Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of Labor Education Research and co-director of the Worker Empowerment Research Project at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, will be honored on December 15 with the Kate Mullany Medal, the highest award given by the American Labor Studies Center.
The American Labor Studies Center is a non-profit group that promotes labor studies. It gives the Mullany Award annually to individuals or organizations who advance the labor movement.
The Kate Mullany Medal s named for one of the nation’s earliest women labor leaders. In 1864, Mullany and 200 other workers in Troy, New York, formed the Collar Laundry Union, and went on strike to demand a raise. A week later, their demand was met. The Kate Mullany National Historic Site in Troy is owned by the American Labor Studies Center.
Dr. Bronfenbrenner’s primary research interests include:
- Union and employer strategies in organizing and bargaining in the global economy
- Labor, race and gender
- The impact of labor law and trade policy on employment, wages and unionization.
“Kate Bronfenbrenner is a first-rate scholar whose work hits at the heart of the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively,” said American Labor Studies Center Executive Director Paul Cole.
Prior to joining the Cornell faculty in 1993, Dr. Bronfenbrenner was an assistant professor of labor studies at Pennsylvania State University. She worked for many years as an organizer and union representative with the United Woodcutters Association in Mississippi. Dr. Bronfenbrenner earned a bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. at Cornell University.