ILR School Dean Alexander Colvin with New York State Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon

New York State Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon visiting the Cornell University ILR School

New York State Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon visiting the Cornell University ILR School, speaking with faculty and staff from the Yang Tan Institute on Disability and Employment.

Last week, we welcomed @nyslabor.bsky.social Commissioner Roberta Reardon to #CornellILR!

Commissioner Reardon is a 2006 graduate of ILR's Union Leadership Institute and has been a great partner to ILR in our mission of promoting positive labor-management relations in New York State.

Labor, Discipline and the Carceral State

Join us May 1st-2nd at Cornell University ILR School for a conference on Labor, Discipline, and the Carceral State. Wonderful speakers, beautiful spring in Ithaca, good vibes.

events.cornell.edu/event/labor-...

Congratulations, Susanne Bruyère!

Read more about our @cornellyti.bsky.social director's influential career and work: www.ilr.cornell.edu/news/faculty...

Congratulations to Adam on this well deserved honor!

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Check out Alex Kowalski's excellent new paper on robots in fulfillment warehouses.

We think this is the first published paper that was first work-shopped at Cornell's new Sociology of Organizations, Labor, and Economy Seminar!

journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Narrative-based performance reviews deemed fairest by employees | Cornell Chronicle Shifting from numerical to narrative-based performance reviews can significantly impact employees’ perceptions of fairness and their likelihood of improving performance based on the feedback, accordin...

Shifting from numerical to narrative-based performance reviews can significantly impact employees’ perceptions of fairness and their likelihood of improving performance based on the feedback, according to research led by Emily Zitek, associate professor of organizational behavior at #CornellILR.

Nick Salvatore, ‘one of our foremost historians,’ dies at 82 | Cornell Chronicle Nick Salvatore, a professor emeritus in the ILR School, an award-winning historian and teacher and lifelong champion for working people, died on Nov. 29 in Ithaca. He was 82.

Remembering Nick Salvatore, professor emeritus of global labor and work in #CornellILR, an award-winning historian and teacher, and a lifelong champion for working people. Salvatore, who taught at Cornell for 36 years, died Nov. 29 in Ithaca; he was 82.

Thrilled to share that I’m co-organizing the Columbia–Cornell Political Economy of Work Junior Scholars Workshop; our second year organizing the junior work law scholars.

ILR Konvitz Memorial Lecture 2025 - Free Speech on Campus YouTube video by Cornell ILR

Last month, @casssunstein.bsky.social led a timely discussion of the past, present and future of free expression at American universities when he delivered #CornellILR's annual Konvitz Memorial Lecture, titled "Free Speech on Campus."

First ILR student cohort posing for a group photo outside Cornell University's Warren Hall on ILR School's first day of classes on November 5, 1945.

Quonset huts where the ILR School was temporarily located in the 1940s and 1950s.

Construction workers installing the cupola atop King-Shaw Hall in the newly constructed Cornell University ILR School quad, circa 1960s.

Two women sitting on a desk and chair in a room with ILR School-related posters on the wall, circa 1970s.

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the ILR School's first day of classes, back on November 5, 1945!

Included here are a few photos from our "ILR By the Decade" timeline, which you can view here: https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/ilr-80-years-decade

Happy 80 years, #CornellILR! ❤️

Agreed. U.S. states too.

Broadway street sign under two One Way signs that point in opposite directions

#CornellILR is proud to share that the National Conflict Resolution Service (NCRS) has played an important role in helping keep Broadway’s lights on, through a new collective bargaining agreement between @actorsequity.bsky.social and The Broadway League.

Read more: actorsequity.org/news/PR/2025...

Alexander Kowalski, assistant professor of human resource studies at the Cornell University ILR School, says: “While Amazon may be able to replace some workers with machines, these machines are not inexpensive, especially considering what it takes to build new warehouses or retrofit existing ones. Hence, even if Amazon may save on wages when it introduces robots, we shouldn’t overlook the expenses it is accruing from these new technologies.” “By making lights-out automation its main ambition, Amazon is basically saying it can’t—or won’t—fix the job quality problems that cause so many of its workers to come and go. Instead of trying to redesign work in ways that make people want to stay at Amazon, the company believes it’s easier to transform its entire logistics operations in a way that leaves humans out of the picture.”

Amazon reportedly plans to automate 75% of its operations. #CornellILR's Alex Kowalski says the threat of automation was always lurking, but any really big impacts had been concerns for the more distant future. "This release shows that widespread job loss could happen sooner than anticipated."

Free speech on campus the focus of Konvitz Lecture | Cornell Chronicle Cass R. Sunstein, one of the nation’s leading constitutional scholars, will lead a discussion of the past, present and future of free expression at American universities when he delivers the Konvitz M...

Cass R. Sunstein, one of the nation’s leading constitutional scholars, will lead a timely discussion of the past, present and future of free expression at American universities when he delivers #CornellILR's annual Milton R. Konvitz Memorial Lectureship in American Ideals.

🚨The deadline for abstract submissions to the Harry Katz conference & special issue is coming up on October 1.

📚Guest Editors: @ilralex.bsky.social, Ariel Avgar and Danielle van Jaarsveld

📅Conference: @cornellilr.bsky.social April 11–12, 2026

🗒️For more 👉: shorturl.at/ER2XK

Threats to Legitimacy in Local Employment Law Enforcement Regimes Among Immigrant and Racially Marginalized Small Business Owners U.S. municipal labor enforcement agencies find they are often inundated with complaints from small, immigrant- or minority-owned firms. This undermines these agencies' efforts to engage in strategic ....

🚨 New Paper! 🚨 Why do employers violate employment law? Turns out the answer is radically different for small businesses, especially IBIPOC businesses whose marginallization diminishes HR capacity. We find this complicates govt enforcement efforts. Out now in IREL doi.org/10.1111/irel...

The Labor Lab at the Center for Political Economy, Columbia University and Cornell ILR School invite submissions for the Political Economy of Work Junior Scholar Workshop to be held at Columbia University December 5-6, 2025. Participants will receive feedback on their scholarship from a senior scholar in the field, comments from fellow junior scholars, and advice about career development. Confirmed commentators include: Kate Andrias (law); Brishen Rogers (law); Hiba Hafiz (law); Alex Hertel-Fernandez (political science); Suresh Naidu (economics); and Adam Reich (sociology), with more to be added. Who Can Apply? Scholars who write in the field of work and labor, broadly defined, in law, social science (economics, political science, sociology) or history are welcome to apply. Preference will be given to scholars without tenure, including post docs or fellows, but recently tenured scholars are welcome to apply as well. Submissions are also welcome from graduate students or law students interested in academia, as are papers from practitioners, clinicians, and writing faculty. Proposal Requirements Interested participants should submit a one-page abstract with contact information via this form by September 15 at 5pm EDT. Please note: Presented papers must be advanced drafts of scholarly work ready for circulation by November 14, 2025. Key Deadlines September 15, 2025, at 5pm EDT: Deadline for proposal submissions

Political Economy of Work Junior Scholar Workshop to be held at Columbia University December 5-6, 2025. 
#EconSky #PoliSky #EconConf

Proposal deadline 9/15
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labour Conditions in the Gig Economy This study investigates the mechanisms by which gig platforms degrade labour conditions over time, building on the concept of platform decay, or ‘enshittification’, initially developed in the context...

🚨 I’m excited to announce that, “The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labour Conditions in the Gig Economy” is now available online !

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New Research Shows Home Care Cooperative Can Improve Patient Care Home care cooperatives – agencies co-owned and managed by home care workers – have key factors that appear to significantly improve the quality of care for patients, according to a new study co-author...

A new #CornellILR co-authored study shows that home care cooperatives – agencies co-owned and managed by home care workers – have key factors that appear to significantly improve the quality of care for patients. @madelinesterling.bsky.social www.ilr.cornell.edu/news/researc...

Do you want to report a #strike or a #protest near you to the Labor Action Tracker?

You can do so by clicking on the "Report a Strike" option on our website.

Help us map a #picket line close to you.

📢 CFP: Columbia–Cornell Jr Scholars Workshop on the Political Economy of Work 🗽 Dec 5–6, 2025 in NYC!

Open to early-career scholars in law, soc, econ, poli sci, history.

Submit 1p abstract by Sept 15
✅ Feedback + mentoring
✅ Travel/lodging support (if needed)

🔗 forms.gle/vDkCHyenE5yQ...

Does third party interventions improve the health of bargaining relationships? Bradley Weinberg #queensuniversity shows that earlier procedures such as #conciliation and #mediation are related to a lower likelihood of relationship dissolution than subsequent ones.
doi.org/10.1177/0019...

Four faculty receive 2025 Carpenter Advising Awards | Cornell Chronicle Nominations are solicited annually from all members of the academic community, the awards bestowed in recognition of the importance of undergraduate advising.

Gali Racabi (@gracabi.bsky.social) is one of four Cornell faculty members to win a Kendall S. Carpenter Memorial Advising Award, which recognizes the sustained and distinguished contributions of tenure-track faculty and senior lecturers to advising undergraduates. news.cornell.edu/stories/2025...

On Friday, my son stayed home from school because he had a sore throat and wasn’t feeling well. He went with my husband to his office for the morning while I handled our daughter. When he came back at lunch, he was not interested in eating, saying his throat hurt too much. 1/n

‘Be Your Own Boss?’ Explaining Variation in Worker Response to the Gig Economy's Ideology in the Global North and South The proponents of app-based, algorithmically mediated employment seek to create an easily transferable uniform labour process around the world. These apps classify their workers as independent contra...

How does local place & its socio-political & histories of racism shape gig economy algorithms? Our take out now in @bjireditor.bsky.social "‘Be Your Own Boss?’ Explaining Variation in Worker Response to the Gig Economy's Ideology in the Global North and South" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Fascinating new research on strategic HR and competitive dynamics in the gig economy from Mike Maffie and Tash Lakhani! Nice research design too, taking advantage of a change in Uber policies. Shows the value of having data collection projects active out in the field at a critical moment.

Cornell ILR is recruiting a Postdoc in Global Labor and Work - focusing on AI and labor. Deadline May 15, 2025. Please circulate widely! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/program/...

Reminder: this year's Konvitz Lecture will take place on March 27 (tomorrow!) at 4:30 p.m. in 423 King-Shaw Hall (in-person) or via Zoom. More details via the link below.

📢Call for papers for a conference and special issue honoring Harry C. Katz is now open!
#⃣ Issue: Labor Relations at a Crossroads: Charting the Course Forward
🗓️Deadline: 1 Oct 2025
📝Editors: Ariel Avgar, @ilralex.bsky.social & Danielle van Jaarsveld
🔍More: shorturl.at/RtkOj

A lot of mine in there too!