Kalmanovitz 15 Year Report
September 26th, 2025
On November 10, 2009, Georgetown University formally launched the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor & the Working Poor (KI). In the fifteen years that have passed since its creation, the KI has…
Publications
Relevant Revisit: “Bargaining for the Future: Rethinking Labor’s Recent Past and Planning Strategically for its Future”
July 14th, 2025
As labor rises to meet the current moment, revisit “Bargaining for the Future” – the Kalmanovitz Initiative’s 2014 study on new and innovative “forms ofcollective action that might be capable of…
Learn more about The Kalmanovitz Initiative!
April 24th, 2025
The Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor (K.I.) is proud to share a new overview of our work at the intersection of labor, racial justice, and democracy. As a university-based…
NEW REPORT: How Workers’ Pensions can Help Solve the Housing Crisis
November 19th, 2024
This report explores ways that pension funds can invest in affordable housing and direct worker savings away from the particularly extractive parts of the financial sector, notably private equity. …
Aligning for Power: A Case Study of Bargaining for the Common Good in Minnesota
January 4th, 2024
The Kalmanovitz Initiative presents a groundbreaking case study on the history of Common Good Bargaining in Minnesota and the powerful coalitions built between community and labor organizations…
PRO Act Faith Leader Sign On
June 30th, 2021
Faith Leaders Support PRO Act to Advance Workers’ Rights From our standpoint of faith, America must honor the sacred worth and dignity of work and every worker in the United States. Drawing…
The Uber Workplace in Washington, D.C.
April 18th, 2020
The on-demand ride-hailing industry that has emerged in recent years presents sobering challenges for its new workforce. These challenges include: drivers not knowing how much they truly earn;…
The Case for a Bank Workers’ Bill of Rights
February 19th, 2020
The crisis of 2008 and the ensuing Great Recession revealed both the extent to which this country is vulnerable to predatory manipulations of powerful corporate entities and the degree to which the financialization of our economy has contributed to growing inequality, the concentration of incomes and wealth, and the growing precarity of American working families.…
Kalmanovitz Initiative Ten Year Anniversary Summary & Report
January 1st, 2020
Since it was officially launched on November 10, 2009, with a gift from the Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation, Georgetown University’s Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor & the Working Poor has established itself as a unique organization. Its distinctive identity and contribution stem from its simultaneous fulfillment of a broad spectrum of roles not duplicated by any other entity in the United States.…
One Job Should Be Enough in the Airline Industry
July 9th, 2019
KI is today releasing a white paper entitled One Job Should Be Enough in the Airline Industry: Catering on the Margins at American, Delta and United. …
Call Center Workers Fighting to Lift Up Families and Hattiesburg
November 1st, 2018
This week the Kalmanovitz Initiative releases a new report, Strengthening Families and the Hattiesburg Economy: The Impacts of Improved Pay for Federally Contracted Call Center Workers.…
Shared Values: A Report on AFL-CIO and Catholic Conference Activity in the State Legislatures
January 9th, 2018
The labor movement in the United States shares many values with the Catholic Church, with each supporting living wages for workers, the right to join and form unions, and the defense of our immigrant…
Shared Values: AFL-CIO and Catholic Conference Activity
January 8th, 2018
The labor movement in the United States shares many values with the Catholic Church, with each supporting living wages for workers, the right to join and form unions, and the defense of our immigrant brothers and sisters. We partnered with the Catholic Labor Network to research whether the two organizations worked together to advance their shared ideals at the state level.…
Fixing LA and Remaking Public Sector Bargaining
July 13th, 2016
On July 13, 2016, the Kalmanovitz Initiative released Fixing Los Angeles and Remaking Public Sector Collective Bargaining: A Case Study of “Bargaining for the Common Good. This report, prepared with the support of labor and community leaders in Los Angeles, chronicles the successful 2014-2016 Fix LA campaign that achieved great gains for over 20,000 public sector workers and the L.A. community.…
Public Sector Unionism Under Assault
September 9th, 2015
The most recent issue of the New Labor Forum features an article entitled “Public Sector Unionism Under Assault: How to Combat the Scapegoating of Organized Labor” written by Professor Joseph McCartin, the Kalmanovitz Initiative’s executive director.…
Unpredictable, Unsustainable
June 11th, 2015
On June 11, 2015, DC Jobs with Justice, the Jobs With Justice Education Fund, the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, and the Kalmanovitz Initiative released the first-ever study on service sector scheduling practices in Washington, DC.…