direct. One of the primary programs of OLER is to supervise engaged research conducted by undergraduate researchers on labor policy issues with labor, NGO, and government decision-makers. The students working with me not only receive one to four years of education and experience in social science research methods, but also get an opportunity to engage with labor, community, academic, and political organizations they may be working with in the future. Our outreach program has also run an internationally renowned Strategic Corporate Research Summer School each June for more than twenty years. Forty-eight students attend each year from unions, community organizations, and social justice organizations from the US, Canada, and many other countries.

Areas of Expertise

Collective Bargaining
Community and members
Comparative labor movements
Contract administration
Contract negotiations
Discrimination
Diversity and Inclusion
Gender and families
Global economy
Human Rights and Workplace Practices
Immigration and the Labor Force
Interest-based negotiations (win-win)
International and comparative political economy
Labor History
Labor and politics
Labor and society
Labor in Europe and the U.S.
Labor law
Labor relations
Labor rights
Law and policies
Leadership development
National Labor Relations Act/Board
Negotiations
Occupational Safety and Health
Organizing
Policy and analysis
Practice and strategy
Public Sector
Revitalization
Rights of working people
Service sector
Strategic tactics
Survey Research
Temporary and contract workers
Theory and behavior
Theory and models
Union leadership
Unions
Women and labor unions

Other expertise

Race, class, and gender

Publications

Research Reports

  • , , , & . . Outsourcing in the Trump Era: Losing jobs and communities in media silence.
  • . . No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organizing.
  • . . Union organizing among professional women workers : a research study commissioned by the department for professional employees, AFL-CIO.
  • , & . . The Changing Nature of Corporate Global Restructuring: The Impact of Production Shifts on Jobs in the US, China, and Around the Globe.
  • , & . . Overcoming the Challenges to Organizing in Manufacturing.
  • . . Impact of U.S.-China Trade Relations on Workers, Wages, and Employment: Pilot Study Report.
  • . . Uneasy Terrain: The Impact of Capital Mobility on Workers, Wages, and Union Organizing. Part II: First Contract Supplement.
  • . . Uneasy Terrain: The Impact of Capital Mobility on Workers, Wages, and Union Organizing.
  • . . Health and Safety at National Steel: Preliminary Results, USWA/National Steel Health and Safety Survey.
  • . . Lifting as They Climb: The Promise and Potential of Organizing Women Workers.
  • . . The Effects of Plant Closing or Threat of Plant Closing on the Right of Workers to Organize.
  • . . Worker Turnover and Part-Time Employment at UPS.
  • , & . . Staying Union: The Dynamics of Union Success in Public Sector Decertification Campaigns.
  • , & . . The Impact of Employer Opposition on Union Certification Win Rates: A Private/Public Sector Comparison.
  • . . Union Tactics Matter:The Impact of Union Tactics on Certification Elections, First Contracts, and Membership Rates.
  • , & . . The USWA Victory at Ravenswood.
  • . . Review of Academic Research on Union Organizing: Results for AFL-CIO Organizing Survey and Expanded Sample; Case Studies of Union Organizing and First Contract Campaigns; Research on First Contract Campaigns, and Findings from Published Academic Research on Union Organizing.
  • . . Successful Union Strategies for Winning Certification Elections and First Contracts: report to Participants, Part 1: Organizing Survey Results.
  • . . Successful Union Strategies for Winning Certification Elections and First Contracts: report to Participants, Part 2: First Contract Survey Results.

Magazine Publications

Policy Report

Journal Articles

  • . . Another Bruise, but the Fight to Unionize Continues. New York Times.
  • , & . . Election timing, rule changes, and the politics of labor reform and the NLRB. Was accepted to present at ASA in 2014, but decided to revise based on rapidly changing current events including debate in Congress, and upcoming Presidential veto and overide. eto) once done will submit as journal article.
  • , & . . Race, gender, and the rebirth of trade unionism. New Labor Forum, 16(3-4), 142-148.
  • . . Organizing Women: The Nature and Process of Union Organizing Efforts among US Women Workers since the mid-1990s. Work and Occupations, 32(4), 441-463.
  • , & . . Special Issue on "Labor and Social Justice: Union Renewal in a Contested Global Economy". Work and Occupations, 32(4).
  • . . What Is Labor’s True Purpose? The Implications of SEIU’s Unite to Win Proposals for Organizing. New Labor Forum, 14(2), 19-26.
  • , & . . Introduction: Bringing the Study of Work Back to Labor Studies. Labor Studies Journal, 30(1).
  • . . Offshoring: The Evolving Profile of Corporate Global Restructuring. Multinational Monitor, 25(12).
  • . . Declining Unionization, Rising Inequality: an Interview with Kate Bronfenbrenner. Multinational Monitor, 24(5), 21-24.
  • . . Changing to Organize. The Nation, 273(7), 16-29.
  • . . What do Workers Want: Reflections on the Implications of the Freeman and Rogers Study. University of Pennsylvania Journal of Labor and Employment Law, 3(3).
  • . . Raw Power: Plant-Closing Threats and the Threat to Union Organizing. Multinational Monitor, 21(12), 24-29.
  • , & . . Steelworkers’ Victory at Ravenswood: Picket Line Around the World. WorkingUSA, 53-65.
  • , & . . Locked Out but Holding Together in Ravenswood. WorkingUSA, 8-24.
  • . . Organizing for Keeps: Building a Twenty-first Century Labor Movement. Introduction to the Special Conference Issue. Labor Studies Journal, 24(1), 3-6.
  • . . We’ll Close. Southern Exposure, XXVI(2, 3), 50-54.
  • . . Reversing the Tide of Organizing Decline: Lessons from the U.S. Experience. New Zealand Journal of Industrial Relations, 23(2).
  • . . Organizing in the NAFTA Environment. New Labor Forum, 1(1), 50-60.
  • . . We’ll Close! Plant Closings, Plant-closing Threats, Union Organizing and NAFTA. Multinational Monitor, 18(3).
  • . . The Role of Union Strategies in NLRB Certification Elections. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 50(2), 195-212.

Newspapers

  • . . Demographics of the South Should Help Unions. The New York Times.
  • . . A good case against Boeing. The Washington Post.
  • . . War on Organizing. Washington Post.

Book Chapters

  • . . A Fundamental Issue of Justice. In Don't Mourn-Organize: Lessons from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. (pp. 34). New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health.
  • , & . . Re-establishing a Workers' Rights Agenda. In Mandate for Change: Policies and Leadership for 2009 and Beyond. (pp. 127-137). Lexington Press.
  • , & . . Capital Mobility and Job Loss in Massachusetts: A Look at Production Shifts and Outsourcing. In The Future of Work in Massachusetts. University of Massachusetts Press.
  • , , & . . Significant Victories. In Justice on the Job: Perspectives on the Erosion of Collective Bargaining in the United States. W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
  • . . Comprehensive Strategy: The Key to Successful Organizing. In The State of the Union Report. Ohio Education Association.
  • , & . . Changing to Organize: A National Assessment of Union Organizing Strategies. In Rebuilding Labor: Organizing and Organizers in the New Union Movement. ILR Press.
  • , & . . Out of the Ashes: The Steelworkers’ Global Campaign at Bridgestone/Firestone. In Multinational Companies and Global Human Resource Strategies. Quorum Books.
  • , & . . The State of Organizing in California: Challenges and Possibilities. In The State of California Labor: 2003. University of California Press.
  • . . The American Labor Movement and The Resurgence in Union Organizing. In Trade Union Renewal and Organizing: A Comparative Study of Trade Union Movements in Five Countries. Cassell Academic/Mansell Imprint.
  • . . The Evolution of Strategic and Coordinated Bargaining Campaigns in the 1990s: The Steelworkers’ Experience. In Rekindling the Movement: Labor’s Quest for Relevance in the 21st Century. ILR Press.
  • . . New York State AFL-CIO Organizing Education Program. In Working Together to Revitalize Labor in our Communities: Case Studies of Labor Education-Central Labor Body Collaboration. UCLEA/University of Maine.
  • , & . . It Takes More than Housecalls: Organizing to Win with a Comprehensive Union-Building Strategy. In Organizing to Win. ILR Press.
  • , & . . Preparing for the Worst: Organizing and Staying Organized in a Changing Public Sector Climate. In Organizing to Win. ILR Press.
  • , , , , & . . The Context for Organizing Research. In Organizing to Win. Cornell University Press.
  • . . Employer Behavior in Certification Elections and First Contracts: Implications for Labor Law Reform. In Restoring the Promise of American Labor Law. (pp. 75-89). ILR Press.
  • . . Unions and the Contingent Workforce. In The Labor Law Rights of Contingent Workers: Organization and Representation Issues. Department of Labor Studies and Industrial Relations, Pennsylvania State University.

Books

  • . . Global Unions: Challenging Transnational Capital Through Cross-Border Campaigns. ILR Press.
  • , & . . Blueprint for Change: A National Assessment of Winning Union Organizing Strategies. Cornell Office of Labor Education Research.
  • , & . . Ravenswood: The Steelworkers' Victory and the Revival of American Labor. ILR Press.
  • . . Organizing to Win: New Research on Union Strategies. ILR Press.
  • , & . . The Current Status of Organizing in the Public Sector. ILR Press.
  • , & . . Union Organizing in the Public Sector: An Analysis of State and Local Elections. ILR Press.
  • , , & . . Professional Workers and Unions. AFL-CIO Department of Professional Employees.

Book Sections

  • . . Foreword.
  • , , , , & . . Organizing to Win: Introduction.

Conference Proceedings

  • . . Lasting Victories: Successful Union Strategies for Winning First Contracts.

Book Reviews

  • . . Review of When Strikes Make Sense--and Why: Lessons from the Third Republic Coal Miners by Samuel Cohn.

Professional activities

  • Mass resignation, strike wave, and union organizing resurgence: Stories from the front lines.. Presented to Flora Rose House. Flora Rose Deans Apartment. 2022.
  • OPEIU Busting Union Busting. Presented to OPEIU. ZOOM. 2021.
  • Unfinished Work:First contract and long term organizing gains for low wage women of color. Presented to Washington Center for Equitable Growth. Washington, DC. 2020.
  • Organizing, equity, access, and power. Presented to Harvard Law School Labor and Worklife Program: A Clean Slate for the Future of Labor Law. Cambridge, MA USA. 2018.
  • “Sysco shareholder liability and persistent, pervasive, hallmark violations: Grand Rapids, Michigan 2017”. Presented to Teamsters International. Houston, TX. 2017.
  • Labor, Trade and Inequality. Presented to Ohio State Center for Ethics and Human Values. Columbus, OH. 2017.
  • Building power: Issues, elections, and organizing. Presented to Harvard Law School: Labor and Worklife Program. Cambridge MA. 2014.
  • How Unions Bargain for Work and Family Issues among Newly Organized Low-Wage Workers in the US. Presented to Work and Family Research Network. New York, NY. 2014.
  • Election timing, employer free speech and unfair labor practice occurrence: whose rights are at risk?. Presented to NLRB. Washington, DC. 2014.
  • Organized Women and Women Organizing: The Present and Future of the US and Global Labor Movement. Cornell University ILR School. 2014.
  • “Testimony by Kate Bronfenbrenner regarding RIN 3142-AA08.”. Presented to NLRB. Washington D.C.. 2014.
  • Welcome and Introduction to Roundtable. Presented to Office of Labor Education Research, Deans Office, Career Services. Statler Ballroom. 2013.
  • Transnational Campaigns and the Global Labor Movement: East India Tea to Wal-Mart. Presented to Skidmore College. Skidmore College. 2013.
  • Determinants of organizing success. Presented to United Steelworkers Canadian National Office. Toronto. 2013.
  • Determinants of Organizing Success. Presented to United Steelworkers. Vancouver. 2013.
  • Welcome and Introduction to Roundtable. Presented to Office of Labor Education Research, Deans Office, Career Services. Statler Ballroom. 2012.
  • Reclaiming Our Democracy. Presented to Cornell University. Ithaca, NY. 2012.
  • Election timing, rule changes, and the politics of labor reform and the NLRB. Presented to ASA. Denver, Colorado. 2012.
  • Goliaths with many Davids: The challenges of international collective action.. Presented to Promoting Equality and Diversity through Economic Crisis. London, U.K.. 2012.
  • Implications of "Citizens United' for Public Sector Workers and Unions. Presented to Pennsylvania State Education Association. Scranton, PA. 2011.
  • The Future of the Public Sector. Presented to Office of Labor Education Research and COLA. Cornell University. 2011.
  • Breaking Barriers, Crossing Borders & Building Coalitions in the Global Struggle for the Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively. Presented to Villanova University. Villanova Unviersity. 2010.
  • Implications of NMB Rule Change and Citizens United Supreme Court Decision for unions and organizing. Presented to Cornell Media Services. Metroplitan Offices 16 E34th St. NYC NU. 2010.
  • Testimony before National Express Group Monitoring Commission. Presented to Teamsters. Raybourn Office Building. 2009.
  • Testimony on Proposed Changes to the Railway Act Administrative Rules. Presented to National Mediation Board. National Labor Relations Board. 2009.
  • No Holds Barred: The intensification of Employer Opposition to Organizing". Presented to ILR School. 219 Ives Hall. 2009.
  • The Impasse in Unions and Union Organizing. Presented to Cooper Union. New York, NY. 2008.

Honors and Awards

  • George D. Levy Faculty Award, Office of Engaged Initiatives.
  • Outstanding Educator for influencing Merrill Presidential Scholar, Cornell.
  • Robert Stern Award for Teaching and Mentoring, Teaching Advising Committee.
  • Outstanding Educator for influencing Merrill Presidential Scholar, Cornell University.
  • 2013 William E. Weiss Lectureship, Skidmore College Economics Department.
  • Kendall S. Carpenter Memorial Advising Award, Cornell University.
  • Outstanding Educator for influencing Merrill Presidential Scholar, Cornell University.
  • Ernest deMaio Labor Award, Labor Research Association.
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