Labor-Focused Research Questions

Labor Focused Research Questions

Below each question is an example of how that question could be narrowed to a researchable topic.

  1. What rights and responsibilities did [specific group of workers] claim they should have, and how did they try to gain or exercise those rights and responsibilities?
  • Example: What rights and responsibilities did auto workers at General Motors during the sit-down strike of 1936-1937 claim they should have, and how did they try to gain or exercise those rights and responsibilities?

2. In what ways did [specific group of workers] and [specific employer/industry] notions of workplace rights and responsibilities differ?

  • Example: In what ways did Lilly Ledbetter’s and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company’s notions of workplace rights and responsibilities differ? (Ledbetter sued the company for gender discrimination in 1999)

3. How did [federal, state, or local government] actions, laws, or judicial decisions affect [specific group of workers] rights and responsibilities? How did they affect [specific group of employers] rights and responsibilities?

  • Example: How did the federal Bracero Program affect the rights and responsibilities of braceros and their American employers during the 1940s-50s?

4. How did [specific group of workers] rights and responsibilities change (or stay the same) over time?

  • Example: How did the rights and responsibilities of Mexican agricultural workers change (or stay the same) after NAFTA was enacted in 1994?

5. In what ways have civil rights movements [specific race-; gender-; disability-rights movement or action] been about workplace rights and responsibilities?

  • Example: In what ways was the Black freedom struggle in the 1950s-1960s about workers’ rights and responsibilities?

Narrow the question to a researchable project by inserting a specific time period, event &/or group of workers and employers in the brackets. 

  • A time period might be a week(s), month(s), or year(s)
  • An event might be a strike, a labor contract negotiation, a court case, a campaign to pass a law
  • A group of workers might be defined by one or more of the following
    • a particular city or workplace
    • a particular skill or occupation
    • personal characteristics (gender, age, free or unfree labor, race or ethnicity, ability)
  • Search newspapers and labor presses, history books, articles or exhibits, or ask local union leaders to identify a nearby or lesser-known labor dispute, law, workplace, or worker(s) or employer(s).