Areas of expertise
Labor law • Collective bargaining • Union organizing • Collective bargaining • Job creation policy • Employment training • Labor standards in international trade treaties
Biography
Gordon Lafer is a political economist and is a Professor at the University of Oregon’s Labor Education and Research Center. He has written widely on issues of labor and employment policy, and is author of The Job Training Charade (Cornell University Press, 2002). Lafer has served as an economic policy analyst for the Office of the Mayor in New York City and has testified as an expert witness before the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, and state legislatures. Lafer is the founding co-chair of the American Political Science Association’s Labor Project, and has taught as a visiting faculty member at the University of Massachusetts’ Union Leadership Academy and at the Universidad Latina de America in Michoacan, Mexico. In 2009–2010, Lafer took leave from his faculty position to serve as Senior Labor Policy Advisor for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor.
Education
Ph.D. Political Science, Yale University, 1995
B.A., Economics, Swarthmore College, 1983
By Content:
By Area of Research:
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Fear at work: An inside account of how employers threaten, intimidate, and harass workers to stop them from exercising their right to collective bargaining
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Unlawful: U.S. employers are charged with violating federal law in 41.5% of all union election campaigns
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What union coverage numbers might look like without NLRA preemption: Working paper prepared for the September 19, 2017 symposium on NLRA preemption hosted by the Harvard Labor and Worklife Program and the Economic Policy Institute
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Does corporate America see a future in the United States?
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Corporate power in state legislatures produces a gerrymandered Congress
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Attacks on public-sector workers hurt working people and benefit the wealthy
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If Trump follows Walker’s model, he will betray his base
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“Right to Work” Is the Wrong Answer for New Mexico’s Economy
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“Right to Work” Is the Wrong Answer for Wisconsin’s Economy
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Right to work
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California School Board Rejects Rocketship Charter School
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Do Poor Kids Deserve Lower-Quality Education Than Rich Kids? Evaluating School Privatization Proposals in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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Partnership or Putsch?
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Partnership or Putsch?
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One by One, States Are Pushing Bans on Sick Leave Legislation
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The Legislative Attack on American Wages and Labor Standards, 2011–2012
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Attack On American Labor Standards
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Here’s the Truth About Oregon’s ‘Right-to-Work’ Initiative
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The ‘Paycheck Protection’ Racket: Tilting the political playing field toward corporate power and away from working Americans
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Indiana experience offers little hope for Michigan ‘right-to-work’ law
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Don’t be fooled, Michigan: ‘Right to work’ is just plain wrong
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Very unwise for employers to tell employees how to vote
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Right To Work: A Failed Policy: A New Hampshire update
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What ‘right-to-work’ means for Indiana’s workers: A pay cut
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Working hard to make Indiana look bad: The tortured, uphill case for ‘right-to-work’
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Rehberg’s proposed riders to Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act would undercut American workers
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‘Right to work’: The wrong answer for Michigan’s economy
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Proposed NLRB rule changes would make workplace elections more democratic
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Jim DeMint’s race to the bottom
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’Right-to-Work’ Wrong for New Hampshire