Bronfenbrenner Receives Grant to Study Unionization Efforts

Kate Bronfenbrenner has been awarded a $75,000 grant by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth to investigate the differences between unionization efforts that are affiliated with the National Labor Relations Board and those that are not NLRB-affiliated.

According to Bronfenbrenner, ILR’s director of Labor Education Research, there is existing evidence that NLRB-certified elections are fraught with employer labor law violations and other barriers, while card check campaigns offer a potentially compelling alternative way of organizing.

The study will use an in-depth national survey of lead organizers in private-sector, non-board organizing campaigns to examine the characteristics and effectiveness of the campaigns. Bronfennbrenner will compile a database of non-board organizing campaigns from 2016–2022 to show the extent of non-board organizing. The database will also include information on whether these campaigns have declined in number and size in accordance with NLRB campaigns, and which unions and industries have the most non-board organizing activity. She will then survey 500 non-board campaign organizers on employer and union tactics, unit demographics and the election and first contract processes.

Joining Bronfenbrenner to work on the study are ILR master’s degree student Anders Rhodin, and undergraduates Pranathi Charasala ’25, Suraj Parikh ’24, Erika Kitsantas ’25 and Bea Radtke ’26. In addition, alumni Katy Habr ’18 (Ph.D. student, Columbia) and Victor Yengle, MILR ’22 (Ph.D. student, University of Virginia) are assisting.

Now in its 10th grant cycle, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth has distributed about $10 million to nearly 400 grantees at U.S. colleges and universities studying how inequality affects economic growth. The grantees work to build a research base that provides evidence to decision-makers seeking to address economic issues in the United States, and to inform the policy debate in Washington and in statehouses across the country.