Kate Bronfenbrenner's Research on Union Organizing Continues to Influence Labor Movement
Kate Bronfenbrenner, a prominent labor scholar, recently retired from Cornell University after four decades of research into union campaigns, employer opposition, and global corporate restructuring. Her work has significantly shaped the contemporary labor movement's approach to organizing and strategic corporate research. Bronfenbrenner's studies, which began with a national study of union organizing for the AFL-CIO, focused on understanding how workers successfully form unions and how employers attempt to prevent it. She meticulously tracked organizing drives, interviewing lead organizers and reconstructing campaigns to identify effective tactics. Her findings emphasized that union tactics, such as building strong rank-and-file organizations, utilizing representative committees, and employing escalating pressure tactics, are more influential in determining success than employer behavior. This year, her Strategic Corporate Research Summer School program, which trained generations of union researchers and o... 
