This is What Democracy Looks Like

These remarks were prepared for the Partnership for the Public Good\u27s Tenth Anniversary Celebration on October 5, 2017 at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery

Labor Takes the High Road: How Unions Make Western New York More Prosperous and Equitable

The report explores how unions make a major impact on the region not just through collective bargaining, but also through community service and policy advocacy. Analyzing Census data, the authors find that union members in Western New York enjoy substantially higher wages, more full-time work, more health insurance coverage, and more pension benefits than non-members. Union impacts radiate out far beyond their members. Research reveals that unions improve wages, job quality, health, and safety, for other workers as well. Unions support community efforts with volunteer hours and donations, and they play a critical role in workforce development and training. Finally, organized labor advocates for high road public policies regarding issues such as civil rights, public health, and responsible economic development

Labor and Urban Crisis in Buffalo, New York: Building a High Road Infrastructure

With inequality growing and competitive market forces on the march, can unions play a constructive role in solving the problems of capitalist economic development? Should they try? In this study of coalition building in Buffalo, New York we find that regular procedures of problem solving involving multiple coalition partners – what we call a high-road social infrastructure – have developed in the city. We discuss the progression of union approaches to economic development, including in-plant and regional labor-management partnership, community coalitions and the creation of labor-led nonprofit organizations. In response to long-term economic and social crisis, a group of union leaders has begun carrying out projects to help attract investment from outside the region and improve the quality of jobs in the region. Coalition-building, however, is hampered by uncertainty about the best union strategy, enmity from some business and political elites, and the scale of the region’s long-term structural problems

Buffalo Child Care Means Business: Executive Summary

[Excerpt] This study of child care needs and opportunities in downtown Buffalo includes original empirical evidence from a representative survey of employers in core zip codes 14201-2-3-4. The Survey Research Institute of Cornell University conducted the telephone survey of chief operating officers or human resource directors of 117 employers in the spring of 2006. The data pool was scientifically balanced to include small, medium, and large employers from both the public and private sectors as well as all child care employers within the geographic area of the study. Highlights of the findings are included here

Labor and Regional Development in the U.S.A.: Building a High Road Infrastructure in Buffalo, New York

[Excerpt] In a country where worker representatives lack broadly institutionalized roles as social partners, how can they play a constructive role in solving the problems of regional development? In Buffalo, New York, regularized, labor-inclusive procedures of problem solving involving multiple coalition partners – what we call a high-road social infrastructure – has emerged. Socially engaged researchers and educators have played a role in spreading lessons and organizing dialogue. Despite the emergence of regional cooperation, however, successful development politics are hampered by many of the same problems seen in European regions, including uncertainty about the best union strategy, hostility from business and political elites and the enormity of the region’s long-term structural problems

Reflections on Progress at Work

[Excerpt] Today, we enter our second half century, facing a new millennium of opportunity. We pause to celebrate with pride our ILR Extension heritage, from its roots in Buffalo. We pay tribute to colleagues before us and partners with us who have made this fifty years of progress at work

Buffalo Child Care Means Business: Full Study Report

[Excerpt] Buffalo Child Care Means Business presents the economic and business case for making Buffalo\u27s children the focus of economic development. The 2006 survey of 117 businesses located in downtown Buffalo, New York, documents the business sector\u27s present and projected reliance upon high quality child care services as a necessary component to optimum workplace recruitment, productivity and stability. This promising study highlights research specific to the Buffalo region measuring the cost the community bears as a result of low quality child care and early education. It draws upon nationally recognized economic development strategies to offer recommendations for a strategic child care plan integral to the City of Buffalo\u27s overall strategic initiatives to strengthen downtown\u27s attractiveness to successful enterprises. The early development needs of Buffalo\u27s children must be front and center if the potential economic power of broadly successful education is to be realized. With business, government, education and child care leaders at the table, Buffalo\u27s economic renaissance can be built on individual and social foundations that last a lifetime

Two Paths to the High Road: The Dynamics of Coalition Building in Seattle and Buffalo

[Excerpt] Labor-community coalitions are not a new concept. Unions approach such coalitions now, as in the past, as one way to enhance their bargaining power with an employer. Such coalitions are temporary and often issue-based. In recent years, however, some local labor movements have begun to look at coalitions in a broader way – as a means of improving their public image and building power in the political arena. This broad-based approach requires the development of coalitions for the longer run, not just for temporary expediency. This paper develops the notion of a high road social infrastructure as a way to understand how union leaders develop and sustain coalitions over time and find the resources they need to succeed in shaping economic development priorities for the region

Champions @ Work: Employment, Workplace Practices and Labor-Management Relations in Western New York: A Study

This study examines private sector employment, workplace practices and labor-management relations in Western New York (WNY) from the mid-1980s to the present. It is a regional assessment, a benchmark designed to help the public and private sectors make informed decisions regarding enterprise and regional development. Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations conducted the study as a part of its public service mission, with financial support from New York State

This is What Democracy Looks Like

These remarks were prepared for the Partnership for the Public Good's Tenth Anniversary Celebration on October 5, 2017 at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.xThis_Is_What_Democracy_Looks_Like_1.pdf: 55 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020