Workplace studies institute to begin spring talk series in March

Next week, the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in the New York City offices of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations begins its spring 2005 professional development series for journalists and others who seek to know more about the topical labor issues in the world of work today.

The relevant, thought-provoking series of half-day talks and discussions starts Friday, March 4, with "Outsourcing: The View from India," a program on the labor issues involved for India in the outsourcing of jobs by U.S. corporations to that Southeast Asian nation. The speaker, ILR professor Sarosh Kuruvilla, teaches comparative industrial relations, collective bargaining and Asian studies at Cornell and is director of the university's Southeast Asia Program.

Other talks in the spring 2005 IWS series are as follows:

April 1, "The Labor Movement Retools," Harry Katz, the Jack Sheinkman Professor of Collective Bargaining, ILR School; May 6, "Retired but Still Working," Robert Hutchens, ILR professor of labor economics; May 16, "Understanding the Data," Martin Wells, ILR professor of social statistics and chair, biological statistics and computational biology, Cornell; and June 1, "Get Them on Your Side," Samuel Bacharach, the McKelvey-Grant Professor of Labor Management Relations and director, Institute for Workplace Studies, ILR School. A sixth program, "Know Your Workplace Rights," by Risa Lieberwitz, associate professor of collective bargaining, labor law and labor history, initially on Feb. 25 will be rescheduled later.

The series, one of several offered by the IWS, is aimed at business, labor, feature and general assignment reporters, editors and editorial writers from the print, broadcast and online media. All programs take place in the ILR School offices at 16 E. 34th St., New York City, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. People may sign up for individual sessions for a fee of $75 for each session, which includes continental breakfast and materials. Advanced registration is required. For more information and to register, call (212) 340-2886 or visit this Web site: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/iws/journalism/index.html.