LEP Update
July 18, 2008
The University of Illinois Labor Education Program will bring instructors and programs to any location in Illinois if you invite us. Email Illinoislabored@uiuc.edu.
LABOR DAY, MONDAY SEPT 1, 2 pm
Celebrate Labor Day at historic Hotel Florence in Pullman, 112th & Cottage Grove Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. Alive with the souls of Eugene Debs, Jennie Curtis, A. Phillip Randolph and FDR. For further information, contact Tom at tomshepherd2001@yahoo.com (773)928-3040; or Larry at larrys@afscmeillinois.org - (312)641-6060×4318. Visit: http://members.aol.com/PullmanIL/
LABOR LEADER IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM AT UIUC
Rich Trumka, Secretary Treasurer of the AFL-CIO, has accepted an invitation from LEP and the Institute to be our first “Labor Leader in Residence.” Trumka will come to the UIUC campus the week of October 13-17. He will give public talks, visit the classes of MA HR/IR students, speak at the Friday seminar and attend LEP functions such as the Tuesday night Building and Re-Building the Labor Movement certificate class that starts October 14. Trumka will also visit CLEP in Chicago.
FALL ON-LINE LABOR STUDIES CLASSES
LEP is now offering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 3-credit Global Labor Studies online classes. Courses run August 25 to December 10 (and compressed classes run October 20 to December 10.) The cost per 3-credit class is $882. Unionists receive a scholarship that reduces the cost to $706 per course. After taking six courses you will receive a Certificate in Global Labor Studies. Unionists may especially be interested in LIR 250 Grievance Representation, which covers the nuts-and-bolts of being a steward, labor law, and internal organizing. For more information and course syllabi go to our website at: http://lep.ilir.uiuc.edu/. If you’ve a question please call Steven Ashby at (312) 996-8733 or email him at skashby@illinois.edu.
LIR 100 Introduction to Labor Studies (offered as both semester-long and compressed)
LIR 110 Labor and Social Movements (offered as both semester-long and compressed)
LIR 200 Globalization and Workers
LIR 250 Grievance Representation
LIR 320 Gender, Race, Class, and Work
LOCAL UNION PRESIDENTS CONFERENCE IN CHAMPAIGN
September 25-26-27
For local union presidents, principal officers, etc. Current political and economic environment; final preparations for the ’08 election; triumphs and challenges, the legal environment for labor; the experiences of other locals. Endorsed by the Illinois State Federation of Labor. $350 plus hotel (Hawthorne Suites, 217-398-3400.) For program details call Monica Bielski at 217-244-4094.
CHAMPAIGN CERTIFICATE CLASS
Building and Re-Building the Labor Movement
Tuesday nights, 6-8:30, October 14-December 16
$50; instructors Joe Berry, Helena Worthen, Monica Bielski and Ed Hertenstein
At UIUC in the Wagner Education Center, 504 East Armory
Non-credit class open to the Champaign and regional labor movement, workers without unions, community activists and UIUC students of all sorts. AFL-CIO Sec. Treas. Rich Trumka will join the first class. During our 10 sessions we will cover the critical issues facing the labor movement. Novices and activists are all welcome: this is a labor movement fundamentals class. The UIUC Coalition of Labor/Campus Unions United has endorsed this class as has the Champaign Central Labor Council.
2008-2009 DOWNSTATE CONFERENCES
Occupational Safety and Health: The Future of Good Jobs Conference
Friday and Saturday, January 30, 31, 2009
Labor and the environmental movement; bargaining health and safety; building an effective health and safety committee on the job; documenting health and safety issues; understanding OSHA and our rights under the law. A UIUC residential conference.
Union Communications: The Face and Voice of Labor Conference
Thursday through Saturday, March 26, 27, 28, 2009
Sound bites, newsletters, blogs, posters, photographs, YouTube and politics for internal and external communication.
FALL 2008 PROGRAMS CHICAGO
Basic and Advanced Certificates in Labor Studies
(Each 6-week class $150, additional cost for books)
These classes are organized in a sequence that is cumulative. To get the full benefit of
any class, people are advised to take the whole sequence.
Introduction to the American Labor Movement (Basic)
September 23-October 30. Tuesdays. 10:00 am – 12:30 pm or 6:00 – 8:30 pm
This class situates our labor movement today, both its crises and successes, in our current economic and political context.
Steward Training (Basic)
November 11- Dec 16. Tuesdays. 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. or 6: 00 – 8:30 p.m.
Technical aspects of grievance handling, the steward’s role as internal organizer and educator, what a steward needs to know; the legal rights of a union steward; the grievance procedure; processing a grievance; past practice grievances.
Current Issues in the Labor Movement (Advanced)
September 24 – October 29. Wednesdays. 10 a.m.– 12:30 p.m. or 6:00-8:30 p.m.
Major debates and issues within the labor movement; external challenges; the need to develop strategies for the 21st century; labor internationalism and globalization, union democracy, internal and external organizing, minority unionism, and legal and political challenges among others.
Steward Training (Advanced)
November 12- December -17. Wednesdays. 10:00 a.m.– 12:30 p.m. or 6:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Preparing a case to hand over to an arbitration advocate; evaluation of the many other methods for resolving problems and building the union’s power.
LINKS
At Lincoln Cushing’s website you can actually LISTEN to the Heidelberg Speedmaster in operation at Inkworks Press (as well as see gorgeous labor art): www.docspopuli.org
More art stuff from the CIO period from Toby Higbie. Use in your classes or for flyers: http://www.flickr.com/photos/higbie/collections/72157602788988163/
Check out this free online educational community that provides tips, samples, templates, and other useful tools for dealing with problems affecting working people. www.TheWorkSite.org.
CONTACTS
CHICAGO: Yesenia Vargas, 312-996-2624, 815 W. Van Buren Street, Chicago 60607
CHAMPAIGN: Joe Berry, 217-333-2388, 504 East Armory, Champaign 61820
LEP teachers can bring our Book Table to sell and talk about good labor books from the Illinois Labor History Society, books that you may not see out on the shelf in most bookstores.