Despite community support for Just Cause Employment, the legislation remains stagnant in Ithaca’s Common Council.
The city currently operates under at-will employment, which allows employers to fire workers without explanation or notice. The National Employment Law Project drafted the 2023 Just Cause legislation, which stipulates that employers cannot terminate employees without at least a 30-day notice outlining the performance issue and specific steps they can take to address concerns.
According to Ithaca Just Cause — a coalition of Ithaca community organizations advocating for the legislation — the movement also aims to establish standards for “progressive discipline” and a commission responsible for hearing wrongful termination cases. Alderpersons Phoebe Brown (D-1st Ward) and Kayla Matos (D-1st Ward) brought the proposal to the Common Council on May 20, 2024, according to Alderperson Ducson Nguyen (D-2nd Ward).
Clyde Lederman ’26 (D-5th Ward) said that a few Common Council members formed a committee named the Labor Protections Working Group to draft an original version of the legislation. According to Lederman, “other folks in the City didn’t want to just use a law that an outside group had created.”
Nguyen said that the Labor Protections Working Group had met around six times since the draft was originally brought to the Common Council. He said that conducting research slowed their progress and that they aim to host at least two open houses in 2025 for community members to learn more and voice concerns about the potential Just Cause policy.
The committee members acknowledged the stagnancy of the legislation and said that their current focus is research and community input.
“We’re really ramping up just to begin another push … to get more people to understand and to be involved [in the Just-Cause legislation],” Brown said. “So it may [have] stagnated in the Council, … but we’ll be bringing it up again.”
Stronger labor protections affect workers employed within the City of Ithaca, which includes University employees.
“[Graduate student workers] have the feeling that their boss can basically let them go at any moment without providing any justification, without any kind of progressive discipline,” said Ewa Nizalowska, a Ph.D. student and Cornell Graduate Student Union communications member.
Despite the current legal stalemate, the Just Cause movement has garnered considerable community support.
“Greater security for workers, especially in service industry jobs, is something we should all want for them,” said Lisa Swayze, general manager of Buffalo Street Books. “The only way I can imagine it being harder on a business is if they’re not already prioritizing it.”
Just Cause policies could also benefit employers by reducing the costs of hiring new staff on short notice, according to Kevin Mietlicki, chief executive officer of Alternatives Federal Credit Union. He said it is “expensive to find good employees and to onboard and retain them.” Just Cause could reduce the frequency of this process.
Mietlicki said his company follows a progressive discipline approach, providing employees with opportunities to improve through written warnings before dismissal. This practice, which aligns with the proposed Just Cause policy, fosters trust between employers and employees, according to Mietlicki.
Prof. Gali Racabi, law and industrial and labor relations, pointed to New York City’s 2021 Just-Cause employment policy for fast food workers as another model for Tompkins County.
“My intuition is that the closer the finalized law is to the NYC fast food workers law, the safer … or less legally risky it is,” Racabi said. “I would be disappointed to see this law fail because of over-ambitious definitions or overconfidence in its own … enforcement possibilities.”
Alderperson David Shapiro (D-3rd Ward) echoed concerns about feasibility and noted the capacity challenges for both small businesses and the City.
“I don’t think small businesses necessarily have the capacity to develop best practices, and the city certainly doesn’t have the capacity to investigate these matters either,” Shapiro said. He cautioned that requiring businesses to adhere to strict disciplinary procedures without implementation support could disproportionately impact smaller establishments.
Although progress has been slow, there is a general interest within the Common Council to establish Just Cause worker protections in the City of Ithaca. With the working group set to expire at the end of the year, council members will soon vote on its renewal, with an eye toward broadening community input.
Amid these challenges, Ngyuen emphasized the importance of community involvement moving forward.
“Our highest priority now is to schedule and hold a public information session about Just Cause and to have a conversation,” Nguyen said. “We were thinking of a panel discussion with some experts and also … just an opportunity [for people to] speak about their experiences.”
Almer Yu ’27 is a Sun contributor and can be reached at [email protected].
Reem Nasrallah ’28 is a Sun contributor and can be reached at [email protected].