Cornell University ILR School professor Rosemary Batt will discuss labor-management implications of Verizon's tentative agreements with nearly 40,000 union workers. Expected to vote on proposed contracts this month, workers appear to have successfully opposed job outsourcing. Is the successful pushback a one-off fix or a boost for unions in general? What can we learn from the conflict?
Batt, whose research includes the telecommunications industry and service management strategies, is the Alice Hanson Cook Professor of Women and Work at the ILR School. A professor in ILR's departments of Human Resource Studies and International and Comparative Labor, she coordinated the Global Call Center Project. Batt has written extensively on human resource practices and their effect on firm performance, the quality of jobs, and wage and employment outcomes.