Building Bridges, Opening Doors: Labor Education Conference Charts Movement’s Future

[Earth Bound Misfit]

By Kari Lydersen

SAN DIEGO—Rich Egeland is an activist Teamster (and former Steelworker) working 12-hour night shifts driving a gas tanker to fuel trucks in the Chicago area. He is also a poet, pursuing a master's degree in creative writing and about to publish a book of poetry—with a Latin title he translates as "Don't Let the Bastards Grind You Down"—about mostly true hard-fought union battles.

"According to Homeland Security, I'm a terrorist because I have collective bargaining rights and I have the right to carry plutonium to city hall," said Egeland with a smile at the United Association for Labor Education annual conference in San Diego this week, pointing out how national security rhetoric can undermine workers' rights.

The conference brought together labor activists and professors of working class and labor studies from around the country, featuring those who, like Egeland, take creative approaches and wear a variety of hats to help build the future of the labor movement in part through educating workers about the past.

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One panel conducted a "post-mortem" on labor educators' and academics' role in the campaign to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which has been essentailly tabled by Congress since last summer pending passage of healthcare reform.

"You get to the stage you feel there's almost no one out there who can be persuaded by rational arguments, and nonetheless it has to be done," said John Logan of San Francisco State University, an expert on the lucrative "union avoidance" industry.

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Discussion during a panel about the Korean movement and the prospects of a new trade bill in the U.S. questioned the role of nationalism in labor movements around the world. The theme of the conference was largely that cross-border solidarity and organizing and an international vision of labor is the only real way to fight for workers' rights in today's global economy.

Just one example would be the Korean-owned Russell Athletic apparel factory in Honduras. When workers organized, the company shut down and laid off 1,200 people. But the U.S. group United Students Against Sweatshops organized a boycott of Russell apparel by universities, and last fall the company signed an historic workers rights agreement and reopened the factory.

"How do we actually talk about things in a way that wins things for workers in the U.S. and around the world?" asked Berry. "That's our whole point in being here."

More at link: http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5752/labor_education_national_conference_builds_bridges_and_opens_doors/