Tens of thousands of graduate student employees are now in unions, and they're making their presence felt on campus as they push for a better working and learning environment. Learn from campaigns to win better protections for international student workers, increase pay even without a union contract, and grow the union by representing workers previously excluded from a contract.
Colleges and universities are not only places to explore and test ideas; they're also workplaces with increasingly corporate structures. Faculty and staff members are fighting to defend vibrant, diverse education and demand better employment opportunities. Hear how unions are organizing militant contract campaigns, defending workers' rights from attack, and devising strategy to set standards across multiple states.
Educators everywhere are facing the pain of savage austerity, government coercion, and attempts to repress union militancy. But bottom-up resistance and resilience are also everywhere. From a massive strike this March by teachers across Catalonia, Spain, to "little fires everywhere" in the UK, to resistance against Trump-like demagoguery in Alberta, Canada, the stories will teach and inspire.
What can teachers and Amazon workers learn from one another? Hear how workers are building power and striking in two very different kinds of workplaces (and three countries). Between an anti-union mega-corporation and an embattled public sector, and across national borders, it's illuminating to see what our struggles have in common.
Tune in for a screening of "We Build Power," a short film about how United Teachers Los Angeles has been building coalitions with students, parents, the community and other unions for the past decade to increase their collective leverage. After the film, there will be a panel discussion with educators building power in their communities to fight for better public education from California to Canada.
Privatizing public schools and public colleges is a long-term goal of the right, including market fundamentalists, neoliberals, the religious right, and white nationalists.This participatory workshop will help school and campus workers recognize both covert and overt forms of privatization that are steadily replacing bargaining unit work and eroding worker autonomy, and provide case studies of how school and campus unions have begun to organize against privatization.
