Convened by the Hampshire/Franklin Central Labor Council and Western Mass. Jobs with Justice, the over two dozen Labor Center allies and staff who met tonight agreed on some next steps: 1. Mass. AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman, UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, and Frank Callahan, President of the Mass. Building Trades Council (and Labor Studies alum) are hosting a meeting on Monday, October 17, 2-4pm, on the UMass Amherst campus, “to consider ways that the UMass administration, labor, and key stake holders can partner to strengthen the Labor Center so that it continues to play a leading role in advancing the cause of organized labor and Massachusetts workers for many years to come.” Steve invited 19 other stake holders; the Chancellor’s office will be inviting others. Steve said, “While we want to keep the meeting small enough to be productive, if you feel we have left important stake holders off our list I would welcome hearing your thoughts.” Some invitees were at the meeting. We looked over the list and felt that some other stake holders need to be invited: UMass Amherst unions not on the list: AFSCME, PSU, USA major statewide/regional unions: MNA, SEIUs, UAW, … current Labor Center students (non-ULA) undergrads – CEPA/UMass Student Labor Action Project and the UMass Student Trustee the organized Labor Center Alums (http://savethelaborcenter.weebly.com/) the three other UMass Labor Centers (Boston, Lowell, Dartmouth) employers of UMass Amherst Labor Center graduates (unions, community groups, government agencies) Sociology PhD candidates We will ask Pres. Tolman to invite these groups. A draft email will be reviewed by the Committee and sent so Steve receives it by Monday. We forgot to discuss PHENOM, so the Committee will weigh in by email and we’ll see if there’s a consensus to include it. 2. The email to Steve will express our unity around certain demands. We reviewed the Alums petition at http://bit.ly/SaveLaborCenter. It has very close to 5,000 signatures and we agreed to help it reach that mark. We did decide on some changes. The draft email to Steve will include them. Again, if you want to join the Committee and be part of the editing of the email to Steve, please reply. 3. We decided to welcome the 10/17 meeting goers with a rally at 1:30 and get a briefing from them at 4:00. 4. We decided to meet again on Wednesday October 12 at 5:00, hopefully in the same room. Comments are closed.
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AuthorThis blog is run and maintained exclusively by alumni of the Labor Center. Today we live all across the country, working in all parts of the Labor Movement. Archives
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