Copyright (c) 2009 Cornell University ILR School All rights reserved. http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports Recent documents in Research Studies and Reports en-us Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:24:06 PST 3600 http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/24 http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/24 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:26:38 PST [Excerpt] "El pais es pobre." Sooner or later any Chilean, whichever side he or she is on, makes the point explicit. You know it from the beginning, though; it's the premise for any dialogue about social and political affairs. Lance Compa http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/23 http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/23 Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:12:40 PDT This is the second and final phase of our investigation into the reverse-commute challenges facing low-income inner-city residents in Onondaga County. With lower-wage jobs proliferating outside the city core, our findings confirm that transportation remains one of the greatest obstacles to landing and keeping entry-level work. The current transit system does not meet the needs of low-income workers living in the city or employers based in outlying neighborhoods or the suburbs. Although a majority of manufacturing employers contacted for this study said transportation shortfalls do not affect their ability to hire and retain workers, other stakeholders jobseekers, job developers, service providers, county planners, and transit professionals--insist the problem is real: Jobseekers with few skills and limited access to transportation struggle to find employment while employers in other key sectors, notably hospitality and health services, contend with the consequences in the form of high turnover, tardiness, absences, and vacancies, as noted in our 2008 report, "Catch That Bus..." Inadequacies in the local transit system will affect the county's longer-term economic vitality. Current concerns about air pollution, environmental conservation, energy costs, and strained municipal budgets add to the urgency of addressing the interrelated issues of employment, transportation, economic development, and sprawl. Collaboration among key stakeholders--the County, Centro, employers, private transit operators, service providers, and town boards--is necessary to advance the parties' mutual interests. Maralyn Edid http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/22 http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/22 Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:58:54 PDT It is especially challenging in these tough economic times for officials within New York City's and New York State's many entities to decide how best to use public money for construction and renovation projects. This article is intended to serve as a resource to help officials make better informed decisions about the value of project labor agreements [PLAs]. It also encourages readers to see PLA use within broader objectives of sound public policy.PLAs have been demonstrated to be a very useful construction management tool for cost savings, for on-time, on-budget, and quality construction. But PLAs are not necessarily appropriate for every project. This report reviews the background and legal standards for the appropriate use of PLAs on public works projects in New York City and State. It details what PLAs do, how they have been used, and the benefits they offer -- benefits that extend to workforce and economic development.This report also tests the validity of the claims made by PLA opponents that PLAs drive-up construction costs. Focus is on the studies conducted in recent years by the Beacon Hill Institute, a particularly outspoken opponent of PLA use in both the public and private sectors. Fred B. Kotler, J.D. http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/21 http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/21 Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:23:34 PST This is a report on the findings of the Cornell University ILR planning process conducted with support of a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to investigate trends in the arts and entertainment industry in New York State and assess industry stakeholders' needs and demand for industry studies and applied research. Building on a track record of research and technical assistance to arts and entertainment organizations, Cornell ILR moved toward a long-term goal of establishing an arts and entertainment research center by forging alliances with faculty from other schools and departments in the university and by establishing an advisory committee of key players in the industry. The outcome of this planning process is a research agenda designed to serve the priority needs and interests of the arts and entertainment industry in New York State. Lois Gray http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/20 http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/20 Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:46:17 PST In interorganizational project teams, diversity among team members undermines the experience of trust within demographically similar dyads but enhances the experience of trust within demographically dissimilar dyads. Michele Williams http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/19 http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/19 Thu, 25 Sep 2008 10:52:33 PDT [Excerpt] Employer concerns about labor shortages for entry-level positions in the suburbs and outlying city neighborhoods prompted county planners to ask Cornell ILR to conduct this study. We organized a series of focus groups with low-income inner-city residents who commute to the suburbs or outlying city neighborhoods and work in health services, hospitality, or warehousing; we also spoke with several supervisors and a transportation planner. We found four major transportation challenges: limited service at non-standard times; out-of-synch schedules; off-schedule and off-route buses; and poorly located bus stops. We highlight several transportation initiatives that have been tried in other communities and propose a series of recommendations that transit planners, the transit company, and employers might consider in order to mitigate the reverse-commute challenges in ways that would benefit all stakeholders. Maralyn Edid http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/18 http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/18 Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:14:26 PDT [excerpt] The glass ceiling still looms over women executives across New York, a new Cornell study shows. Women may represent nearly half of New York's workers but they comprise less than 15 percent of the total board director and executive officer positions in the 100 largest public companies headquartered in the state.That's according to the first annual report on women leaders in New York published by the Women's Executive Circle of New York (WECNY) in partnership with the Institute for Women and Work in Cornell's ILR School. Institute for Women and Work at Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/17 http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/17 Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:37:09 PDT [Excerpt] The latest assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the widely noted Stern report on The Economics of Climate Change have lent new urgency to countering the challenge of global warming--a calamitous development in its own right and a phenomenon that further aggravates existing environmental challenges. There is now a virtual avalanche of reports by international agencies, governments, business, labor unions, environmental groups, and consultancies on the technical and economic implications of climate change as well as the consequences of mitigation and adaptation strategies. Many declaim a future of green jobs--but few present specifics. This is no accident. There are still huge gaps in our knowledge and available data, especially as they pertain to the developing world.The present report assembles evidence--quantitative and conceptual--for currently existing green jobs in sectors such as renewable energy, energy efficiency in buildings and vehicles, sustainable transportation, and organic agriculture, and presents various estimates for future green employment. (A future version will provide expanded coverage in additional parts of the economy.) Worldwatch Institute http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/16 http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/16 Mon, 17 Dec 2007 12:06:28 PST [Excerpt] Despite almost 20 years of experience with a variety of alternative techniques in collective bargaining in education, there is no summary of the research on negotiation practices or survey of practice variations in use. The parties in negotiations have little to guide them in their investigation of the utility of what are commonly referred to as Interest-Based Bargaining (IBB) strategies. In order to give negotiators tools with which they can make choices appropriate to their needs based on current knowledge and practice, this report offers an informed discussion of the utility of various bargaining models. It provides:◗ A summary of the research on the use of IBB techniques in educational collective bargaining;◗ An overview of the current practice of IBB in education;◗ Examples of IBB in practice in education.A survey of the literature on IBB practice and outcomes, including empirical, theoretical, and qualitative research, as well as case descriptions during the period of 1985-2002 on the use of IBB in educational, public sector, or industrial settings identified approximately 100 journal articles, dissertations, and cases in practitioner publications. The majority of the empirical research reviewed was too limited in scope and methodology to provide evidence that could be cited in this report. The analysis of the literature provided a set of internal and external factors affecting the use and utility of IBB, which were used to frame questions for facilitators and bargainers on current practice in IBB.A second goal of this report was to describe the current state of IBB practice, including its method and rate of diffusion, variations in practice, and factors motivating and supporting the use of IBB in educational settings. Given the absence of empirical data, practitioners providing IBB training and facilitation were identified as primary sources of information on current practice. Trainers/facilitators possess diverse and broad perspectives because of their interactions with multiple sites, their participation in professional associations or networks, and their (often) institutional affiliations with unions, employers, school boards, and state or federal employment relations agencies, and the variable IBB practices they employ. Seven practitioners who provide training and facilitation were interviewed: three staff members of NEA state affiliates, two FMCS commissioners, one practitioner in private practice, and one staff member of a state school board association. Among them, they have had direct experience facilitating more than 200 negotiations using IBB over viii NEA Collective Bargaining & Member Advocacy the past 10 years, in states with a variety of collective bargaining laws, as well as states without collective bargaining laws. These interviews provided detailed information on the IBB models in current use, which was used to create a matrix of variations in practices. The practitioner interviews also provided experience-based perceptions of the factors identified in the research as motivating IBB use and those supporting or suppressing bargaining team successes with IBB. While it cannot be claimed to represent a complete description of current practice, this summary provides a snapshot of the existing range of experience.In pursuit of sources of data on current IBB awareness and use in educational bargaining, 34 NEA state associations were contacted for information on IBB practice in their state. These contacts helped to identify sources of IBB training and facilitation and to give a rough depiction of the state of training activities and providers nationally.Based on the review of the research and interviews with facilitators, criteria were identified for choosing case studies to represent a cross-section of IBB experience. The three sites selected represent variation in state collective bargaining laws, the type of IBB model in use, geography, size of district, length of experience with IBB, the role and methods of the facilitator, and types and numbers of bargaining units and constituents participating in IBB. For each case, the primary negotiator for the union and the district were interviewed, and pertinent documents describing the process or outcomes of IBB were requested.Finally, based on practitioner reports, case studies, and the literature, a set of questions were developed for bargainers to discuss when considering the use of IBB and assessing the likelihood of its effectiveness in specific circumstances. Sally Klingel http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/15 http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/15 Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:54:43 PDT [Excerpt] This report addresses one small facet of the skills dilemma facing Onondaga County; that is, can the growing immigrant/refugee population in Syracuse satisfy local employers' demand for labor? With support from a grant provided by the Economic Development Administration (U.S. Department of Commerce) University Center at Cornell University, members of the ILR School's Extension faculty interviewed employers,immigrants and other English-as-a-secondlanguage (ESL) workforce newcomers, service providers, labor unions, and government planners during the winter of 2007 to assess the training needs of the county's immigrant and ESL workforce. Our research was facilitated and aided by the Onondaga County Office of Economic Development. Maralyn Edid