South Bend Working Poor Project

In the early 1990’s, Dr. Chuck Craypo was commissioned by the St. Joseph County United Way to conduct a study of the working poor. The results of this work were featured in “The Working Poor in America:  Climbing the Down Escalator,’ a 1993 video production. 

In 1998, Dr. Craypo, and fellow researchers Dr. David Cormier, Dr. Adrienne Birecree, and Dr. Suzanne Konzelmann, were awarded a grant from the United Food & Commercial Workers (UCFW) Douglas Dority Fund for Working America, to continue investigating the impact of low wages on the standard of living for workers’ families and the larger society.

This work led to on-going research, publication, and presentations about the impact of Walmart and the new service economy on workers and the labor market. 

Up until the time of his death in the Spring of 2009, Dr. Craypo, assisted by statistician Dr. David Larson, was conducting a follow-up study on the South Bend Working Poor, using new data collected between 2001–2004. 

Workplace Standards and Financial Performance

Sponsored by Victory Capital Management and Massachusetts Financial Services.

From 1998 to 2007, Dr. Teresa Ghilarducci, former director of the Higgins program, directed the Workplace Standards and Financial Performance Project, screening public corporations for good labor practices for socially conscious investors.

American Retirement Income Security

Sponsored by the Retirement Research Foundation.

Dr. Ghilarducci also directed the “Making Retirement Work” Project from 1997 until 2007.

Union Management Conference

The Higgins program became the official home of the Union Management Conference (UMC), an annual event organized by Fr. Mark Fitzgerald for nearly 50 years. The UMC aimed to bring managers and union leaders together to promote improved labor-management relations and to develop better workplaces.