Tag Archives: report

Home, Labor Studies

Report Release: Results from the Human Services Workforce Study (10/11)

Thu, October 11, 2018
8:30 AM – 10:30 AM EDT
Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, 2180 3rd Ave, New York, NY 10035

RSVP HERE

The results are in! Join us on October 11, 2018 for the community roll-out of the Human Service Workforce Study, sponsored by the Human Services Council, Silberman School of Social Work, and the Touro College Graduate School of Social Work.

The Report, Business as Usual? A Wake-Up Call for The Human Services, reflects the experience of nearly 3,000 frontline NYC human services workers who assess how business principles and practices in their agencies affect service delivery and the values and mission of the social work profession. The important findings of this hot-off-the press study of NYC human services workplaces will be presented by the authors:

  • Mimi Abramovitz, DSW, Bertha Capen Reynolds Professor of Social Policy, Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College, CUNY
  • Jennifer Zelnick, Sc.D, Professor of Social Work, Touro College Graduate School of Social Work

Three panelists will present their doctoral research–case studies based on their practice in child welfare, domestic violence, and substance abuse agencies. Their reports highlight how Abramovitz and Zelnick’s findings play out in specific human service settings.

PANELISTS

  • Jocelyn Lewiskin PhD, MSW LCSW, Psychotherapist in Private Practice, Former: Program Manager HIV and Substance Abuse Clinician, Center for Comprehensive Health Practice; PhD (2018) Social Welfare Doctoral Program, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
  • Deborah Mullin PhD, MS, LMSW, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Silberman School of Social Work. Hunter College, Former Director of Family Services at Community Training and Education (antipoverty organization) , Former Director of Non-Residential Services at Hope’s Door (DV agency); PhD (2017) PhD in Social Work. Graduate School of Social Services Fordham University
  • Rita Sanchez-Torres, PhD, MALS MPhil, Program Director Prevention Program, Good Shepherd Services; PhD (2018) Social Welfare Doctoral Program, The Graduate Center City University of New York

Click here to view all presenters’ bios.

Be part of a dialogue with your colleagues to explore the impact of these findings for your agencies, professional practice, and clients and consider fresh approaches to improving service delivery.

Photo by Anthony Quintano via flickr (CC-BY)

Home, Labor Studies, Murphy News, New Labor Forum

New Labor Forum Highlights: October 1st, 2018

The New Labor Forum has a bi-weekly newsletter on current topics in labor, curated by the some of the most insightful scholars and activists in the labor world today. Check out some highlights from the latest edition below.

CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies faculty Ruth Milkman and Stephanie Luce have released their annual report on the status of unions in New York City, New York State, and the nation. The report shows unionization levels holding fairly steady during the past year, though Milkman and Luce note that the near-term prospects for organized labor seem much more dubious.  As a result of the Supreme Court’s Janus v. AFSCME decision in June 2018, public sector workers are now no longer obliged to pay “fair share” fees to the unions that continue to bargain on their behalf. Though a number of states, including New York, have passed legislation to prevent the hemorrhaging public sector union membership, some degree of decline in the public sector union rolls is all but certain, with disparate results nationally. And the decades-long decline in union membership from its peak of 35.4% in 1945 to 10 % today shows little indication of reversal, despite the fact that a plurality of Americans view unions favorably.

A public forum to be held at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies on October 12th will examine these opposing trends: the weakening of the U.S. labor movement and its broad achievements for all workers, and, at the same time, evidence of an appetite for worker resistance and organizing, as seen in the teacher walkouts in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Arizona earlier this year, and an upsurge in unionization among workers under 35 years old in 2017. Please join us as speakers discuss what this implies about the possibilities and struggles ahead for labor, and which strategic options might enable organized labor to succeed at mass organizing and to join forces with racial and economic justice organizations to become a movement.

Along these lines, we include a think piece titled Invest, Democratize, Organize: Lessons on building more equitable cities from Nashville and Raleigh-Durham, by The Partnership for Working Families, whose Executive Director, Lauren Jacobs, will speak at our forum on October 12th.

Table of Contents

  1. The State of the Unions Report: A Profile of Organized Labor in New York City, New York State and the United States/ Ruth Milkman and Stephanie Luce, CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies
  2. Energy From Unlikely Sources: Opportunities for New Organizing/ CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies
  3. Invest, Democratize, Organize: Lessons on building more equitable cities from Nashville and Raleigh-Durham/ The Partnership for Working Families
Home, Labor Studies, Murphy News

Report: State of the Unions 2017

Organized labor has suffered sharp declines in recent years. So where does this leave the labor movement? And how do New York City and State compare to the nation as a whole?

Murphy Professors Ruth Milkman and Stephanie Luce have released a new report that addresses these questions. State of the Unions 2017: A Profile of Organized Labor in New York City, New York State and the United States looks at how union density has changed nationally and locally across demographics and industries over the past decades, and assesses the challenges and prospects that the labor movement faces now and in the coming years.

Explore this invaluable and accessible report here.

Home, Labor Studies, Murphy News

Report: Labor and Longevity: Unions and the Aging Workforce

In recent years, the once-widespread practice of long-term career employment has been abandoned by most nonunion employers, replaced by what’s been described as a “much more open, just-in-time labor market” — one in which older workers are especially likely to be laid off. Pensions have been radically transformed, while the unionized share of the workforce has declined sharply, especially in the private sector, and the number of workers covered by multi-employer pension plans has fallen dramatically.

How can we make sense of this changing landscape for aging workers?

Murphy Professors Ruth Milkman and Ed Ott recently released a report called “Labor and Longevity: Unions and the Aging Workforce.” In it, they explore the relationship between aging workers and union organizing nationwide and in New York City, offering recommendations for how unions can defend and negotiate for benefits that meet the needs of all of their workers.

Read the full report here.

 

Home, International Program for Labor, Climate and Environment, Urban Studies

Nobody Leave Mid-Hudson Releases Just Utilities Report

A little over a year ago, this blog published an interview with members of Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson — a Poughkeepsie based nonprofit that has been organizing low-income communities in the fight for affordable utilities.  Several weeks ago, Nobody Leave Mid-Hudson published a fantastic report called “Just Utilities: Organizing for Solutions to the Housing Energy Crisis.” The report draws on the experiences of organizers in Poughkeepsie to offer a template for utility organizing and its role in addressing what remains a national energy crisis.  Check out the report here.
Home, Labor Studies, Student Work, Urban Studies

I am a #YoungWorker: A New Report

This month, the UCLA Labor Center and the Young Workers Project released a new report about young workers in the United States. Called “I am a #YOUNGWORKER,” the report is “a collective and participatory endeavor,” and involved the work of 60 students and young workers, including Murphy Institute student Mohammad Amin, who served as part of the Report Development Team.

A striking document, the report highlights the important —and precarious — role young workers play in local economies. It begins:

Young workers are an essential part of the workforce who contribute substantially to local economies. But in cities like Los Angeles, the soaring cost of living means that making ends meet can be especially difficult for young workers. They earn less than previous generations, face higher education costs, and are concentrated in service sector jobs. Many employers rely on youth to supply cheap and temporary labor, while adults often perceive these early jobs merely as rites of passage in a way that justifies their precarious conditions. Framing these jobs as transitional or solely for young people undermines these forms of labor as real work.

Seeking to “highlight the experience of young people who work and to challenge clichés about young workers,” the study “focuses on workers between the ages of 18 and 29 in retail and food service, the two largest employers of young people in Los Angeles County and an integral part of the region’s labor landscape” and uses “a research justice lens that aims to center the experience, and position, of young workers and student researchers as experts.”

Read the full report here.