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    2018 Apr 06

    Denying workers their rights from their first day on the job

    12:00pm

    Location: 

    The Economic Policy Institute 1225 I Street NW, Sixth floor Washington, DC 20005 and Live streamed

    Join the Economic Policy Institute for an examination of the growing use of mandatory arbitration and class and collective action waivers and their impact on workers. The panel includes Sharon Block, Executive Director, Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School. 

    The event will be live streamed on the EPI Website

    2018 Apr 06

    Diversity and Collaboration in Economics

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    Baker 103, Bloomberg Center, Harvard Business School
    SPEAKER: Sultan Orazbayev (Visiting Fellow, Growth lab at the Center for International Development, Harvard Kennedy School) 
    2018 Apr 04

    Labor Problem: Can We Create Just Supply Chains in the Global Economy?

    9:30pm

    Location: 

    Wiener Auditorium, Taubman Building, Harvard Kennedy School

    Please join us for the first Pollak Lecture Series event of 2018. Richard M. Locke, Provost and Schreiber Family Professor of Political Science and Public and International Affairs at Brown University, will speak. Marshall Ganz, Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, will provide an introduction. 

    Co-sponsored by:  by Harvard Kennedy School Alumni Relations and Resource Development. The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Carr Center for Human Rights, Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, and the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government are co-sponsors. 

    2018 Mar 29

    The Politics of Labor in the Trump Era with Gil Cedillo

    12:30pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    L-166, IOP Conference Room, Harvard Kennedy School of Government

    You are invited to a lunch conversation with Los Angeles City Councilman Gil Cedillo to discuss the politics of labor in the Trump era. In May, 2013, Cedillo was elected to the Los Angeles Council, representing the city's first council district. He previously served in the California State Assembly and State Senate, where he authored a number of major laws, including bills strengthening workers' right to organize, the California Dream Act, and legislation to granting drivers' licenses to undocumented immigrants. Before holding elective office, Cedillo worked for the Service Employees...

    Read more about The Politics of Labor in the Trump Era with Gil Cedillo
    2018 Mar 28

    Charting the Future of Labor Policy

    12:00pm

    Location: 

    WCC Milstein West A, Harvard Law School

    Current affairs are full of stories of labor law in practice – professional athletes kneeling during the national anthem, or a bicyclist being fired for gesturing at the presidential motorcade.  Join us for this informal and lively discussion with HLS experts presented by HLS Joint Council.

    Panelists include: Sharon Block, Executive Director of LWP and Benjamin Sachs, Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry at Harvard Law School.

    2018 Mar 09

    MIT Sustainability Summit: Good Jobs for a Thriving Economy

    9:00pm

    Location: 

    Four Seasons Hotel, Boston

    Sharon Block, Executive Director of LWP will speak at the 10th annual MIT Sustainability Summit: Good Jobs for a Thriving Economy on Friday March 9th at the Four Seasons in Boston. Learn more about how businesses and other stakeholders are working toward a new normal, reimagining standards of work, and collectively mobilizing to build a thriving economy. Speakers and panelists will explore such topics as what are the benefits and challenges of implementing a “Good Jobs Strategy”? What does it look like to pay a living wage? What are effective strategies to partner across the private and public sectors to achieve “wins” for workers? 

    [More Information]... Read more about MIT Sustainability Summit: Good Jobs for a Thriving Economy

    2018 Mar 02

    Engineering Growth: Innovative Capacity and Development in the Americas

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    Baker 103, Bloomberg Center, Harvard Business School

    SPEAKER:  William F. Maloney (World Bank, Chief Economist, Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions) 
    TITLE: “Engineering Growth: Innovative Capacity and Development in the AmericasPreview the document" (paper joint with Felipe Valencia Caicedo) 
    ABSTRACT: 
    This paper offers the first systematic historical evidence on the role of a central actor in modern growth theory - the engineer. We collect cross-country and state level data on the population share of engineers for the Americas, and county level data on engineering and patenting for the US during the Second Industrial Revolution. These are robustly correlated with income today after controlling for literacy, other types of higher order human capital (e.g. lawyers, physicians), demand side factors, and instrumenting engineering using the Land Grant Colleges program. We support these results with historical case studies from the US and Latin America.

    2018 Feb 26

    What Fight for $15 and ‘Alt-Labor’ Tells Us About the Past and Future of the American Middle Class

    12:05pm to 12:50pm

    Location: 

    WCC 2004 Classroom, Harvard Law School

    Sharon Block, former Senior Counselor to the Secretary of Labor and head of the policy office at the Department of Labor, will discuss how the decline of the labor movement in the U.S. has led to a crisis for the American middle class and offer insights into the worker organizations that may fill the economic and political void.

    Hosted by the HLS American Constitution Society

    2018 Feb 23

    “From Revolving Doors to Regulatory Capture? Evidence from Patent Examiners"

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    Baker 103, Bloomberg Center, HBS Campus

    Haris Tabakovic (Harvard Business School and The Brattle Group) 
    Paper: “From Revolving Doors to Regulatory Capture? Evidence from Patent Examiners" (paper joint with Thomas Wollmann, University of Chicago)

    ABSTRACT:  Many regulatory agency employees are hired by the firms they regulate, creating a “revolving door” between government and the private sector. We study these transitions using detailed data from the US Patent and Trademark Office. We find that patent examiners grant significantly more patents to the firms that later hire them, that much of this leniency extends to prospective employers, and that these effects are strongest in years when firms are actively hiring. Ultimately, this leads the agency to issue lower quality patents, which we measure in citations. We argue these results are suggestive of regulatory capture.

    2018 Feb 16

    HARVARD TRADE UNION PROGRAM GRADUATION

    11:00am to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    TBA, Harvard Law School

    The culmination of the 107th Session of the Harvard Trade Union Program.
    Guest Speaker: Richard F. Griffin  former General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board and Of Counsel, Bredhoff and Kaiser

     

    Open to the Public

    Sponsored by the Harvard Trade Union Program,
    Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School

     

     

    2018 Feb 09

    AI and Jobs: The Role of Demand

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    Baker 103 (Bloomberg Center, HBS)
    SPEAKER: James Bessen (Technology & Policy Research Initiative, Boston University School of Law) 
    TITLE:  "AI and Jobs: The Role of DemandPreview the document"
    ABSTRACT: 
    Abstract: In manufacturing, technology has sharply reduced jobs in recent decades. But before that, for over a century, employment grew, even in industries experiencing rapid technological change. What changed? Demand was highly elastic at first and then became inelastic. The effect of artificial intelligence (AI) on jobs will similarly depend critically on the nature of demand. This paper presents a simple model of demand that accurately predicts the rise and fall of employment in the textile, steel, and automotive industries. This model provides a useful framework for exploring how AI is likely to affect jobs over the next 10 or 20 years. ... Read more about AI and Jobs: The Role of Demand
    2018 Feb 05

    John T. Dunlop Memorial Forum:  Tom Perez, DNC Chair and former U.S. Secretary of Labor “Labor Policy as the Defining Issue of Our Time”

    5:30pm

    Location: 

     Room 100, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School

    Dunlop Forum 2018 Tom Perez

    Event slide show

     

    We are proud to present this year's John T. Dunlop Memorial Forum speaker: The Honorable Tom Perez, HLS and HKS'87, DNC Chair and former U.S. Secretary of Labor. Moderated by Sharon Block, HLS.  Additional remarks by Archon Fung, HKS and David Weil, Brandeis Heller School. 

    OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

    Sponsored by the Harvard Trade Union Program
    Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School
    Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, 
    Harvard Kennedy School 

    Reported in "Former Labor Secretary Perez says everyone should have a seat at the table."  Harvard Law Today

    Also reported at  Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School  website.... Read more about John T. Dunlop Memorial Forum:  Tom Perez, DNC Chair and former U.S. Secretary of Labor “Labor Policy as the Defining Issue of Our Time”

    2018 Jan 26

    Vehicle Electrification in China: Preferences, Policy, and Technology Trajectories

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    Baker 103, Bloomberg Center, Harvard Business School

    Economics of Science and Engineering Workshop

    SPEAKER:  John Helveston ( Institute for Sustainable Energy at Boston University)
    SEMINAR TITLE: Vehicle Electrification in China: Preferences, Policy, and Technology Trajectories

    Paper 1: Will subsidies drive electric vehicle adoption? Measuring consumer preferences in the U.S. and China 
    ... Read more about Vehicle Electrification in China: Preferences, Policy, and Technology Trajectories

    2018 Jan 24

    Jerry Wurf Memorial Forum:  "History Revisited: Memphis Sanitation Workers 1968"

    5:00pm to 7:00pm

    Location: 

    Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School

    Wurf Lecture Lucywith AFSCME
    2018 Wurf Memorial Lecture: WIlliam Lucy with members from AFSCME
    We are proud to present this year's Jerry Wurf Memorial Forum speaker: William Lucy, former Secretary-Treasurer of AFSCME and  founding President of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU). 

    Sponsored by the Harvard Trade Union Program
    Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School
    Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, Harvard Law School
    Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University 

    OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

    [Download Flyer]... Read more about Jerry Wurf Memorial Forum:  "History Revisited: Memphis Sanitation Workers 1968"

    2018 Jan 18

    JAMES GREEN MEMORIAL FORUM: "New Forms to Settle Old Scores? Worker Centers and Their Recent Trajectories"

    4:00pm to 6:00pm

    Location: 

    Austin Hall, Room 111 Harvard Law School 1515 Mass. Ave., Cambridge

    We are proud to present this year's James Green Memorial Forum speaker: Janice Fine, Research and Strategy Director at the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization (CIWO), Rutgers University 
    and Natalicia Tracy, Executive Director, Brazilian Worker Center

    Open to the Public

    Sponsored by the Harvard Trade Union Program,
    Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School

    Forum Flyer: [Download PDF]

    2017 Dec 07

    Harvard-ILO Roundtable on the Future of Work: Cambridge/Boston Case Studies on Global Technological Disruption

    (All day)

    Location: 

    Harvard Law School

    The objective of this roundtable discussion is to convene representatives from the tech sector, select Harvard/MIT/Boston area faculty and researchers, and members of the ILO Research Department and New York Office in order to explore the future of work in an era of rapid technological change.... Read more about Harvard-ILO Roundtable on the Future of Work: Cambridge/Boston Case Studies on Global Technological Disruption

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