This past July, the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies hosted the 49th United Association for Labor Education Summer School for Women+. Over 150 rank-and-file members and elected leaders of unions and worker centers from across the region filled the SLU campus with energy, inspiration, creativity, and ideas that will continue to shape what is possible in our unions, worker centers, organizations and schools.
Yana Kuchirko, a delegate from Brooklyn College PSC chapter, attended the school for the first time and remarked: “UALE was the most transformative labor education experience I’ve had. Learning alongside women+ who were educators, nurses, bus drivers, carpenters, sex workers, and filmmakers, to name a few, showed me that we are hand-in-hand in the fight against patriarchy, fascism, white supremacy, and capitalism. This fight is a continuation of one started by the brave women+ across history who fearlessly fought for labor rights, about whom we learned, and on whose shoulders we stand. UALE offered labor education, yes, but we walked away with so much more than that. We leveraged our collective memory and power to stand together as women+ and continue the fight for dignified and liberatory work and life for all.”
The UALE Summer School for Women+ is a four-day program anchored by a daily morning leadership skills class, followed by afternoon workshops that are issues- and skills-based, such as grievance handling or organizing around immigration protections. The learning is rooted in the methodology of popular education with full student leadership and participation. Peppered in are also panel discussions on pressing labor issues, a street action (this year there were two: in support of Hotel Trades Council workers who were on strike and against Victoria Secret exposing the egregious working conditions of overseas workers who make their products), and even a theatre piece about labor heroines acted out by attendees themselves.
The PSC contingent at this year’s conference.
Debra Bergen, former PSC director of contract enforcement, has participated in the school for over 20 years. She commented that “while the skill-building workshops offered at the school are important, especially if you have just become active in your union or were recently elected to union leadership, the evening activities are equally important, because that’s where the sense of community and union solidarity is really developed.”
To borrow more inspiring words from the organizers, it was not “simply a week together, but a spark that travels home [and into our workplace ] with each of you and helps ignite new action, new leadership, new alliances, and new possibilities.”
The participants “sang and wrote poetry and skits, performed in classrooms and on stage, learned, debated, laughed, celebrated, and challenged one another, rallied and marched in the streets, honored and commemorated the founders of the School and heroines of labor, built and strengthened relationships and solidarity that sustain our movements.”
Sophia Bamert, who also attended the school for the first time and joined the executive committee of the Brooklyn College PSC chapter as an officer-at-large this fall, noted, “The workshops helped me reflect on and hone my organizing skills. Even more special was getting to know women from such a wide range of unions, and then standing alongside them as we joined the hotel workers’ picket line — such a concrete and inspirational experience of solidarity.”
The UALE Summer School for Union Women+ is rooted in the traditions of early workers’ education as exemplified by the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers of the 1920s and the WPA worker education programs of the 1930s. Encouraged by the rising feminist movement of the seventies, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, (CLUW), the United Association of Labor Educators (UALE) launched the current school in 1975. The school brings together rank-and-file union members, officers and staff to strengthen their knowledge of the labor movement and develop their skills, developing them into leaders in their unions. The PSC has supported membership attendance at the school for many years and this year was no exception.
Veronica Ordaz, associate director of operations at the Graduate Center’s Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality, said, “I first attended summer school in 2016, when I was still pretty new to CUNY and being a PSC member. Not only did it introduce me to some real union fundamentals, but it expanded my understanding of what unions and the labor movement can be. I’ve returned and worked alongside an incredible group of sisters and siblings so I could help pass that experience and knowledge to others.”
This year, in addition to the PSC, members of the following unions and worker centers were represented: 1199-SEIU, AFT, Community Voices Heard, DC 37, Global Labor Justice, IATSE, IBEW, Jobs with Justice, NYPNU, TWU, UAW, Utility Workers of America, among others. Almost 70% of participants were attending the school for the first time.
Amy Jeu, college laboratory technician at Hunter College said: “It was really rejuvenating to be together with women from so many different unions and backgrounds, sharing our experiences, learning from one another, and celebrating the strength of our sisters. There was such a wonderful sense of community and solidarity throughout the Summer School. It was a reminder of how much we have in common and how strong we can be when we come together and support one another. I’m looking forward to being together again next year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Summer School.”
PSC members left this year’s school excited about the activation of the PSC’s Sexuality and Gender Justice Working Group.
A special thanks to the SLU-based coordinating team and their leadership in co-coordinating this year’s school and the team of organizers, planners, facilitators, moderators, and advisors who made the school possible. It was the third time CUNY has sponsored the school in its 50 year history. The PSC and CUNY’s Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies first co-sponsored the school when it was held on the Queens College campus in July 2014.
The SSW+ occurs once a year and the host rotates among labor studies programs, from CUNY to Rutgers, UMass Amherst, Penn State, Cornell and University of Connecticut. Next year CUNY SLU will pass the torch to Penn State as the school celebrates its 50th anniversary. We hope to have a strong PSC-CUNY presence as we honor a half a century of hard work and look toward the next 50 years!
