Letters from Alumni and Friends of the Labor Movement
The call for letters to Dean John Hird and Provost Katherine Newman generated over 500 responses in just a matter of days. Here are just a few that highlight the value of the Labor Center program to so many.
I write to urge you to restore the Labor Center. As an alumnus, a public policy expert, and a witness to similar battles in the UC system, I assure you that you are making a mistake.
I have very fond memories of my time at LRRC in the late 1990s. The faculty and staff
prepared me for a career in labor relations and public policy, and I discovered much of value
both on campus and throughout the Happy Valley. For nearly two decades I have sung the
praises of UMass, but if the Labor Center is dismantled and discarded, I can’t imagine
sharing positive feelings about the institution.
There are precious few schools and programs that deal honestly and directly with our
country’s challenges, and the Labor Center is one of them. To understand labor is to
understand the strengths and weaknesses of our economy and our politics. To study these
issues is to be prepared to work in service of the country. I personally know LRRC alums
working in public service – for unions, for government, for non-profits – at the highest levels
across the country. I find it highly distressing to imagine future generations unable to seek
out such important training.
I currently live in Los Angeles and have witnessed similar unpleasantness in the UC system.
For nearly a decade, short-sighted partisan political battles led to perennial efforts to
defund the UC Labor Center. Such efforts were unsuccessful, but took up time and
resources of all involved for no good reason. The program, the university, and political
leaders were all worse off for the effort.
I would have hoped UMass would be smarter than to inflict such wounds on itself. It is not
too late to change course. Reverse the cuts to Labor Studies. Restore funding and
externships. Maintain the full curriculum. Honor faculty’s autonomy to make
programmatic decisions and designate a Director. Commit that the Labor Center is an
integral part of the University’s educational mission, not just a profit center to subsidize
other programs.
I will continue to monitor and discuss the situation with other alums. I look forward to a
speedy and amiable resolution. If there is anything I can do to assist, please do not hesitate
to be in touch. In any event, it is incumbent upon you to fix this. Please keep me updated.
Yours sincerely,
Jon Zerolnick
Research Director, LAANE
-------------
I am so proud to be a graduate of the Labor Center. Pictures of me and my classmates engaged in debate have been used to promote labor education and our university. My degree has helped me advance in my work as a union staffer. It has helped me better understand and engage with broader social movements. It has supported me in the work of building of a more just and equitable world.
I am very upset to hear that the University Administration no longer values the Labor Center as it once did. During my graduate education, both the in house and ULA programs were flourishing. I learned so much from the professors and the students in both programs. Many of those people would not have been there because of economic barriers, but because of scholarships and other outreach programs, we had a diverse representation of working class students. To restrict the program to only "profit-generating" components kills the spirit and clearly hampers the ability to educate the working class.
Additionally, specifically to try and marginalize Dr. Weinbaum from her central role in the Labor Center is both misguided and detrimental to the program. If it wasn't for Dr. Weinbaum, who was my advisor in my last semester, I would have graduated the program to this day. As a professor she helped me develop my analysis for my graduate dissertation. She personally supported me through finishing my dissertation after my child was born. If any of you have children yourselves you know the havoc that introduces into your professional and student life. But because I worked hard and relied on Dr. Weinbaum as my advisor to challenge me, I graduated on time.
Continuing true support for the Labor Center would mean supporting these 5 issues at minimum:
-- TA or RA positions for full-time graduate students who need them
-- Externship positions for graduate students who need them, so that we can accept working-class and diverse students who can't pay out-of-state tuition
-- Centrally funded part-time faculty positions to deliver the full curriculum including Labor Law, Collective Bargaining, Economics
-- Centrally funded staff positions that are dedicated to the Labor Center.
-- Faculty governance of the Labor Center -- not by Sociology or the dean's office -- and the right to choose our next director
Please continue to support the Labor Center. It is imperative to making UMass a great university and the rest of the country a more just society. If the administration is unwilling to fix these five problems, remove my picture from any promotional materials related to the University of Massachusetts. Please also remove me from your alumni fundraising list.
Sincerely,
Erin Weinstein
UMASS Labor Center Class of 2013
--------
I write today to express my upset, frustration and disappointment with the recent news that the University intends to curtail its 50+ year commitment to the labor center and the labor studies program at the University. I am a proud alumni of the program, and can say without hesitation it provided me with a quality of education available in very few other places and opened up tremendous career opportunities for me. As I begin to think about my work years coming to an end, I cannot imagine what my life might have looked like if I had not had the benefit of a umass labor studies education.
I hope you will re-consider any plans you have which might curtail or limit the work of the labor center. In my view, this program has been historically under-resourced and should in-fact be expanded.
I will also say that while I do not know Professor Weinbaum well, she enjoys a fine reputation in the field of labor education. I have noticed--as an alumni, that during her tenure as Director of the Labor Center, the quality of the curriculum and course offerings has improved significantly. Clearly, this is a reflection of her deep commitment to the historic mission of the labor center--to produce scholar-activists who are engaged in the world in a significant way.
I hope you will re-consider any plans that might cause a diminshment of this vital and important part of UMASS.
Sincerely,
Jerry Levinsky
Labor Center Class of 1982
--------
I am writing to express my concern over the university's plans to eliminate the Labor Studies residency program. While I recognize these are lean, austere times, this program is one of the best in the country. With national recognition, it helps bolster UMass Amherst's position as a leading public university.
I know for myself, the program was essential to my development as a person and as a professional. At the time, like any normal grad student, I did not fully grasp the importance of graduate work. Now I do. I believe what I learned from people like Eve Weinbaum, Tom Juravich, Stephanie Luce, and Harris Freeman helped my ability to excel in my profession as a professional union negotiator and labor advocate. These skill advancements are often discrete and intangible, but nonetheless enhance my skills at my profession beyond those of my peers who were not as fortunate as me to attend such an excellent and renowned program.
Most importantly, I would not have been able to attend had an assistantship not been offered. I do not come from a rich household, and neither of my parents could help me, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. To this day, I still pay $200 a month in student loans. Taking an assistantship, working through school, and taking a student loan was the only way I could go.
Now, I look at what I heard was an elimination of assistantships and core classes, and my heart is broken. That could be me. Moreover, the next Labor Center grad would not be able to go onto doing the important work of combatting inequality in this world. That's what the Labor Center produces - people who fight for justice, not charity, and there's few things as valuable in this world today.
Please, I implore you to reconsider rolling back the degree program, its faculty, and the core programs. Thank you for your time.
- Charles D. Barley
Labor Center, Class of 2002
Labor Relations Specialist, CSEA NY
-------
My name is Frances Boyes. I graduated from the Labor Center in 2008 and am currently the Director of Representation for the New England Joint Board of Unite Here. I represent low wage workers in manufacturing, industrial laundries, distribution centers, and food service all across New England.
I am joining the hundreds of other labor relations professionals, community organizers, faculty, and activists that are asking administrators to reverse the cuts to Labor Studies. I was a recipient of funding for three out of four semesters at UMass, and that support was essential to my having the ability to focus on my studies and the work that I was doing in order to gain experience that would enable me to get a job as soon as I finished my degree.
As a union representative, I put my skills developed at the Labor Center to work on a daily basis. I see the positive and necessary impact that my expertise has on vulnerable people working in dangerous industries and industries negatively impacted by our global economy. These skills are not common and it is becoming increasingly hard to find people who have the exposure to opportunities to develop them. Where the laws fall short in protecting workers, or where the enforcement of legal protections is not a priority is where I, and the other graduates of the Labor Center, fill a critical role in our society.
I am calling on you to make the following commitments:
- to restore graduate student funding and externships
-to maintain the full curriculum
-to honor the Labor Studies faculty’s autonomy to make programmatic decisions and to designate a Director
-to commit that the Labor Center is an integral part of the University’s educational mission, not just a profit center to subsidize other programs.
Thank you,
Frances Boyes
M. S. Labor Studies, 2008
----------
I write to you as a University of Massachusetts Amherst alumna (BA 2007) to request that funding be restored to the Labor Center that the curriculum be restored to its previous levels and the level of autonomy previously granted be returned to the program. I’m sure that you will receive many emails speaking out for the Labor Center from former graduate students and friends of the program. I would like to put forward a different perspective, that of an undergraduate student who benefited from the program, as it previously existed with full funding and full staffing.
I entered UMass in the fall of 2003 knowing that I wanted to study labor history and that on a mission to pursue a career that would let me continue that study. This is not, I fully admit, the most common thinking of an incoming freshman but it was mine. Lucky for me, UMass is a place where uncommon thinking thrives and students are given the ability to pursue their goals however unique. Through the Labor Center I was able to take classes both at an undergraduate and graduate level and gain the knowledge I needed to go on to pursue a Graduate Certificate in Labor Studies (CUNY, 2007) and a career as a museum curator of labor history (including as the head curator of the Los Angeles Maritime Museum and as staff at Ellis Island National Immigration Museum) and now pursue a Doctoral degree in Folklore with a focus on labor ethnography and heritage (Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2020). None of these achievements would have been possible if not for the supportive staff and faculty and students in the Labor Center. In graduate level classes I was welcomed by faculty and my fellow students and learned to perform at a high standard. In my undergraduate classes I was able to learn from perspectives very different from my own. All of these experiences combined gave me the tools I have needed to succeed both in my museum career and now as I return to school for a doctorate on the labor history of North Atlantic fishermen.
UMass needs the Labor Center as much as the Labor Center needs UMass. It is one of the things that make UMass stand out as a unique learning environment. It is a place where the practical and theoretical come together, where undergraduates can learn with graduate students and where people whose perspectives are very different learn to learn together.
I’m a proud UMass alumna. I’m not proud because of the football team, the basketball team, or the marching band. I’m not proud because of our amazing agricultural school or the famous scholars who have taught at UMass. I’m proud because of programs like the Labor Center that encourage creative thinking and pull people together. I’m proud of coming from a school that, unlike so many others, will change it’s mind and buck the trend of slashing the budget for such programs and restore it to the wonderful fully funded program it was.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Emma Lang
----------
As a graduate from the UMass Labor Center in 2008 it saddens me greatly
that the UMass that has been a leader in numerous fields that actually
do the correct thing in questioning the norms of our system and instead
has decided to take the steps in becoming the system they have
questioned.
It comes as a great surprise to me that UMass has taken a deeper turn
down this path by creating a funding model that is ripe with market
tendencies and interests and averting the needs of society. This new
'model' of funding to demand that a program is revenue generating is
exactly how UMass will step down a path of no longer being a public
common but a public disgrace. UMass is *not* a private school, you have
a mission to the people of the commonwealth, people such as myself.
The UMass Labor Center experience was a turning point in my life, if it
were not for the funding that was provided via teaching assistantships
and opportunities to afford the education, I would not have become a
member of the labor and my local community in organizing and demanding
more from our society. It was in this education experience where I
excelled in areas never thought possible and because it was a funded
program removing the burden of further student loan debts gave me the
opportunity to research without external pressure. Colleagues of my own
who I have continued to keep in touch, with whom also had the same
funding opportunities have gone on to be active in changing their
unions for the betterment of the members and to challenge the status
quo, while contributing to the development of their communities. It is
the reason I am actively involved in working with immigrants’ rights,
education reform and labor actions to this day.
It is challenging the status quo that the Labor Center instilled in me
and it something that UMass overall has been a beacon, if you will, on
working to be a different institution than its peers in ways that has
resulted in questioning the system we are in, something that all
education should embrace and celebrate. Your actions to make a program
'revenue generating' is an insult to education, it is an insult to
where we need to extend our shared resources. The timing you chose of
making this decision just before Labor Day further tears at the wound
you are invoking. We are at crossroads in our society, the labor
movement has had its troubles and we have seen it overcome them, but to
shift a program to appeal to people with money is not anything we
should be doing. It is shameful that an institution that struggles with
funding to begins with seeks to work against the one element that it
excels at, that is in the form great unions. We need the program funded
to bring more leaders forward. Please do the right thing, fund the
program!
in solidarity,
~Stephen Mahood
--------
My name is Rodney Hiltz and I am a 2014 graduate of the ULA program with a Master of Science degree in Labor Studies from UMASS Amherst. Completing this degree was an accomplishment that provided me a great deal of pride and positioned me to achieve my current position of Executive Director of the Maine State Employees Association – Service Employees International Union Local 1989 (MSEA).
MSEA-SEIU Local 1989 represents 13,000 workers in over 700 worksites across the great State of Maine. Our organization is a key player in fighting for social justice and many legislative initiatives, which include the development and passage of our state’s budget. Every state budget we lobby for includes components of funding for higher education. What happens in Maine and Massachusetts is of interest to our respective legislators as they will often look at regional trends and enactments. While MSEA represents workers and faculty members at the Maine Community College System and the Maine Maritime Academy, our coalition partners represent the same at the University of Maine and beyond.
MSEA as an organization understands the importance of supporting higher education and has a well-oiled political machine to impact those interests. Beyond MSEA, I have some personal interests in the Labor Center at UMASS. My wife Barbara Niccoli-Hiltz received her master’s degree in labor studies at UMASS through the residential program in 1986. Barbara went on to have a brilliant career with the National AFL-CIO and impacted many people’s lives, legislation, policies, and elections in the northeast, DC, and across the nation. In the mid-90’s I began the ULA program for myself, but needed to put it on hold to care for my father. I returned in 2011 and finished the program in 2014. Throughout all of this time period I have been a huge advocate for both the Labor Center and UMASS in general. I proudly bring my UMASS coffee cups into work and I have been able to get our organization to pay for the tuition for our staff to attend the ULA program and additionally able to continue to pay the staff’s wages while they are attending UMASS. We have other staffers who are interested in attending the Labor Center in the future. I have also looked to hire Labor Center graduates. In fact, when I was promoted to Executive Director I was able to back-filled my position as Director of Field Mobilization with a Labor Center graduate. I have been a longtime high school football coach and able to help students attend colleges – I proudly wear my UMASS t-shirts to practices and I have been successful at getting numerous kids to attend UMASS Amherst.
The Labor Center has produced some of the best and brightest labor activists and leaders in the United States. I am deeply concerned and disturbed to hear that Eve Wienbaum has been removed as Director, that Beth Berry no longer works for the Labor Center, that you’ve cut the Labor Center’s Director position from 12 months to 9 months and cut the salary, that you’ve reduced the course releases, and that you are asking to shrink the curriculum, cut electives, and eliminate some required courses. If there is a true effort to strengthen the Labor Center I will do everything in my power to help with those initiatives. Conversely, if the administration at UMASS continues to try to diminish the mission and programs of the Labor Center I will do everything I can to fight those actions.
Sincerely,
Rod Hiltz
Executive Director, MSEA-SEIU Local #1989
------
I am writing to you to ask for your help about the recent cuts to the Umass Amherst Labor Center.
As an alumni of Umass Amherst both as an undergraduate and as a graduate student at the Labor Center I am dismayed by the gutting of nationally prestigious higher education program that has produced so many recognized and valuable labor leaders not just in Massachusetts, but across the country. As a Business Representative Carpenters Union, I credit my professional success to my experience at the Labor Center. Furthermore, our organization depends greatly on the graduates of Labor Studies to fill needed specialized positions. We have had success over the years hiring trained, qualified, professional and forward thinking graduates. Graduates from the Labor Center bring a level of skill, knowledge and competency in union administration that is unparalleled.
Labor leaders and graduates in Massachusetts, as well as those throughout the U.S. have written to the University and are asking them to reconsider and reverse the cuts to Labor Studies by restoring graduate student funding and externships, maintaining the curriculum and to honor the Labor Studies faculty’s autonomy to designate a Director. The Labor Center provides a nationally renowned program that has value beyond it being a profit driven center for the rest of the University. It is undoubtedly an important and truly successful educational endeavor that adds prestige, but also bolsters the education mission of the University.
Thank you,
David Minasian
Business Representative/Organizer
New England Regional Council of Carpenters
-------
I writing to express my utmost contempt with the decision to cut off the funding for the UMass Labor Center. As an alum of the Political Science department, my options for employment in the world were incredibly limited. Fortunately, the Labor Center gave me an opportunity my Political Science degree could never have provided.
I am not an alum of the Labor Studies Program, but upon leaving the University in 2010 I immediately went into political organizing because I was eager to finally start changing something in the world instead of debating in class. I became the Field Director for a campaign to elect an an alum of the Labor Studies Program. The campaign did not pay much ($100/week actually), and the height of the Great Recession meant political science majors were about as much in demand as landline telephones are today.
Long story short, our campaign won the election. After the primary, I went on to my first full time political organizing gig working as a field organizer for a State Senator. Again, I did not make much ($250/week, I didn't live off ramen anymore but my diet did consist primarily of rice and beans), but it was a job in my field and that was good enough for me. Considering most Poli Sci majors that did graduate were living at their parents' homes working the jobs they did in high school I took this as a success. Anyway, working in Springfield brought me into close contact with numerous labor activists and organizations. Springfield is actually where I learned that I was not an activist but really an organizer at heart. I finally learned how to create change in this world, and the local labor community, of whom several members were alumni of the Labor Studies Program, were my mentors.
Once the campaign ended in November 2010 I found myself unemployed, but only briefly. In January of 2011 I became a community organizer with a base-building organization in Springfield. This organization introduced me to a Labor Center educator, who gave me the run down of the power-players in the Pioneer Valley, and contributed greatly to my knowledge of labor and political organizing here.
In March of 2012, a position opened up in the legislative office of the representative whose campaign I worked on. I now had a full-time job as a legislative staffer, and working for a Labor Studies graduate meant that I could work for an elected official whose values reflected mine. In my (longer than usual) tenure as an undergrad, no Political Science professor ever told me about unions or labor or anything related. I learned all about that "in the real world". The representative quickly established a caucus of labor-friendly legislators and I became even more involved in political work with and for organized labor.
When the Franklin County Medical Center failed to meet a contract with the union nurses, I walked the picket line with the nurses. There I met the organizers of the many labor unions in the Pioneer Valley, and many of them had connections to or were alumni of the Labor Studies Program. These are folks who are working 24/7 to make our Valley and our Commonwealth a better place. Their efforts have produced real results. They were instrumental in the passage of the Paid Sick Leave ballot question in 2014, for example. It might not be a "revenue generator" for the campus, but they are certainly helping the revenues of ordinary people.
I worked with the representative until May of this year. I am now the Western Mass Organizer for the Save Our Public Schools campaign. One of my references was Heather LaPenn, an Organizer with the National Education Association and alumna of the Labor Studies Program. Now we work collaboratively to defeat Question 2, and also to stop the wave of privatization of public education.
That is where I am today, doing what I love and gainfully employed doing it. I live in Easthampton with my partner and our 1 year-old daughter. I'm thriving as a Political Science major because every step of my career has involved working with at least one person connected to the UMass Labor Center. I can safely say that without it I wouldn't be here today.
I am proud to be a UMass alum. I credit the university with opening many doors for me. Anyone who has ever worked with me in the political world will tell you I brag about UMass. I refer to it as "the best school in the world" when I tell people where I went to college. I will always love the school.
To hear that the campus is cutting off funding for the Labor Center because it is not a "revenue generator" is simply foolish at best and infuriatingly short-sighted at worst. Its alumni are doing great things, and making real change. More than any Political Science major I know for sure. I am (finally) getting to a point in my career where I can begin to think about donating to causes. I longed to join the UMass Alumni Association, to donate to my alma mater, possibly even give to the Poli Sci department. But hearing this news makes me think that the campus could not care less about having real influence in the community it just wants a good football team (I was more of a hockey fan myself).
A UMass without the Labor Center will never get a penny from me. Period. Fund it. Find a way to fund it. So many future Political Science majors depend on meeting people like those from the Labor Center in the "real world".
Chris Cappucci.
I have very fond memories of my time at LRRC in the late 1990s. The faculty and staff
prepared me for a career in labor relations and public policy, and I discovered much of value
both on campus and throughout the Happy Valley. For nearly two decades I have sung the
praises of UMass, but if the Labor Center is dismantled and discarded, I can’t imagine
sharing positive feelings about the institution.
There are precious few schools and programs that deal honestly and directly with our
country’s challenges, and the Labor Center is one of them. To understand labor is to
understand the strengths and weaknesses of our economy and our politics. To study these
issues is to be prepared to work in service of the country. I personally know LRRC alums
working in public service – for unions, for government, for non-profits – at the highest levels
across the country. I find it highly distressing to imagine future generations unable to seek
out such important training.
I currently live in Los Angeles and have witnessed similar unpleasantness in the UC system.
For nearly a decade, short-sighted partisan political battles led to perennial efforts to
defund the UC Labor Center. Such efforts were unsuccessful, but took up time and
resources of all involved for no good reason. The program, the university, and political
leaders were all worse off for the effort.
I would have hoped UMass would be smarter than to inflict such wounds on itself. It is not
too late to change course. Reverse the cuts to Labor Studies. Restore funding and
externships. Maintain the full curriculum. Honor faculty’s autonomy to make
programmatic decisions and designate a Director. Commit that the Labor Center is an
integral part of the University’s educational mission, not just a profit center to subsidize
other programs.
I will continue to monitor and discuss the situation with other alums. I look forward to a
speedy and amiable resolution. If there is anything I can do to assist, please do not hesitate
to be in touch. In any event, it is incumbent upon you to fix this. Please keep me updated.
Yours sincerely,
Jon Zerolnick
Research Director, LAANE
-------------
I am so proud to be a graduate of the Labor Center. Pictures of me and my classmates engaged in debate have been used to promote labor education and our university. My degree has helped me advance in my work as a union staffer. It has helped me better understand and engage with broader social movements. It has supported me in the work of building of a more just and equitable world.
I am very upset to hear that the University Administration no longer values the Labor Center as it once did. During my graduate education, both the in house and ULA programs were flourishing. I learned so much from the professors and the students in both programs. Many of those people would not have been there because of economic barriers, but because of scholarships and other outreach programs, we had a diverse representation of working class students. To restrict the program to only "profit-generating" components kills the spirit and clearly hampers the ability to educate the working class.
Additionally, specifically to try and marginalize Dr. Weinbaum from her central role in the Labor Center is both misguided and detrimental to the program. If it wasn't for Dr. Weinbaum, who was my advisor in my last semester, I would have graduated the program to this day. As a professor she helped me develop my analysis for my graduate dissertation. She personally supported me through finishing my dissertation after my child was born. If any of you have children yourselves you know the havoc that introduces into your professional and student life. But because I worked hard and relied on Dr. Weinbaum as my advisor to challenge me, I graduated on time.
Continuing true support for the Labor Center would mean supporting these 5 issues at minimum:
-- TA or RA positions for full-time graduate students who need them
-- Externship positions for graduate students who need them, so that we can accept working-class and diverse students who can't pay out-of-state tuition
-- Centrally funded part-time faculty positions to deliver the full curriculum including Labor Law, Collective Bargaining, Economics
-- Centrally funded staff positions that are dedicated to the Labor Center.
-- Faculty governance of the Labor Center -- not by Sociology or the dean's office -- and the right to choose our next director
Please continue to support the Labor Center. It is imperative to making UMass a great university and the rest of the country a more just society. If the administration is unwilling to fix these five problems, remove my picture from any promotional materials related to the University of Massachusetts. Please also remove me from your alumni fundraising list.
Sincerely,
Erin Weinstein
UMASS Labor Center Class of 2013
--------
I write today to express my upset, frustration and disappointment with the recent news that the University intends to curtail its 50+ year commitment to the labor center and the labor studies program at the University. I am a proud alumni of the program, and can say without hesitation it provided me with a quality of education available in very few other places and opened up tremendous career opportunities for me. As I begin to think about my work years coming to an end, I cannot imagine what my life might have looked like if I had not had the benefit of a umass labor studies education.
I hope you will re-consider any plans you have which might curtail or limit the work of the labor center. In my view, this program has been historically under-resourced and should in-fact be expanded.
I will also say that while I do not know Professor Weinbaum well, she enjoys a fine reputation in the field of labor education. I have noticed--as an alumni, that during her tenure as Director of the Labor Center, the quality of the curriculum and course offerings has improved significantly. Clearly, this is a reflection of her deep commitment to the historic mission of the labor center--to produce scholar-activists who are engaged in the world in a significant way.
I hope you will re-consider any plans that might cause a diminshment of this vital and important part of UMASS.
Sincerely,
Jerry Levinsky
Labor Center Class of 1982
--------
I am writing to express my concern over the university's plans to eliminate the Labor Studies residency program. While I recognize these are lean, austere times, this program is one of the best in the country. With national recognition, it helps bolster UMass Amherst's position as a leading public university.
I know for myself, the program was essential to my development as a person and as a professional. At the time, like any normal grad student, I did not fully grasp the importance of graduate work. Now I do. I believe what I learned from people like Eve Weinbaum, Tom Juravich, Stephanie Luce, and Harris Freeman helped my ability to excel in my profession as a professional union negotiator and labor advocate. These skill advancements are often discrete and intangible, but nonetheless enhance my skills at my profession beyond those of my peers who were not as fortunate as me to attend such an excellent and renowned program.
Most importantly, I would not have been able to attend had an assistantship not been offered. I do not come from a rich household, and neither of my parents could help me, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. To this day, I still pay $200 a month in student loans. Taking an assistantship, working through school, and taking a student loan was the only way I could go.
Now, I look at what I heard was an elimination of assistantships and core classes, and my heart is broken. That could be me. Moreover, the next Labor Center grad would not be able to go onto doing the important work of combatting inequality in this world. That's what the Labor Center produces - people who fight for justice, not charity, and there's few things as valuable in this world today.
Please, I implore you to reconsider rolling back the degree program, its faculty, and the core programs. Thank you for your time.
- Charles D. Barley
Labor Center, Class of 2002
Labor Relations Specialist, CSEA NY
-------
My name is Frances Boyes. I graduated from the Labor Center in 2008 and am currently the Director of Representation for the New England Joint Board of Unite Here. I represent low wage workers in manufacturing, industrial laundries, distribution centers, and food service all across New England.
I am joining the hundreds of other labor relations professionals, community organizers, faculty, and activists that are asking administrators to reverse the cuts to Labor Studies. I was a recipient of funding for three out of four semesters at UMass, and that support was essential to my having the ability to focus on my studies and the work that I was doing in order to gain experience that would enable me to get a job as soon as I finished my degree.
As a union representative, I put my skills developed at the Labor Center to work on a daily basis. I see the positive and necessary impact that my expertise has on vulnerable people working in dangerous industries and industries negatively impacted by our global economy. These skills are not common and it is becoming increasingly hard to find people who have the exposure to opportunities to develop them. Where the laws fall short in protecting workers, or where the enforcement of legal protections is not a priority is where I, and the other graduates of the Labor Center, fill a critical role in our society.
I am calling on you to make the following commitments:
- to restore graduate student funding and externships
-to maintain the full curriculum
-to honor the Labor Studies faculty’s autonomy to make programmatic decisions and to designate a Director
-to commit that the Labor Center is an integral part of the University’s educational mission, not just a profit center to subsidize other programs.
Thank you,
Frances Boyes
M. S. Labor Studies, 2008
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I write to you as a University of Massachusetts Amherst alumna (BA 2007) to request that funding be restored to the Labor Center that the curriculum be restored to its previous levels and the level of autonomy previously granted be returned to the program. I’m sure that you will receive many emails speaking out for the Labor Center from former graduate students and friends of the program. I would like to put forward a different perspective, that of an undergraduate student who benefited from the program, as it previously existed with full funding and full staffing.
I entered UMass in the fall of 2003 knowing that I wanted to study labor history and that on a mission to pursue a career that would let me continue that study. This is not, I fully admit, the most common thinking of an incoming freshman but it was mine. Lucky for me, UMass is a place where uncommon thinking thrives and students are given the ability to pursue their goals however unique. Through the Labor Center I was able to take classes both at an undergraduate and graduate level and gain the knowledge I needed to go on to pursue a Graduate Certificate in Labor Studies (CUNY, 2007) and a career as a museum curator of labor history (including as the head curator of the Los Angeles Maritime Museum and as staff at Ellis Island National Immigration Museum) and now pursue a Doctoral degree in Folklore with a focus on labor ethnography and heritage (Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2020). None of these achievements would have been possible if not for the supportive staff and faculty and students in the Labor Center. In graduate level classes I was welcomed by faculty and my fellow students and learned to perform at a high standard. In my undergraduate classes I was able to learn from perspectives very different from my own. All of these experiences combined gave me the tools I have needed to succeed both in my museum career and now as I return to school for a doctorate on the labor history of North Atlantic fishermen.
UMass needs the Labor Center as much as the Labor Center needs UMass. It is one of the things that make UMass stand out as a unique learning environment. It is a place where the practical and theoretical come together, where undergraduates can learn with graduate students and where people whose perspectives are very different learn to learn together.
I’m a proud UMass alumna. I’m not proud because of the football team, the basketball team, or the marching band. I’m not proud because of our amazing agricultural school or the famous scholars who have taught at UMass. I’m proud because of programs like the Labor Center that encourage creative thinking and pull people together. I’m proud of coming from a school that, unlike so many others, will change it’s mind and buck the trend of slashing the budget for such programs and restore it to the wonderful fully funded program it was.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Emma Lang
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As a graduate from the UMass Labor Center in 2008 it saddens me greatly
that the UMass that has been a leader in numerous fields that actually
do the correct thing in questioning the norms of our system and instead
has decided to take the steps in becoming the system they have
questioned.
It comes as a great surprise to me that UMass has taken a deeper turn
down this path by creating a funding model that is ripe with market
tendencies and interests and averting the needs of society. This new
'model' of funding to demand that a program is revenue generating is
exactly how UMass will step down a path of no longer being a public
common but a public disgrace. UMass is *not* a private school, you have
a mission to the people of the commonwealth, people such as myself.
The UMass Labor Center experience was a turning point in my life, if it
were not for the funding that was provided via teaching assistantships
and opportunities to afford the education, I would not have become a
member of the labor and my local community in organizing and demanding
more from our society. It was in this education experience where I
excelled in areas never thought possible and because it was a funded
program removing the burden of further student loan debts gave me the
opportunity to research without external pressure. Colleagues of my own
who I have continued to keep in touch, with whom also had the same
funding opportunities have gone on to be active in changing their
unions for the betterment of the members and to challenge the status
quo, while contributing to the development of their communities. It is
the reason I am actively involved in working with immigrants’ rights,
education reform and labor actions to this day.
It is challenging the status quo that the Labor Center instilled in me
and it something that UMass overall has been a beacon, if you will, on
working to be a different institution than its peers in ways that has
resulted in questioning the system we are in, something that all
education should embrace and celebrate. Your actions to make a program
'revenue generating' is an insult to education, it is an insult to
where we need to extend our shared resources. The timing you chose of
making this decision just before Labor Day further tears at the wound
you are invoking. We are at crossroads in our society, the labor
movement has had its troubles and we have seen it overcome them, but to
shift a program to appeal to people with money is not anything we
should be doing. It is shameful that an institution that struggles with
funding to begins with seeks to work against the one element that it
excels at, that is in the form great unions. We need the program funded
to bring more leaders forward. Please do the right thing, fund the
program!
in solidarity,
~Stephen Mahood
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My name is Rodney Hiltz and I am a 2014 graduate of the ULA program with a Master of Science degree in Labor Studies from UMASS Amherst. Completing this degree was an accomplishment that provided me a great deal of pride and positioned me to achieve my current position of Executive Director of the Maine State Employees Association – Service Employees International Union Local 1989 (MSEA).
MSEA-SEIU Local 1989 represents 13,000 workers in over 700 worksites across the great State of Maine. Our organization is a key player in fighting for social justice and many legislative initiatives, which include the development and passage of our state’s budget. Every state budget we lobby for includes components of funding for higher education. What happens in Maine and Massachusetts is of interest to our respective legislators as they will often look at regional trends and enactments. While MSEA represents workers and faculty members at the Maine Community College System and the Maine Maritime Academy, our coalition partners represent the same at the University of Maine and beyond.
MSEA as an organization understands the importance of supporting higher education and has a well-oiled political machine to impact those interests. Beyond MSEA, I have some personal interests in the Labor Center at UMASS. My wife Barbara Niccoli-Hiltz received her master’s degree in labor studies at UMASS through the residential program in 1986. Barbara went on to have a brilliant career with the National AFL-CIO and impacted many people’s lives, legislation, policies, and elections in the northeast, DC, and across the nation. In the mid-90’s I began the ULA program for myself, but needed to put it on hold to care for my father. I returned in 2011 and finished the program in 2014. Throughout all of this time period I have been a huge advocate for both the Labor Center and UMASS in general. I proudly bring my UMASS coffee cups into work and I have been able to get our organization to pay for the tuition for our staff to attend the ULA program and additionally able to continue to pay the staff’s wages while they are attending UMASS. We have other staffers who are interested in attending the Labor Center in the future. I have also looked to hire Labor Center graduates. In fact, when I was promoted to Executive Director I was able to back-filled my position as Director of Field Mobilization with a Labor Center graduate. I have been a longtime high school football coach and able to help students attend colleges – I proudly wear my UMASS t-shirts to practices and I have been successful at getting numerous kids to attend UMASS Amherst.
The Labor Center has produced some of the best and brightest labor activists and leaders in the United States. I am deeply concerned and disturbed to hear that Eve Wienbaum has been removed as Director, that Beth Berry no longer works for the Labor Center, that you’ve cut the Labor Center’s Director position from 12 months to 9 months and cut the salary, that you’ve reduced the course releases, and that you are asking to shrink the curriculum, cut electives, and eliminate some required courses. If there is a true effort to strengthen the Labor Center I will do everything in my power to help with those initiatives. Conversely, if the administration at UMASS continues to try to diminish the mission and programs of the Labor Center I will do everything I can to fight those actions.
Sincerely,
Rod Hiltz
Executive Director, MSEA-SEIU Local #1989
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I am writing to you to ask for your help about the recent cuts to the Umass Amherst Labor Center.
As an alumni of Umass Amherst both as an undergraduate and as a graduate student at the Labor Center I am dismayed by the gutting of nationally prestigious higher education program that has produced so many recognized and valuable labor leaders not just in Massachusetts, but across the country. As a Business Representative Carpenters Union, I credit my professional success to my experience at the Labor Center. Furthermore, our organization depends greatly on the graduates of Labor Studies to fill needed specialized positions. We have had success over the years hiring trained, qualified, professional and forward thinking graduates. Graduates from the Labor Center bring a level of skill, knowledge and competency in union administration that is unparalleled.
Labor leaders and graduates in Massachusetts, as well as those throughout the U.S. have written to the University and are asking them to reconsider and reverse the cuts to Labor Studies by restoring graduate student funding and externships, maintaining the curriculum and to honor the Labor Studies faculty’s autonomy to designate a Director. The Labor Center provides a nationally renowned program that has value beyond it being a profit driven center for the rest of the University. It is undoubtedly an important and truly successful educational endeavor that adds prestige, but also bolsters the education mission of the University.
Thank you,
David Minasian
Business Representative/Organizer
New England Regional Council of Carpenters
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I writing to express my utmost contempt with the decision to cut off the funding for the UMass Labor Center. As an alum of the Political Science department, my options for employment in the world were incredibly limited. Fortunately, the Labor Center gave me an opportunity my Political Science degree could never have provided.
I am not an alum of the Labor Studies Program, but upon leaving the University in 2010 I immediately went into political organizing because I was eager to finally start changing something in the world instead of debating in class. I became the Field Director for a campaign to elect an an alum of the Labor Studies Program. The campaign did not pay much ($100/week actually), and the height of the Great Recession meant political science majors were about as much in demand as landline telephones are today.
Long story short, our campaign won the election. After the primary, I went on to my first full time political organizing gig working as a field organizer for a State Senator. Again, I did not make much ($250/week, I didn't live off ramen anymore but my diet did consist primarily of rice and beans), but it was a job in my field and that was good enough for me. Considering most Poli Sci majors that did graduate were living at their parents' homes working the jobs they did in high school I took this as a success. Anyway, working in Springfield brought me into close contact with numerous labor activists and organizations. Springfield is actually where I learned that I was not an activist but really an organizer at heart. I finally learned how to create change in this world, and the local labor community, of whom several members were alumni of the Labor Studies Program, were my mentors.
Once the campaign ended in November 2010 I found myself unemployed, but only briefly. In January of 2011 I became a community organizer with a base-building organization in Springfield. This organization introduced me to a Labor Center educator, who gave me the run down of the power-players in the Pioneer Valley, and contributed greatly to my knowledge of labor and political organizing here.
In March of 2012, a position opened up in the legislative office of the representative whose campaign I worked on. I now had a full-time job as a legislative staffer, and working for a Labor Studies graduate meant that I could work for an elected official whose values reflected mine. In my (longer than usual) tenure as an undergrad, no Political Science professor ever told me about unions or labor or anything related. I learned all about that "in the real world". The representative quickly established a caucus of labor-friendly legislators and I became even more involved in political work with and for organized labor.
When the Franklin County Medical Center failed to meet a contract with the union nurses, I walked the picket line with the nurses. There I met the organizers of the many labor unions in the Pioneer Valley, and many of them had connections to or were alumni of the Labor Studies Program. These are folks who are working 24/7 to make our Valley and our Commonwealth a better place. Their efforts have produced real results. They were instrumental in the passage of the Paid Sick Leave ballot question in 2014, for example. It might not be a "revenue generator" for the campus, but they are certainly helping the revenues of ordinary people.
I worked with the representative until May of this year. I am now the Western Mass Organizer for the Save Our Public Schools campaign. One of my references was Heather LaPenn, an Organizer with the National Education Association and alumna of the Labor Studies Program. Now we work collaboratively to defeat Question 2, and also to stop the wave of privatization of public education.
That is where I am today, doing what I love and gainfully employed doing it. I live in Easthampton with my partner and our 1 year-old daughter. I'm thriving as a Political Science major because every step of my career has involved working with at least one person connected to the UMass Labor Center. I can safely say that without it I wouldn't be here today.
I am proud to be a UMass alum. I credit the university with opening many doors for me. Anyone who has ever worked with me in the political world will tell you I brag about UMass. I refer to it as "the best school in the world" when I tell people where I went to college. I will always love the school.
To hear that the campus is cutting off funding for the Labor Center because it is not a "revenue generator" is simply foolish at best and infuriatingly short-sighted at worst. Its alumni are doing great things, and making real change. More than any Political Science major I know for sure. I am (finally) getting to a point in my career where I can begin to think about donating to causes. I longed to join the UMass Alumni Association, to donate to my alma mater, possibly even give to the Poli Sci department. But hearing this news makes me think that the campus could not care less about having real influence in the community it just wants a good football team (I was more of a hockey fan myself).
A UMass without the Labor Center will never get a penny from me. Period. Fund it. Find a way to fund it. So many future Political Science majors depend on meeting people like those from the Labor Center in the "real world".
Chris Cappucci.