Browse Cases

Showing 1-25 of 138 results

Workers at Harvard University-owned DoubleTree Hotel win fight for unionization, 2013-2015

Country
United States
Time period
11 March, 2013 to 7 April, 2015
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Emma Walker 29/05/2019

On  11 March 2013, SLAM and 70 percent of the approximately 112 nonmanagerial workers at the DoubleTree (housekeepers, banquet servers, front desk agents, van drivers, and Scullers Jazz Club employees) filed a petition stating their desire to be able to decide without the influence of hotel management whether or not to join Unite Here, which already represented Harvard’s dining hall employees.

Vermont Migrant Farmworkers picket and march for Ben and Jerry’s to sign pledge for Milk With Dignity

Country
United States
Time period
23 October, 2014 to 3 October, 2017
Classification
Defense
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Human Rights
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Matt Koucky, 27/05/2019

Migrant Justice conducted a survey of Vermont farm workers in June 2014 to find potential areas of concern. The group found that businesses paid 40 percent of workers less than the state minimum wage of $8.73, 40 percent worked every day each week, and 28 percent consistently worked shifts or 7 hours or more without breaks.

American Labor Activists rally to build support for the Employee Free Choice Act, 2003

Country
United States
Time period
02 December, 2003 to 10 December, 2003
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
8 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Zach Lytle, 28/05/19

The AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the United States, moved to counteract the shrinking union strength and the ever growing corporate power via legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act. Andy Levin and Stewart Acuff, two veteran union organizers, spearheaded the effort. In the summer of 2003, Acuff and Levin agreed on what the act would entail.

Barnard College wins divestment from fossil fuel companies, 2013-2017

Country
United States
Time period
October, 2013 to March, 2017
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Olivia Robbins 11/05/2019

Although Barnard College was part of Columbia University, the two institutions maintained separate endowments. As a result, BCD split into Columbia Divest for Climate Justice and Divest Barnard in the Fall of 2014. Next semester, in the Spring of 2015, Divest Barnard formally launched their campaign for Barnard College to divest from fossil fuels.

Atlanta unions campaign to unionize Atlanta Olympics, 1991-1993

Country
United States
Classification
Change
Cluster
Democracy
Economic Justice
Total points
8 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Shakina Kirton 03/03/2019

On 19 September 1990, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded the city of Atlanta the contract to host the 1996 Summer Olympics. The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) believed that by hosting the Olympics, Atlanta would be able to reinvent itself as an international city, and investment in the Games would help fuel urban development. The Committee leaned on the city of Atlanta’s strong civil rights history to secure the bid.

New York University (NYU) student activists win wage increase on campus, 2016

Country
United States
Time period
18 September, 2015 to 24 March, 2016
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Austin Yanez 29/05/2019

In 2015, student activists took action against New York University, a prestigious 4-year research university in New York City, United States, to increase the minimum wage of part-time student workers employed by the University. The campaign began on 18 September 2015, when members of the Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM) gathered to conduct a sit-in at 726 Broadway inside the office of Beth Haymaker, the director of NYU’s Global Programs. SLAM members organized the sit-in to protest the mistreatment of Niza Mirza, an international student from Pakistan.

San Francisco strippers win right to form a union, 1996-1997

Country
United States
Time period
October, 1996 to March, 1997
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Human Rights
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Yin Xiao, 30 March 2017

The Lusty Lady was a strip club in San Francisco. Opened since 1976, this North Beach club featured exotic dancers “Lusties” in a peep show on a stage and in individual booths. While being one of the most popular spots for nightlife in the city, the Lusty Lady was infamous among the dancers for its random firings and pay cuts, racist and ambiguous shift policies, and no-sick-day rules. According to Antonia Crane, a former stripper at the Club, “[the Lusty Lady] is playing the notoriously exploitative game in the adult entertainment world.”

Times Beach residents win fight for relocation from contaminated dioxin sites

Country
United States
Time period
29 January, 1983 to 11 December, 1995
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Environment
Human Rights
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Shayla Smith 02/05/2017

Between 1970 and 1976, Russell Bliss used a toxic mixture of motor oil and dioxin to spray the unpaved roads in Times Beach, MO. The community hired Bliss, a career waste disposer, to reduce its dust problem. Unbeknownst to residents of the small town, Independent Petrochemical Corporation (IPC) paid Bliss for the disposal of its hazardous dioxin waste. Under the auspices of Northeastern Pharmaceutical and Chemical Company (NEPACCO), IPC generated dioxin through its production of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.

Philadelphia taxi drivers win fair competition with ridesharing services, 2015-2016

Country
United States
Time period
16 December, 2015 to 28 March, 2016
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
7 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Yin Xiao, 12/04/2017

The Taxi Drivers Alliance of Philadelphia (TDAP) and the Philadelphia Limousine Association (PLA), major labor unions in Pennsylvania, United States, represented the majority of taxi and limo drivers in the city of Philadelphia and its surrounding areas. With the rise of ride-sharing services such as UberX and Lyft since 2012, the taxi and limo industry in Philadelphia felt increasingly threatened, as more and more people opted for their cheaper counterparts.

Black Pensacola residents win relocation from Escambia Wood Federal Superfund site 1992-1996

Country
United States
Time period
March, 1992 to 3 October, 1996
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Environment
Human Rights
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Shayla Smith 12/04/2017

From 1943 to 1982, Escambia Treating Company (ETC) operated in Pensacola, Florida. Located in an industrial/residential zone, the location of a wood treatment facility threatened the health of Escambia County residents, who were primarily Black. Until the mid-1950s, ETC dumped creosote and pentachlorophenol (PCP) into an uncovered pit. In March 1992, community members founded Citizens Against Toxic Exposure (CATE) and launched a five-year campaign for relocation of the 358 households closest to the Escambia plant.

Black residents of Diamond win fight with Shell Chemical for relocation 1989-2002

Country
United States
Classification
Change
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Environment
Human Rights
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Shayla Smith 29/03/2017

In the early 1950s, Royal Dutch/Shell purchased land in the community of Diamond, Louisiana and built a chemical plant. Margie Richard, a Black resident of Diamond, founded Concerned Citizens of Norco (CCN) in 1989 after two large-scale accidents at the Shell/Motiva Chemical plant. A pipeline explosion in 1973 killed two Diamond residents, while another event in 1988 killed seven workers.

Emelle residents protest Chemical Waste Management hazardous waste landfill 1978-1995

Country
United States
Time period
1978 to 1988
Classification
Change
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Environment
Human Rights
Total points
3 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Shayla Smith 22/03/2017

In 1978, Chemical Waste Management Inc. (CWM), a subsidiary of Waste Management Inc. (WMX), bought 300-acres of land near Emelle, Alabama for a hazardous waste landfill. Residents did not have the opportunity to protest the landfill prior to its construction because CWM was not legally obligated to disclose information about land use.

Cornell University students campaign for severance pay for Nike employees, 2009-2010

Country
United States
Time period
27 February, 2010 to 2 June, 2010
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
7 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Seimi Park, 10/02/2017

In January of 2009, subcontractors of the multinational sports apparel giant, Nike, forcibly shut down two of their major factories, Vision Tex and Hugger, in the Honduras. This left more than 1,800 laborers unemployed and without their legally entitled severance payments. The Workers Rights Consortium, an independent labor auditing organization, reported these concerns to over 100 universities in order to generate awareness of these issues, resulting in the formation of the nationwide student campaign, “Just Pay It.”

AIDS activists (ACT UP) demand federal funding for needle exchange programs 1997-1998

Country
United States
Time period
June, 1997 to August, 1998
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Human Rights
Total points
6 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Juli Pham 22/02/2017

When Bill Clinton began his first term as President of the United States in 1993, the cumulative number of individuals affected by the AIDS epidemic stood at 360,000 cases. By his second term, this count had grown to over 580,000. Although the number of AIDS deaths saw its first dip in 1996, likely due to the development of anti-HIV combination therapies, the number of new cases remained constant at about 40,000 annually since 1992 until 2003.

University of Virginia Students and Faculty Campaign for Living Wage 1997-2000

Country
United States
Time period
April 15, 1998 to December 1, 1999
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Human Rights
Total points
7.5 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Celine Anderson 06/12/96

From 1997 to 2000, students at the University of Virginia held a campaign to raise the living wage from the lowest pay of $6.10 to $8.19. In June 1996, a year before the campaign began, the University’s Office of Equal Opportunity Employment Programs commissioned an investigation, called “The Muddy Floor Report,” that published statistics on racial bias in hiring and pay at UVa’s employment office. The report revealed that housekeeping staff had some of the lowest wages, a third of them qualified for food stamps, and most of them were women and/or African-American.

Graduate Student Employees at University of Oregon Win Strike, 2014

Country
United States
Time period
December 2nd, 2014 to December 10th, 2014
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
8 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Lewis Fitzgerald-Holland, 21 September 2017

The Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation (GTFF) was founded at the University of Oregon in December 1975 as a union to represent the interests of graduate students employed by the University. In 2014, during an era of weaker unions, the University hired an outside law firm to negotiate its labor relations, though in it's 39 years of existence, the GTFF had never engaged in a strike to negotiate a labor relations dispute.

Chicago residents sit-in to prevent Dyett High School closure, United States, 2013-14

Country
United States
Time period
1 November, 2013 to 23 October, 2014
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Stephen O'Hanlon, 04/24/2015

In 2012, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) voted to “phase-out” Walter Dyett High School, the only open-enrollment high school in the African-American south side neighborhood of Bronzeville, due to poor academic performance. Opponents of the closing said that CPS and Mayor Emanuel had caused this poor performance by cutting Dyett’s funding. The decision to shut the school came amidst a series of closures throughout the CPS system that disproportionately affected poor, black neighborhoods.

Starr County, Texas Farm Workers Strike for Higher Pay - 1966

Country
United States
Time period
1 June, 1966 to Late September, 1967
Classification
Change
Cluster
Democracy
Economic Justice
National/Ethnic Identity
Total points
3 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Beatriz Grace Baker 29/03/2015

On 1 June 1966, growing disputes between farmworkers and the owners of
melon farms in the Rio Grande valley in South Texas culminated in a
strike. Four hundred farm workers had voted in favor of a strike against
their employers at La Casita melon farm. It was the height of melon
season. Eugene Nelson, who had worked as a farm worker and author as
well as an organizer with the National Farm Workers’ Association, led
these workers to strike and organized them into the Independent Workers’
Association. Their organization, based in Rio Grande City in Starr

NYU Graduate students unionize and win improved healthcare and wages, 2013-15

Country
United States
Time period
4 October, 2014 to 11 March, 2015
Classification
Change
Cluster
Democracy
Economic Justice
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Stephen O'Hanlon, 29/03/2015

After 8 years of negotiation and organizing, the New York University (NYU) Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC) won voluntary recognition from NYU on 26 November 2013, partially in response to a letter signed by 1300 graduate student employees in support of unionization. The NYU administration withheld formal recognition until after 98.4 percent of graduate students voted in favor of the union on 11 December. This made NYU the first private university in the United States to recognize a graduate student union. 

Writers Guild of America strikes to increase funding for writers from large studios, 2007-2008

Country
United States
Time period
May, 2007 to February, 2008
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
4.5 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Erica Janko 24/03/2015

In the early 2000s, as technological advancements expanded media
sources, media writers faced challenges receiving compensation for their
work that producers redistributed online and through television reruns.
The Writers Guild of America (WGA), comprised of the Writers Guild of
America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE)
represented the interests of over 12,000 “writers in the motion picture,
broadcast, cable, and new media industries in both entertainment and
news.” On 18 May 2007, the WGA released a “Pattern of Demands” to the 

Oil Workers strike for improved wages and working conditions, 2015

Country
United States
Time period
1 February, 2015 to 12 March, 2015
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Environment
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Stephen O'Hanlon, 23/03/2015

The United Steelworkers (USW) strikes came after decades of cordial
relations between the USW-affiliated unions and the national oil
companies. However, between the previous agreement between the USW and
employers in 2012 and February 2015, refiners’ shares more than doubled.
Meanwhile, workers’ wages and benefits remained stagnant.

New York City transit workers strike for fairer economic contract terms, 2005

Country
United States
Time period
December 20, 2005, 2005 to December 22 2005, 2005
Classification
Change
Cluster
Democracy
Economic Justice
Total points
7 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
ShaKea Alston 08/03/2015

On 20 December 2005, in the midst of the cold and busy holiday season, nearly 40,000 subway and bus operators from New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) went on strike, protesting the contract they found to have unfair economic terms. The strike, the first NYC transit strike in 25 years, completely shutdown the public transportation system, which nearly 8 million people, including 600,000 students relied on for their commutes.

Cooper Union Students Sit-in to Maintian Free Tuition, 2012-13

Country
United States
Time period
25 April, 2012 to 15 July, 2013
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
5.5 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Stephen O'Hanlon 02/03/2015

Since its founding in 1859, Cooper Union had operated as a tuition-free art, architecture, and engineering school. However, after years of financial troubles, the College announced on 24 April 2012 that it would begin charging graduate students tuition beginning in the fall of 2014. Large numbers of students, faculty, and alumni strongly opposed this announcement; many blamed the shortfall on poor management of the endowment, expensive building construction, and over-reliance on poorly performing hedge fund investments.

Lehigh University students pursue a Living Wage, increased appreciation for campus workers, 2005

Country
United States
Time period
September, 2005 to 4 September, 2006
Classification
Change
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
2 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Hayden Dahmm, 08/05/2014

Lehigh is a university of 5,000 students located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The University provides campus food services, maintenance of facilities and campus grounds through contracts with corporations Sodexho, One Source and Brickman respectively.

On 23 April 2005 an organizer for United Students against Sweatshop, Dawn Liberto, gave a speech at Lehigh, in which she encouraged students to take increased interest in campus workers. Liberto called for a campus living wage, suggesting that students begin with appreciation lunches and then pursue contract previsions.