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WHAT WE'RE READING: Kate Bronfenbrenner, the Union Organizer’s Scholar

Harold Phillips | Published on 8/25/2026
From Jacobin:

"Kate Bronfenbrenner started by asking union organizers to walk her through their campaigns, from beginning to end.

"Bronfenbrenner, who retired this year from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) after more than twenty-five years teaching and researching there, has spent four decades studying why some union campaigns succeed while others fail.

"What happened after workers first began talking to one another? When did management realize there was an organizing drive? Who served on the organizing committee? Why did one campaign succeed while another failed? Those questions first emerged in her dissertation research in the late 1980s."

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