Rick Hurd

Richard W. Hurd is Professor of Labor Studies (retired) and Associate Director of the Cornell Center for Innovative Hospitality Labor and Employment Relations. A leading specialist on trade union administration and strategy, on union representation in the hospitality sector, and on the unionization of professional workers, he has been quoted widely in the national and international print and broadcast media on various labor issues.

He is co-editor of the International Handbook on Labour Unions: Responses to Neoliberalism (Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. 2011), Rekindling the Movement (Cornell University ILR Press, 2001), Organizing to Win (Cornell University ILR Press, 1998) and Restoring the Promise of American Labor Law (ILR Press, 1994). He has published dozens of papers in books and professional journals, including “Public Sector Unions Under Siege” [with Tamara Lee, Labor Studies Journal 2014], “Moving Beyond the Critical Synthesis: Does the Law Preclude a Future for US Unions?” [Labor History, 2013], “First Contract Arbitration and the Employee Free Choice Act: Multi-jurisdictional Evidence from Canada” [with Sara Slinn, Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations 2011], and “Obama and the US Labor Movement” [Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research 2009].

His articles on union strategy have been published in Britain, Germany, Switzerland, India, South Africa, Korea, Australia, Belgium, Canada and the U.S. Professor Hurd works closely with labor organizations and professional associations, offering technical assistance on strategic issues including organizational change, internal and external organizing, and leadership development. His clients have included the Canadian Labour Congress, AFL-CIO Office of the President, United Food and Commercial Workers, American Federation of Teachers, Service Employees International Union, the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and the American Guild of Musical Artists

Hurd earned his Ph.D. in Economics from Vanderbilt University, and is a former Brookings Institution Economic Policy Fellow.