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Sweeping Change: Building Survivor and Worker Leadership to Confront Sexual Harassment in the Janitorial Industry
No full textThis report documents experiences of workplace sexual harassment in the California janitorial industry, as well as the conditions that hinder reporting and impose silence. It also examines a survivor- and worker-led peer education approach for confronting workplace sexual harassment. The research conducted for this report incorporated elements of a communitybased participatory research model (CBPR) and included surveys of more than 700 janitorial workers; focus groups with 35 workers; a survey of 36 janitors who are promotoras and compadres (peer educators); and in-depth interviews with four worker leaders. In addition to showing that experiences of sexual harassment and assault are widespread among this workforce, analysis of the resulting data indicates that: 1) Sexual harassment has differential impact within this workforce. In particular, women janitors are more likely to experience unwanted sexual behavior than men; they are also much more likely to be targeted by supervisors and to switch jobs due to harassing behavior. 2) Silence around the issue is enforced by the behavior of supervisors, coworkers, and other actors, along with broader power dynamics and more diffuse elements of workplace culture. These conspire to create an environment in which those targeted report working in fear and grappling with trauma alone. 3) Many survivors do not trust existing channels for reporting and responding to sexual harassment. Building worker leadership and cultivating relationships of trust in confronting sexual harassment can help to break that silence and shift workplace practices and culture
The Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA): Workers’ Compensation for Federal Employees
Full text link[Excerpt] The Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA) is the workers’ compensation system for federal employees. Every civilian employee of the federal government, including employees of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, is covered by FECA, as are several other groups, including federal jurors and Peace Corps volunteers
Defining and Advancing High Road Policy Concepts, Strategies, and Tactics
Full text link[Excerpt] This Special Edition of High Road Policy (HRP) outlines a vision that opponents of the status quo can choose to stand for. It does so by proposing succinct answers to three basic questions: What is the High Road? What is High Road Policy? Through what means can High Road Policy be advanced?
By answering these questions, this Special Edition of HRP aims to provide readers with a clearer understanding of what “High Road Policy” – both the concept and the journal – is all about. Concerning the latter, HRP’s Aims and Scope state that the outlet is committed to publishing on “policies, proposals, campaigns, governance arrangements, and other practical strategies for advancing a more democratic economy.” What follows is: (1) an overarching conceptual framework onto which those “policies, proposals,” and so forth can be mapped to determine how compatible they are with a High Road agenda; and (2) a plan of action that (a) articulates a theory of change and (b) introduces three interdependent strategies for implementing that theory of change, thereby supplanting the status quo with a democratic, fair, High Road system over time
Empowering Neurodiverse Populations for Employment through Inclusion AI and Innovation Science (B-6970) (Raise C-Access Phase 1 Grant Final Report
No full textThe unemployment and underemployment of people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have been well documented, and traditional approaches to the interview process identified as one area that poses multiple barriers that disadvantage qualified candidates with autism. This report summarizes research conducted by researchers from the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability at Cornell University, in partnership with the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, examined employment experiences from the perspective of Autistic people, employers, service providers, and educational institution representatives who work with people with autism. The goal of the research is to explore and depict insights into factors that influence the interview process and job success. This study is part of a series of studies that is part of an NSF C-Accel study to Vanderbilt University entitled Empowering Neurodiverse Populations for Employment. The current study included semi-structured individual and focus group interviews with employers with autism affirmative hiring programs, community employment service providers, and educational representatives (career counselors) who have experience of hiring and working with individuals with ASD people on employment, as well as ASD people. A total of 23 individuals participated in the study through group or individual interviews. Content analysis, triangulation, inter-rater tests were performed to captures the themes and agreement of the findings. The findings suggest that employers, Autistic individuals, and service providers are consistent in experiencing challenges and opportunities that influence the interview and employment experience of Autistic individuals, although from different perspectives. Particularly, ASD people have interview preparation and support, and that employers demonstrate knowledge of neurodiversity and willingness to alter the traditional interview process aids the interview and job success. Employers that we interviewed were all involved in autism hiring programs. Therefore, their responses often highlight the utilization of strategies that minimize challenges that are often reported by Autistic individuals during interviews. While these organizations are more cognizant of the needs of Autistic applicants/employees, the employers\u27 comments suggest that many managers continue to need support even after autism awareness training. Their comments also underline a potential issue; that is, human resource (HR) professionals or managers who know the needs of Autistic applicants may not always be present to support these applicants or to influence the hiring decision
The Contribution of the Latinx Immigrant Workforce to Staten Island’s Economy Before and During the Pandemic
Full text link[Excerpt] New York City workers and communities have been weathering the impacts of a public health and economic crisis of unprecedented magnitude in U.S. history of the last 100 years. This report focuses on the experience of working- class immigrant workers in the County of Richmond, also known as Staten Island, as they endured the human costs of the COVID-19 crisis.
This report provides the first analysis of the working and living conditions of working class immigrants in Staten Island, identifying their unique vulnerabilities, and highlighting their efforts to engage in mutual aid-support systems to weather the crisis. The research presented in the report results from the joint efforts of The Worker Institute and La Colmena Staten Island Community Job Center. La Colmena is a community-based organization working to empower day laborers, domestic workers, and other low-wage immigrant workers in Staten Island through educational, cultural, and economic development efforts. The findings of these report are based on worker surveys conducted by La Colmena organizers before and after the onset of the COVID crisis. The Worker Institute researchers provided technical assistance, analyzed survey and census data, and co-authored the report with La Colmena
Worker Centers: Labor Policy as a Carrot, not a Stick
Full text linkWorker centers empower communities of workers that are challenging for labor unions to organize. This includes immigrant workers and other vulnerable workers in high turnover jobs. These centers often organize workers that fall within the definition of “employee” under the Depression-era laws designed to protect some forms of collective worker activity from employer retaliation. Although employees associated with these centers can benefit from labor law’s carrot, worker centers are not “labor organizations” subject to labor law’s vast reporting requirements and restrictions on associational behavior (labor law’s stick). We use an original study of worker centers’ filings to the Internal Revenue Service to reveal that worker centers are more similar to nonprofits, than labor organizations. Both First Amendment and labor law principles affirm the characterization of worker centers as organizations that are not subject to labor law’s stick. Providing worker centers access to labor law’s carrot, but not its stick, is particularly compelling given that they are operating at a historical moment when income inequality parallels New Deal levels and hostility to worker organizations and workers’ rights is pervasive. Our carrot-but-not-a-stick approach has implications for the vitality of American labor policy. It opens up space for emerging worker centers to expand their efforts to amplify employee voice and improve the working lives of the growing low-wage workforce
Deepening Democracy in Buffalo by Honoring Prior Commitments (And a Legacy)
Full text linkThe waning years of the 2010s and the opening weeks of the 2020s have been rife with headlines, editorials, academic articles, lectures, and book titles lamenting a “crisis of democracy”. Among other things, the concerned authors and observers participating in the discourse cite foreign election interference; the global rise of populist authoritarians; the exorbitant financial costs of electoral politics and the attendant subordination of policy to wealth and corporate interests; increasing social and cultural cleavages and polarization; sharply rising inequality; the ongoing erosion of public trust; and a host of other factors as both causes and consequences of the present weakened state of democracy in and beyond the United States.
Not surprisingly, in light of these trends, strengthening democratic institutions and expanding democratic participation are among the highest priorities included in proposals to combat intersecting social, economic, and ecological problems from local gentrification to global climate change. With that in mind, this policy memo highlights two opportunities for the City of Buffalo, New York to answer these urgent calls to deepen democracy. Both opportunities—promoting worker cooperatives and the use of participatory budgeting—have already been experimented with in Buffalo, and have received meaningful resource commitments from the City in the recent past. Earlier progress on those fronts is part of the legacy of former Delaware District Council Member Michael J. LoCurto, who championed both causes through legislation and advocacy. Honoring that legacy means renewing prior commitments to these causes and ensuring that they become lasting fixtures of local governance
Tips on Working From Home When You are on the Autism Spectrum
Full text linkIn the COVID19 world, we have additional need and expectation to be able to work remotely. For many on the Autism Spectrum (AS) who have been adjusting to work environments this change can be a big disruption. Below are some tips for those of you on the spectrum working from home, to assist you in remaining calmer and being more productive. These tips may also prove helpful for those support AS people
Federal Employees’ Retirement System: Summary of Recent Trends
Full text linkThis report describes recent trends in the characteristics of annuitants and current employees covered by the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees’ Retirement System (FERS) as well as the financial status of the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund (CSRDF)
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA): Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) and COVID-19
Full text linkThe Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) does not currently have a specific standard that protects healthcare or other workers from airborne or aerosol transmission of disease or diseases transmitted by airborne droplets. Some in Congress, and some groups representing healthcare and other workers, are calling on OSHA to promulgate an emergency temporary standard (ETS) to protect workers from exposure to SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act) gives OSHA the ability to promulgate an ETS that would remain in effect for up to six months without going through the normal review and comment process of rulemaking. OSHA, however, has rarely used this authority in the past—not since the courts struck down its ETS on asbestos in 1983.
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA), which operates California’s state occupational safety and health plan, has had an aerosol transmissible disease (ATD) standard since 2009. This standard includes, among other provisions, the requirement that employers provide covered employees with respirators, rather than surgical masks, when these workers interact with ATDs, such as known or suspected COVID-19 cases. Also, according to the Cal/OSHA ATD standard, certain procedures require the use of powered air purifying respirators (PAPR). Both OSHA and Cal/OSHA have issued enforcement guidance to address situations when the shortage of respirators may impede an employer’s ability to comply with existing standards.
H.R. 6139, the COVID-19 Health Care Worker Protection Act of 2020, would require OSHA to promulgate an ETS on COVID-19 that incorporates both the Cal/OSHA ATD standard and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) 2007 guidelines on occupational exposure to infectious agents in healthcare settings. The CDC’s 2007 guidelines generally require stricter controls than its interim guidance on COVID-19 exposure. The provisions of H.R. 6139 were incorporated into the version of H.R. 6201, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, as introduced in the House. However, the OSHA ETS provisions were not included in the version of legislation that passed the House and the Senate and was signed into law as P.L. 116-127. A group representing hospitals claims that because SARS-Cov-2 is primarily transmitted by airborne droplets and surface contacts, surgical masks are sufficient protection for workers coming into routine contact with COVID-19 cases, and that the shortage of respirators may adversely impact some hospitals’ patient capacities. H.R. 6379, as introduced by the House, also includes a requirement for an OSHA ETS and permanent standard to address COVID-19 exposure