Gordon Lafer

Gordon Lafer is political economist writer who has served as Senior Labor Policy Advisor for the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Education and Labor and has a history of Labor Union activism. He has written widely on labor and employment policy issues[1] and is the author of The Job Training Charade.[2]

Gordon Lafer
Lafer in 2017
BornMarch 1960 (age 60)
NationalityAmerican
EducationPhD Political Science, Yale University, 1995 B.A., Economics, Swarthmore College, 1983
OccupationPolitical economist, writer
Notable work
The Job Training Charade

Biography

Gordon Lafer started his political work as an economic policy analyst in the Office of the Mayor in New York City under Mayor Ed Koch.[3]

He was one of the leaders of the Graduate Employees and Students Organization at Yale, which was on strike several times in the 1990s.[4][5]

Lafer served as Research and Communications Director for the Federation of University Employees at Yale.[6]

He ran a hotel workers' campaign with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 142, in Hawaii,[7][8] and wrote about the campaign in the magazine Dissent.[9]

At the University of Oregon, Lafer and mathematician Marie A. Vitulli led an effort to unionize faculty at the University of Oregon beginning in the spring of 2007.[10] This effort eventually led to the formation of the United Academics at the University of Oregon.[11]

He worked for ILWU Local 142, helping coordinate the boycott of the Pacific Beach Hotel,[12] which was found guilty of multiple labor law violations in federal court.[13] After a ten-year struggle, the hotel unionized in 2013.[14]

Lafer has served as Senior Labor Policy Advisor for the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Education and the Workforce,[15] a position that made him the top congressional staff member responsible for upholding labor standards in international trade treaties,[16] and he has been called to testify as an expert witness before multiple state legislatures.[17] He was the primary Congressional staff person responsible for the Local Jobs for America Act,[18] a bill that would have created one million decently-paid jobs and restored essential public services that were cut during the Great Recession. The bill was introduced by Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chair of the United States House Committee on Education and the Workforce, but never became law.[19][20]

Lafer is a member of the Scholars' Advisory Council of in the Public Interest,[21] a research and policy center promoting democratic control of public goods and services.[22]

He is the founding co-chair of the American Political Science Association's Labor Project,[23] and serves on the board of directors of the Shalom Hartman Institute,[24] a pluralistic center of research and education deepening and elevating the quality of Jewish life in Israel and around the world.[25]

Works

Lafer's work has appeared in The Nation[26] and U.S. News & World Report[27] and has been featured in The Washington Post,[28] The New York Times,[29] Fortune magazine,[30] and other publications.

He is currently an associate professor in the Labor Education & Research Center at the University of Oregon and a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute.[31]

Lafer's 2017 book is The One Percent Solution: How Corporations Are Remaking America One State at a Time.[32][33]

References
  1. "Gordon Lafer | People | Economic Policy Institute". Epi.org. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  2. "The Job Training Charade". Cornellpress.cornell.edu. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  3. Gordon Lafer (July 11, 2014). "Gordon Lafer | Wisconsin Public Radio". Wpr.org. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  4. "Graduate Students' Union Seeks Official Recognition From Yale". NYTimes.com. November 17, 1991. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  5. "GESO wins grad vote". Yaleherald.com. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  6. The Employment of English: Theory, Jobs, and the Future of Literary Studies by Michael Bérubé (NYU Press, 2007) p. 39
  7. "Honolulu Star-Bulletin Business". Archives.starbulletin.com. January 22, 2001. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  8. "Workers told it's 'crucial time' | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper". The Honolulu Advertiser. September 3, 2002. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  9. "The Other Side of Paradise: Hawai'i's Tourism Plantation". Dissent Magazine. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  10. Baez, David. "Labor Pains". Eugene Weekly. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
  11. "Our History". United Academics of the University of Oregon.
  12. "Pacific Beach Workers Struggle for Justice Victory Report : Seeking a new international solidarity" (PDF). Jca.apc.org. p. 4. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  13. "Pacific Beach Hotel | Longshore & Shipping News". Longshoreshippingnews.com. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  14. Howard Dicus. "Workers approve first Pacific Beach Hotel labor deal – Hawaii News Now – KGMB and KHNL". Hawaii News Now. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  15. "Gordon Lafer | People | Economic Policy Institute". Epi.org. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  16. "Latest "free trade" farce: the "TPP"". Ilwu.org. April 1, 2014. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  17. "The One Percent Solution, How Corporations Are Remaking America One State at a Time (Gordon Lafer)". Cornellpress.cornell.edu. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  18. "ILPC 4th–6th April 2017 Sheffield > Previous Conferences > View Abstract". Ilpc.org.uk. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  19. George Miller. "Local Jobs for America Act (2010; 111th Congress H.R. 4812)". GovTrack.us. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  20. "JFActivist: Jobs Bill Could Open Doors to Employment for PWD". Jfactivist.typepad.com. April 23, 2010. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  21. "Scholars Network". In the Public Interest. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  22. "About Us". In the Public Interest. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  23. "Statement of Dr. Gordon Lafer Before the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services, Education and Related Agencies" (PDF). Shopfloor.org. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  24. "Shalom Hartman Institute Board of Directors". Hartman.org.il. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  25. "About Us". Hartman.org.il. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  26. "Gordon Lafer". The Nation. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  27. "Cutting Wages and Benefits Only Harms the Economy". Usnews.com. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  28. Konczal, Mike (November 2, 2013). "The tea party's assault on workers". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  29. "Scott Walker and the Fate of the Unions". The New York Times. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  30. "As paid sick leave gains momentum, some state laws stand in the way". Fortune.com. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  31. "Right to Work". Good Bye Wages. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  32. "The One Percent Solution, How Corporations Are Remaking America One State at a Time". Cornell University Press. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
  33. Diane Ravitch. "Big Money Rules". New York Review Books. No. December 7, 2017. Retrieved December 4, 2017.
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